Is this a White 'sport' Cream Legbar, mix or 'poor hatch down'?

[louiserivergod151]

Ive recently hatched a batch 3 days ago (4 cream legbar out of 6 from one seller, and 7 gold partridge brahma out of 10 from a different seller). 3 of my Legbars look female although one is quite pale (poor hatch down?) and the 4th hatched out pure bright yellow, no spots or marking and now, 3 days later has pure white feathering coming through. Is the yellow one a sport/white legbar or is this a poor hatch down? (what is a poor hatch down? seen the term but unsure of its meaning - im guessing its something to do with diluted genes?) Sorry im new to this so not sure. Incase it helps with your answer, the legbar seller does have other breeds but ive been told they are all separated so believe the legbar eggs are all pure not mixed.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Looks like a white sport, two males and a female to me.

 

[louiserivergod151]

Looks like a white sport, two males and a female to me.

the pic of the 2 pale ones are the same bird i was just showing angle as wasnt sure as it didnt really fit standard for male or female (pale with the white head dot for boy, chipmonk for girl). the bottom one of the girl is the same as the other girl so i didnt show that one. I have the yellow one, the ambiguous pale one and 2 typical chipmonk pattern so definitely females. You think the pale is a boy then? i hope so, i have a male thats 4 weeks old but wasnt sure if he's what you would use for breeding so was hoping for another but then, hes my first legbar so maybe the colouring changes. Hes all silver atm (pic below)

So the white is a sport then? so if i can get hold of another and breed then, their offspring would all be white too wouldn't they? Im not breeding for sale but want variety in my flock by having several purebreds but also combining some to produce those gorgeous green eggs. The white will just make a pretty addition to the flock as I don't think they are a breed standard are they?

 

[The Moonshiner]

I wouldn't worry too much about your older boy yet. It takes some time for their color to really start showing well.
If the yellow one is pure ya its a sport. Some are calling them "frost" now and working on getting them accepted.
APA still hasn't approved Legbars at all yet that I know of.
Yes two whites will produce only whites. Their white is recessive so one of your other chicks may be carrying it and produce some whites when bred to that one.
Yes I think your pale one is male.

 

[louiserivergod151]

I wouldn't worry too much about your older boy yet. It takes some time for their color to really start showing well.
If the yellow one is pure ya its a sport. Some are calling them "frost" now and working on getting them accepted.
APA still hasn't approved Legbars at all yet that I know of.
Yes two whites will produce only whites. Their white is recessive so one of your other chicks may be carrying it and produce some whites when bred to that one.
Yes I think your pale one is male.

Thank you for the info, that def helps...to be honest i dont mind a couple males anyway but am interested to see what colouring comes out with the older boy. With the Sport i guess there's no way of knowing sex yet until its older but ill see if i can get hold of another sport (from another line maybe - are they rare/hard to find or is it a common recessive gene i can find again) so i can breed true and have a line of sports/frost in my flock.

 

[NatJ]

With the Sport i guess there's no way of knowing sex yet until its older but ill see if i can get hold of another sport (from another line maybe - are they rare/hard to find or is it a common recessive gene i can find again) so i can breed true and have a line of sports/frost in my flock.

You can breed more sports just by working with your original one and some normal-looking Legbars. It might take 2 generations, but should not take longer than that.

I'm pretty sure the white "sport" is just caused by the recessive white gene. When a chicken has one copy of the gene, it looks normal but can pass that gene to half of its chicks. When a chicken gets the recessive white gene from both parents, it looks white and passes that gene to all its chicks.

So crossing the white chick to a normal-looking Legbar might give you more white ones, if the normal-looking bird also carries that gene. And all chicks that have one white parent will be carrying the gene for white, so you can breed them back to their white parent and get about 50% white chicks (and 50% that look normal but also carry the white gene.)

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thank you for the info, that def helps...to be honest i dont mind a couple males anyway but am interested to see what colouring comes out with the older boy. With the Sport i guess there's no way of knowing sex yet until its older but ill see if i can get hold of another sport (from another line maybe - are they rare/hard to find or is it a common recessive gene i can find again) so i can breed true and have a line of sports/frost in my flock.

No they're not rare or hard to find. They're pretty common when breeding Legbars. Back when I had them I produced some but just gave them away because they're undesired.
Sometime since then they became a thing and people actually breed for them and breed them.
I've seen a hatchery or two selling them now. Search for White or Frost.

 

[louiserivergod151]

No they're not rare or hard to find. They're pretty common when breeding Legbars. Back when I had them I produced some but just gave them away because they're undesired.
Sometime since then they became a thing and people actually breed for them and breed them.
I've seen a hatchery or two selling them now. Search for White or Frost.

ah didnt know, ive only just started raising so to date ive only seen the cream legbar so thought maybe these werent commonly seen. I quite like the way they look tbh, I was going to introduce a couple white leghorns but heard they can be abit noisier so maybe having the white legbar will make a nicer addition. What do you raise atm and would you recommend any? So far I have the legbars, gold partridge Braham, 2 mixed who are also 4 weeks and ive got FCM's, Mars Bars and Araucana x maran eggs and 2 F2 oliver eggers in the incubator atm. Im looking for that rainbow basket of eggs but also a happy, friendly, compatible mix flock

 

[The Moonshiner]

I raise noisy Leghorns

 

[louiserivergod151]

You can breed more sports just by working with your original one and some normal-looking Legbars. It might take 2 generations, but should not take longer than that.

I'm pretty sure the white "sport" is just caused by the recessive white gene. When a chicken has one copy of the gene, it looks normal but can pass that gene to half of its chicks. When a chicken gets the recessive white gene from both parents, it looks white and passes that gene to all its chicks.

So crossing the white chick to a normal-looking Legbar might give you more white ones, if the normal-looking bird also carries that gene. And all chicks that have one white parent will be carrying the gene for white, so you can breed them back to their white parent and get about 50% white chicks (and 50% that look normal but also carry the white gene.)

oh i had no idea you could bred within the same line, I thought maybe that would be discouraged same way with cats/dogs etc but i imagine in the wild they'd all breed indiscriminately with each other anyway. Ill try that then, it looks like i have at least 1 boy and def 2 other girls so whichever sex it ends up being i can breed back and see what comes out. I was going to start an olive egger project so may run this one alongside it. Once i have a nice group of blue, green, cream and chocolate egg layers ill then see how to get pink eggs in my flock