Thanks for the comments on my birds a few pages back. I like what I have in my pullets so far. I kind of like the aqua earlobe. It makes sense that it could be from bruising as the males are relentless. That's why I was planning on culling the boys. The one in the pic was the biggest and my favorite at first. Besides the obvious comb problems his back is short and his tail very high. I have 2 others I will try to get pics of. The one I like the body of better is the least developed and the barring is blurry, he's the smallest and crows wired because he bends his neck down instead of throwing his head back.
I was going to cull because the girls are loosing weight as they wont come down off the perch to feed much anymore. I have a few more chicks growing out and am not in a rush to breed them this year anyway. I would rather the ones I have stay happy and healthy.
As far as cream legbars being weaker this has been my experience this year. I had some chicks from 2 different breeders. At one point the whole family got the flu and brooder cleaning was lacking for the number of chicks. I started to notice a few very bloody stools. I expected chicks to start to die but the blood stopped and the chicks all lived. I never knew what chicks did the bloody poo. At around 16 weeks one pullet from that group started to look off then did the split leg thing that looks like mareks disease. I isolated the pullet and started vitamins in case it was vitamin deficiency. She got a little better was standing but far from recovered. She did not improve much past that. I contacted Cornell cooperative extension told them the details. They said I should cull as I planned to do and they said it did not sound like mareks. I culled and did my own necropsy. No tumors, and the nerves in the legs were not swollen and a nice white color.
Looking back I wonder if it was a problem absorbing nutrients from coccidiosis as a chick. More recently I gave away a pullet that had a sleepy eye look, like it was sick but after much evaluation it was not actively I'll. Normal poop eats drinks perches at night, was in a mixed flock. It was smaller and thinner but also at the bottom of the pecking order. I gave her away for free with full disclosure. To my knowledge she is still the same. prior to this I had no problems with cream legbars.
I was going to cull because the girls are loosing weight as they wont come down off the perch to feed much anymore. I have a few more chicks growing out and am not in a rush to breed them this year anyway. I would rather the ones I have stay happy and healthy.
As far as cream legbars being weaker this has been my experience this year. I had some chicks from 2 different breeders. At one point the whole family got the flu and brooder cleaning was lacking for the number of chicks. I started to notice a few very bloody stools. I expected chicks to start to die but the blood stopped and the chicks all lived. I never knew what chicks did the bloody poo. At around 16 weeks one pullet from that group started to look off then did the split leg thing that looks like mareks disease. I isolated the pullet and started vitamins in case it was vitamin deficiency. She got a little better was standing but far from recovered. She did not improve much past that. I contacted Cornell cooperative extension told them the details. They said I should cull as I planned to do and they said it did not sound like mareks. I culled and did my own necropsy. No tumors, and the nerves in the legs were not swollen and a nice white color.
Looking back I wonder if it was a problem absorbing nutrients from coccidiosis as a chick. More recently I gave away a pullet that had a sleepy eye look, like it was sick but after much evaluation it was not actively I'll. Normal poop eats drinks perches at night, was in a mixed flock. It was smaller and thinner but also at the bottom of the pecking order. I gave her away for free with full disclosure. To my knowledge she is still the same. prior to this I had no problems with cream legbars.
