Langshan Thread!!!

[Dirt Farmer]

Hello- I am a newby here and I am on a quest to breed show quality Langshans. I am from SE Wisconsin and I don't know of anyone locally that breeds them. I am hoping there is some Langshan expert that enjoys doing this sort of thing. Evaluating birds. My grandaughter has been showing in 4H and we wanted to break out of the hatchery chicks and try our hand at buying and possibly breeding some SQ Langshans. I recently purchased 8 chicks from a SQ breeder mail order. The Roo was blue with black hens. My chicks are all so different and I am hoping someone can help me along the way decipher what is show quality, especially in regards to color. I received 3 blue and 5 black. The blue are all larger than the blacks and I assumed they were all Roo's but now I am not sure. I would like to start with the 3 blues to see what you think:
#1 is much lighter with a lighter beak and light color around the eyes which makes the eyes appear large. Light comb.
#2 This is a beautiful all blue chick, although the pics aren't the best and it is stretched out this chick is overall the same color.
#3 This one has very dark wings compared to the others. Any comments would be appreciated.

Welcome to BYC. I'm certainly not a Langshan expert but the middle chick looks like a pullet to me. It's showing a small comb compared to the other two and more tail development early. Other than that its probably just way too early to judge the quality of the these birds, even color. They will change so much in the first year that you won't be able to tell them apart without banding, which I recommend. Submit photos again in eight or nine months and the breeders/exhibitors on this thread will undoubtedly help you.

 

[Angie from WI]

Thanks for replying Dirt Farmer. Good to know that there is nothing here "color wise" that would cause a problem. They are only 3-1/2 weeks old. I'll be patient and check back as they develop more. Just glad I found this thread. Also, I agree with you that the #2 is a pullet now. She was the largest of all and showed a comb first and I thought she was a roo, but this week as the other combs are developing, hers is not. I think she will be a lovely big hen!

Here's another question. Although all my Langshans are from the same hatch, the blues are bigger. Is it because the breeding Roo was Blue while the hens were black?

 

[BGMatt]

Thanks for replying Dirt Farmer.  Good to know that there is nothing here "color wise" that would cause a problem.  They are only 3-1/2 weeks old.  I'll be patient and check back as they develop more.  Just glad I found this thread.  Also, I agree with you that the #2 is a pullet now.  She was the largest of all and showed a comb first and I thought she was a roo, but this week as the other combs are developing, hers is not.  I think she will be a lovely big hen!

Here's another question.  Although all my Langshans are from the same hatch, the blues are bigger.  Is it because the breeding Roo was Blue while the hens were black?

The variety of the cock bird has no affect on size. Both sire and dam contribute equally to size. It's likely just chance that the Blues happen to be bigger. Typically if anything Blues on the whole tend to be smaller, because many breeder incorrectly focus too much on color and let things like type, size, and feather quality fall by the wayside.

 

[Angie from WI]

I am racking my brain trying to figure out the sex of some of these 7 month old chicks. There are 8 Langshans. I can only confirm there is one hen. She is a blue with a very tight comb and no waddles yet (disregard the red dot on her comb, she got pecked)

She has a long tail. I also have two chicks that have long hen like tails but the have big combs which are pale.

Sorry it is laying down. Here is another.

Here is a photo of two of the chicks (long tail and short rooster tail)


I know I need to be patient but I am feeling that I should possibly separate the hens from the roosters at this time. There are so many roosters and it is "live action" when they are active. Fighting, pecking, stare-offs, chest bumping. I want to protect my blue hen especially to keep her show quality if she is the only one. What are your thoughts on separating them? And should I leave all these young roosters together? One more question.....Most of my chicks have white tipped wings. Is that ok for exhibition quality? Will they lose them? Here's the gang. (there is also a Jubilee Orp Roo in the mix)

 

[Angie from WI]

I am racking my brain trying to figure out the sex of some of these 7 month old chicks. There are 8 Langshans. I can only confirm there is one hen. She is a blue with a very tight comb and no waddles yet (disregard the red dot on her comb, she got pecked)

She has a long tail. I also have two chicks that have long hen like tails but the have big combs which are pale.

Sorry it is laying down. Here is another.

Here is a photo of two of the chicks (long tail and short rooster tail)


I know I need to be patient but I am feeling that I should possibly separate the hens from the roosters at this time. There are so many roosters and it is "live action" when they are active. Fighting, pecking, stare-offs, chest bumping. I want to protect my blue hen especially to keep her show quality if she is the only one. What are your thoughts on separating them? And should I leave all these young roosters together? One more question.....Most of my chicks have white tipped wings. Is that ok for exhibition quality? Will they lose them? Here's the gang. (there is also a Jubilee Orp Roo in the mix)

They are *7 weeks, not seven months!

 

[Dirt Farmer]

They are *7 weeks, not seven months!

I've always had a hard time sexing young Langshans. (The older hens are more upright, with more tail, than the cocks of some other breeds.) Once you get used to the strain you're rearing it gets easier. It's probably better to separate the pullets from the cockerels, at least until you've weeded out all the cockerels that you're not keeping. The white feathers will likely molt out. I've read that birds having more white in their juvenile feathers, have better green iridescence as adults. I don't have enough experience to validate that personally.

 

[emount]

I can't tell from your photos, but one thing that I noticed with my hatchery langshans is that the males seemed to have thicker legs. Comb size doesn't seem to matter as much as comb color, at least with mine. early red comb usually means male.

 

[Angie from WI]

Thank you Dirt Farmer. I really thought it would be much easier to sex them with them all being one breed and being able to compare them to each other. All their combs are different and they are in different stages of development. I do think that they are all very upright compared to other breeds that I have had which makes them look more like roosters, plus all of them seem to fight. I am not really ready to get rid of any of the roosters yet, a couple have emerged as alpha and are a bit bigger, but I really need to see how they develop. I have one small "runt" but I think it's possibly a pullet so I will just throw her in with the layers once she gets a little bigger. That's great to know about the feathers, my blacks are already showing the green iridescence.

 

[Angie from WI]

That's great to know about the comb color Emount, pretty much hoping that the size didn't matter. I guess I am comparing them to my blue pullet who has such a tiny comb and I am now hopeful that maybe my two "long tails" are pullets too. I think we will take them out this weekend and evaluate them individually and look at their legs. Between the feathers and the shavings it's hard to judge them in the coop. Thank you!

 

[Angie from WI]

The variety of the cock bird has no affect on size. Both sire and dam contribute equally to size. It's likely just chance that the Blues happen to be bigger. Typically if anything Blues on the whole tend to be smaller, because many breeder incorrectly focus too much on color and let things like type, size, and feather quality fall by the wayside.

Hi BGMatt- It looks like you have a great deal of experience with showing and breeding. I have 9 week old Langshans and out of the 8 chicks I purchased, 6 of them are roosters. I would like to start downsizing them. They are all about the same size, and everything else seems to standard, but some of them do not have perfect combs. Would you cull them at this point for imperfect or slightly wavy combs? What else do you consider?

I would like to get down to just two roosters at some point, I have 2 blues and 4 blacks. I have separated them from my pullets.

I have 1 blue pullet and one black pullet. The black pullet is smaller than the rest. Will she "catch up" or really never be show quality? Everything else about her is nice and she has a beautiful greenish sheen. My blue pullet is as large as the roos, so maybe she is just a stand out compared to her? She is lighter than the Roos, is that normal for a pullet?

Thanks!