Crested Cream Legbar Colouring

[BlueTheBrahma]

Excuse the mud, we’ve had torrential rain here(I had to get ‘rescued’ from my own street in a canoe). I haven’t gotten a photo of all my CCLs, but these few are good examples. Notice how the head is pretty similar to your bird’s, almost silver. This is the cream dilution, it turns gold pale. I does not, however, change the breast, this remains salmon. On yours, the breast is white, no red pigment here at all.
From your post, I think you breed them yourself? Can you show me pictures of some of your other legbars, particularly the rooster if you have one, I’d like to see what this looks like across your flock before I tell you a definite reason. That way I can help you improve it.

 

[Watolf]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

Whatever you've done.. has gone too far.. that coloring doesn't look anything like CCL and what happened to the crest? NO rudeness meant here. Breeding anything of decent quality consistently is quite challenging.Good for you for trying!

@dheltzel I've seen some decent post from you regarding this breed.. any feedback to share here.. please and thank you!

This was an interesting write up that includes some of the challenges and differences being seen in US stock (including the chestnut colored chest, cream is not chestnut according to MY current understanding)..

https://greenfirefarms.com/cream_legbar.html

Wow, look slightly different from what i have. Is that pure and true quality? Because comb not that long like what i have? I’m learning here too

 

[dheltzel]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

Whatever you've done.. has gone too far.. that coloring doesn't look anything like CCL and what happened to the crest? NO rudeness meant here. Breeding anything of decent quality consistently is quite challenging.Good for you for trying!

@dheltzel I've seen some decent post from you regarding this breed.. any feedback to share here.. please and thank you!

This was an interesting write up that includes some of the challenges and differences being seen in US stock (including the chestnut colored chest, cream is not chestnut according to MY current understanding)..

https://greenfirefarms.com/cream_legbar.html

I breed for practical qualities more than strict adherence to an SOP (which I think does not exist in the US at this time). I have started working with the Opal (Isabel) variant and the line I have suffers from a number of issues that I don't have with the Rees line Creams I bought from Greenfire. This year I solved the blue egg issue with genetic testing and that makes outcrosses to the Rees line much easier. I am doing that now and expecting much improvement with each generation, with good crests my next target.

 

[Jojosine]

Nice to see your Cream Legbar pictures.
This is Harvey our pure breed CL rooster with his girls and offspring:
The brown and speckled black ones are hybrids from Light Sussex and Daisy Bell hens.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Nice to see your Cream Legbar pictures.
This is Harvey our pure breed CL rooster with his girls and offspring:
The brown and speckled black ones are hybrids from Light Sussex and Daisy Bell hens.
View attachment 3691831
View attachment 3691830

I quite like your boy, the red shoulder would suggest a lot of autosomal red. He’s not perfect but I’d say he’s the best CCL I’ve seen in your pictures. The paler parts of his hackles are roughly the cream colour you are looking for.
Non of the legbar hens I can see are very good colours, the variety of colours is odd too, not very uniform across the birds (I don’t know if this is the different strains or generations).
If you want some advice trying to solve this, I can help, I’m no expert on CCLs but I know the standard a bit and understand the genetics. If you breed more for utility, then it probably doesn’t matter, if anything it adds uniqueness to each bird. Do they autosex correctly despite the unusual colours?

 

[Jojosine]

I quite like your boy, the red shoulder would suggest a lot of autosomal red. He’s not perfect but I’d say he’s the best CCL I’ve seen in your pictures. The paler parts of his hackles are roughly the cream colour you are looking for.
Non of the legbar hens I can see are very good colours, the variety of colours is odd too, not very uniform across the birds (I don’t know if this is the different strains or generations).
If you want some advice trying to solve this, I can help, I’m no expert on CCLs but I know the standard a bit and understand the genetics. If you breed more for utility, then it probably doesn’t matter, if anything it adds uniqueness to each bird. Do they autosex correctly despite the unusual colours?

Thanks for the compliment! I've passed that on to Harvey

The hens are hybrids, so not 100% CL, only the rooster is, hence the variety of colours. The brown hens had the autosexing mark on their heads when they were chicks, so at least that CL gene came through. Now I'm waiting for them to start laying eggs as I would like to get coloured eggs.
We bought the pure breed Light Sussex and hatched Harvey from pure breed CL fertilised eggs which were bought and hatched chicks from the two this year.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

I have two Cream Legbars and they don’t look that cream colored. I am saying cream!

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Thanks for the compliment! I've passed that on to Harvey

The hens are hybrids, so not 100% CL, only the rooster is, hence the variety of colours. The brown hens had the autosexing mark on their heads when they were chicks, so at least that CL gene came through. Now I'm waiting for them to start laying eggs as I would like to get coloured eggs.
We bought the pure breed Light Sussex and hatched Harvey from pure breed CL fertilised eggs which were bought and hatched chicks from the two this year.

Ah I see, that explains everything. Is the hen in the first photo (the one that started the thread) a pure bred or mix? Cross breeding them will probably increase your egg yield anyway, so it likely works well do you.

 

[everyday_farmlife]

View attachment 3671484View attachment 3671485View attachment 3671486View attachment 3671487Excuse the mud, we’ve had torrential rain here(I had to get ‘rescued’ from my own street in a canoe). I haven’t gotten a photo of all my CCLs, but these few are good examples. Notice how the head is pretty similar to your bird’s, almost silver. This is the cream dilution, it turns gold pale. I does not, however, change the breast, this remains salmon. On yours, the breast is white, no red pigment here at all.
From your post, I think you breed them yourself? Can you show me pictures of some of your other legbars, particularly the rooster if you have one, I’d like to see what this looks like across your flock before I tell you a definite reason. That way I can help you improve it.

Hi, we are just starting out with clb down in Australia, there is still a lot of work to be done on the breed over here as there is minimal good stock from the imported Avgen line.
Our line I believe is the Aussie recreation line.
Do you know if the chicks grow in darker after their juvenile moult? We have 3 young boys and I'd like to eliminate 1, they are only 4 weeks old. I'm worried about getting rid of one too quick is all. It's really hard to get good barring in the males over here most of them are too light.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Hi, we are just starting out with clb down in Australia, there is still a lot of work to be done on the breed over here as there is minimal good stock from the imported Avgen line.
Our line I believe is the Aussie recreation line.
Do you know if the chicks grow in darker after their juvenile moult? We have 3 young boys and I'd like to eliminate 1, they are only 4 weeks old. I'm worried about getting rid of one too quick is all. It's really hard to get good barring in the males over here most of them are too light.

In my opinion you should wait to cull cockerels unless there are major faults obvious as this age. I’d wait at least until they are fully feathered and have began to show adult colours. This way you can judge in the quality of cream and gold (on the shoulder). You also should consider the yellowness of legs, quality of face and overall body type. All these are more developed on older birds, so I’d wait until the 4 month mark at least.
Bear in mind that cockerels should be lighter than hens, more of a smokey blue colour than solid black. Young birds often have extra white mixed with their black until they are older as the duckwing pattern hasn’t 100% developed, my Silver welsummer cockerels are like this.
Hope this helps.