INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
you must feed fermented food. My chickens tend to use less water when I give them soaked food and the longer the food has been soaking the less they drink. But on days when I feed dry food, the layers drink about 2 - 2.5 gallons for 9-10 chickens.
Good point. I do feed ff. They also range and pick up a lot of their own food.

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Well my lavender cuckoo bantam Cochin eggs finally arrived! I was getting very nervous that they weren't going to show up and have to wait to get them on Tuesday. However they just got here abut 30mins ago. I've been checking tracking all day. My post office closes at 10.30am on Saturday. So I figured they would be delivered on Tuesday. Well 15 till 5 I rechecked tracking and showed they were delivered an hour ago! After getting poured on by rain locking up the chickens prior and stripping down to my boxers, I was running around outside in my boxers frantically looking for the eggs. I come inside after not finding them getting ready to call the PO. As I just dialed the number, I see the postman pull up! Not only did they NOT call when they arrived at the PO as requested (my postmaster typically calls me before hours and lets me pick up eggs, not sure why they didn't do the same after hours) but also scanned them delivered prior to delivering making me look like a crazy person to the neighbors lol!

Thankfully they all arrived in great shape. Now hoping for a good hatch!

So, how is the hatch going? I am intrigued with these birds.

May the chicken gods smile on your endeavor. And may you keep us posted on progress.

John

 

[bradselig]

So far so good. Ill be recandling in the next couple days but many had veining the last time I candled. Ill keep you posted.

 

[Quinstar]

All these posts of Cream Legbars is killing me. I want one so bad but really don't want to raise chicks again until next fall. Bradselig you better have some eggs ready first thing this spring because I'm gonna be knocking!

Acquisition list for next spring.... CCL, BLGW, & a Blue Standard Cochin. Should round out the flock nicely. I'm sure by that time I'm going to discover some other breeds I want. I only have you all to blame...

On the nesting box topic I currently have golf balls in the boxes. I left the chickens in the run/coop area until about 1 today and will do that for a couple days. Could be they just aren't laying yet. Someday I'll get that million dollar egg.

 

[FarkerFarms]

We have 3 cream legbars and they all have crests. The 3 of them all line up in the video at the :30 second mark. The camera hog in the beginning of the video is a Golden Cuckoo Marans.
When the CLs were babies they looked a little different than what OldSalts handsome birds in the picture look like now.

In this photo above, there are 4 CLs with a Delaware in between, and the Golden Cuckoo Marans on the right. NOW, it's much easier to tell them apart, because the Marans is twice the size.
According to the Cream Legbar page, the CL I think is the most beautiful is the least desireable in terms of the standard they are developing.

The legbar on the far left (JLo) has a much more desireable color pattern than her sister in the middle (MsJackson) who I think has a beautiful partridge ticking or whatever the correct poultry feather term is. The blur on the far right of the picture is the Golden Cuckoo Marans.
Here's a picture of our oldest CL (Aretha), who is turning out to be a beauty.

In the end, who knows what they'll look like after their first molt. I was VERY disappointed to hear the opinion of the Cream Legbar board that our birds weren't really show winners and MsJackson wasn't even worth breeding because of the feathering pattern.

Boo! Can't you just invest in a quality rooster to bring the quality of the chicks up a bit? I'm new to chickens but that seems like it should work to me! They are beautiful to me! Plus, this breed seems a bit rare around here so I would think you would have interest no matter what. Just one noobs opinion!

 

[racinchickins]

We have 3 cream legbars and they all have crests. The 3 of them all line up in the video at the :30 second mark. The camera hog in the beginning of the video is a Golden Cuckoo Marans.
When the CLs were babies they looked a little different than what OldSalts handsome birds in the picture look like now.

In this photo above, there are 4 CLs with a Delaware in between, and the Golden Cuckoo Marans on the right. NOW, it's much easier to tell them apart, because the Marans is twice the size.
According to the Cream Legbar page, the CL I think is the most beautiful is the least desireable in terms of the standard they are developing.

The legbar on the far left (JLo) has a much more desireable color pattern than her sister in the middle (MsJackson) who I think has a beautiful partridge ticking or whatever the correct poultry feather term is. The blur on the far right of the picture is the Golden Cuckoo Marans.
Here's a picture of our oldest CL (Aretha), who is turning out to be a beauty.

In the end, who knows what they'll look like after their first molt. I was VERY disappointed to hear the opinion of the Cream Legbar board that our birds weren't really show winners and MsJackson wasn't even worth breeding because of the feathering pattern.

Thanks for the info. I know what you mean. I've been looking at more pics of Cream Legbars, and it seems the more colorful the roo, the farther from the standard he is. I found out in England, there are actually two other legbar colors. Gold and Silver. It seems that that the Legbars that got imported to the US have some gold in their background and this is what people are trying to get rid of. The Gold and Silver are not crested, and lay tinted eggs, not blue.

So it looks like if you want to breed to the Standard, you can go the Gold route, which has really bold colors, but no crest or blue eggs. Or the Cream route, which has the crests and blue eggs. I was torn about this at first, but then I prioritized what I wanted out of the birds. Lots of Blue eggs were first, neat crests were second. Everything else was lower priority. So that makes my decision for me. I just need to be more careful where I get my birds from now on.

I'm looking forward to working with others on here to try to improve what we have.

 

[Delawaremommy]

No hatchery will have heritage breeds of any kind. Their barred Rocks, Rhode Island reds, 'Americanas/Araucanas' (which are actually Easter-eggers), and most of the rest of their breeds have usually been bred more for production rather than for the standard, which has involved some obvious outcrosses. If you want heritage breeds, you will have to find a breeder with good stock and either purchase adults or hatching eggs from them.

Most Hatcheries have heritage breeds. They may not be show stock but they aren't necessarily "mixes" either. If you read the descriptions on hatchery birds it will tell you that they can be poor- excellent layers. If they are being mixed and bred for high production wouldn't the descriptions all read excellent? Although I do think for show you have to have better lines from quality breeders, the hatcheries are a good place to sample both production and heritage breeds.

 

[gunchief25]

It's hard to tell from your picture what comb the barred bird has.  If it is not a rose comb, then you definitely don't have a Dominique.  And If you do have a Marans, that would be my vote for the egg producer.  I was pretty surprised to see such dark eggs coming from a Gold Star.  The Dark Brown is a Marans specialty.  They are even darker than my Welsummers.  And none of my other brown egg layers are even close to as dark.

I found this too to help distinguish between the two: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0513355723923.html

ok it has been confirmed on surveylance video camera that my Gold Star is the one laying the dark brown eggs.

 

[MrTattoohead]

I want to thank all those who were concerned about our girl, Sesame.

We took her to the avian vet in Indianapolis this morning, and she believes our assumption of Marek's was correct.

We didn't feel it would be right to make her wait and suffer until we got an appointment at Purdue to make 100% sure.

We had her euthanized there at 11:40 this morning. It seemed like she went peacefully. As peacefully as a creature can. We decided to have it done there because neither of us have ever performed a cervical dislocation, and we weren't too sure about using carbon dioxide as a method.

She was a beautiful butterscotch colored Buff Orpington. She made us laugh. She rocked the coop and run. We miss her, we became too attached (which I guess happens with one's very first 'flock'). We'll be posting pictures of the other girls later and watching them like hawks. We (I) feel we owe it to Sesame.

Thank you again for your concern, it is much appreciated,

Mr Tattoohead

Sesame Chicken (at 13 weeks)

Rest In Peace

 

[julie0477]

I want to thank all those who were concerned about our girl, Sesame.

We took her to the avian vet in Indianapolis this morning, and she believes our assumption of Marek's was correct.

We didn't feel it would be right to make her wait and suffer until we got an appointment at Purdue to make 100% sure.

We had her euthanized there at 11:40 this morning. It seemed like she went peacefully. As peacefully as a creature can. We decided to have it done there because neither of us have ever performed a cervical dislocation, and we weren't too sure about using carbon dioxide as a method.

She was a beautiful butterscotch colored Buff Orpington. She made us laugh. She rocked the coop and run. We miss her, we became too attached (which I guess happens with one's very first 'flock'). We'll be posting pictures of the other girls later and watching them like hawks. We (I) feel we owe it to Sesame.

Thank you again for your concern, it is much appreciated,

Mr Tattoohead

Sesame Chicken (at 13 weeks)

Rest In Peace

oh I am so sorry. What a thing to happen with your first flock. Hopefully the other girls have built up a resistance. . Thanks for the update.