Cuckoo Bluebar...

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My single hen from last year June finally started laying last month. It was a long wait.

 

[PJReindel]

Very nice! Is she laying blue? Pale or strong blue? Or,is she laying a greenish or white egg? I'd love to see pix of her!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

She lays a very faintly blue egg. It is almost the same color as my Easter eggers so it looks green unless compared to theirs. I don't currently have a photo of her. She's blue, with a small crest and floppy comb like some I've seen earlier in this thread. I hatched her out of a My Pet Chicken egg.

 

[PJReindel]

Very cool! I opted to go my own route crossing the Cream Legbars males over Blue Andalusian hens. This is my F1 generation.

Do you (or anyone else who has the Bluebars) plan on breeding them for future generations?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sorry no, it was a situation where I had to pick a single different egg. My hen I don't particularly care for, she's definitely interesting in her looks but she's not my type, I'm more of an Orpington person, so I'm probably the wrong person to chat with, hopefully someone else comes around for you. Otherwise I will keep chatting. I do have some andalusian too, but am unfamiliar with legbars.

 

[PJReindel]

That's understandable, there's a breed and color for everyone! I discovered the Bluebar from Brinkhaven Acres and fell in love with the appearance. I'm a sucker for blue birds and blue eggs. I thought about the appearance and genetics a bit and figured I could DIY rather than buy lol.

Once upon a time I had a beautiful flock of Blue Andalusians. 5 roos and 25 hens. I loved the appearance but, they were a little flightier than I prefer. Sadly, the entire flock was destroyed in one night by a mother fox and her kits

.

The Cream Legbars is a breed that is basically a silver or golden duckwing in base color with Cuckoo barring. They have a crest on their heads and lay a nice blue (some strains more mint green) egg.

Looking at the Cuckoo Bluebar having the body type, crest and blue egg I knew that the legbar was part of the equation. The fact that they are Cuckoo and not sexlinked, both male and female barred I knew, based on barring genetics,that the legbar is the father bird. The mother bird had to have a similar body type, be blue in color and lay a white egg (as blue is dominant to white and will show over the white, if blue is bred to a brown layer the resulting offspring lay a green if varying shades egg). My best guesses were Blue Andalusians or Blue Leghorns. Given the slate legs and dark beaks I figured Andalusians as Leghorns have yellow legs and beaks. It's possible I'm wrong on this but, that's my best guess.

I already had Cream Legbars so I hunted down a couple Blue Andalusians hens, which were difficult to find in my neck of the woods! So I'm working on two separate breeding pens now I can use to line breed and cross back on to keep my genetics clean (at least for several years). My first generation is hatched and hatching this spring. Over the next couple years I'll work on culling the white egg gene out (it will appear in the second and so forth generations until culled out).

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Wow you really know your stuff about them. I like blue too but prefer a poofy butt. My andalusian are fairly flighty, but lay well. Fox are quite destructive, that's too bad you lost so many. I've not heard of blue leghorns before, how are the different from the andalusian? Leg color?

 

[PJReindel]

Blue Leghorns are quite rare but, theyre out there. Andalusians and Leghorns are pretty similar birds, similar builds, size and type both lay white egge. Andalusians are only blue though (black and splash as well from the blue breedings) whereas Leghorns come in many many color patterns. The Andalusian has an upright comb where the Leghorns flops over. Also beak and leg colors are different.

 

[pennylane13]

Blue Leghorns are quite rare but, theyre out there. Andalusians and Leghorns are pretty similar birds, similar builds, size and type both lay white egge. Andalusians are only blue though (black and splash as well from the blue breedings) whereas Leghorns come in many many color patterns. The Andalusian has an upright comb where the Leghorns flops over. Also beak and leg colors are different.

My Cuckoo Bluebar rooster from My Pet Chicken. He will be a year old this month

 

[PJReindel]

Very nice, I love that he has a touch of gold in him. Quite striking! Mine are still tiny, between 2 days and 6 weeks old. I can't wait to see how they grow out!