has anyone else heard the saying that the largest chicken in the particular breed/variety is the one that the judges choose to win?
As I evaluate my lavender creles, I'm trying to find what a good weight IS. Here is what I found on the Leghorn side of their ancestry:
Leghorn chicken - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Leghorn_chicken
In Britain, the
Leghorn Club recognises eighteen colours: golden duckwing, silver duckwing, partridge, brown, buff, exchequer, Columbian, pyle, white, black, blue,...
Egg colour: white
Weight: Male: 2.4–2.7 kg; Female: 2.0–2.3 kg
Other names: Livorno; Livornese
Skin colour: yellow:
The top weight of 2.7 kg, according to google is 5.952 lbs. So let's say 6 lb male.
According to the Cream Legbar SOP - 7# is top weight for the CL male.
I'm still wondering if my variety of chicken is a barred Isabel leghorn, or a crestless Isabeline (opal) Cream Legbar that lays tinted colored eggs.
Today I weighed one of the cockerels that hatched in March -- it is pretty amazing that it was a 2oz egg; and now he's a 7.5 lb chicken. My guy is one big chicken for his ancestry. And he's so pretty.
Weighed him in order to worm him. ( I put one drop of Cydectin under the wing on the bald patch of skin there at the rate of 1-drop per pound of body weight.
What a hunky guy. based on the scale. I think he still retains some of the graceful lines of Leghorn. His brother may be even heavier, however, overall not as good in type.
This cockerel may exceed his father in appearance. I guess next March will denote the 1-year old mark for this guy. He looks pretty good right now.
And I think the father is pretty handsome - add to that the father has a tremendously sweet disposition.
So here is is == He must be 2 1/2 now. He is finishing up on a molt. His tail sickles used to just about drag on the ground, but those are gone and his tail is regrowing. His hackles have completely replaced, He still looks a bit ragged.
Reading a thread from long ago about leghorn type, I see that the comb is far too large, as are the wattles - to be a beauty-bird. That's fine with me, because I disfavor large combs and wattles. Junior seems to have inherited the father's large comb. Something to be bred out of this line for a better looking chicken IMO. These were cell phone picts -- and especially the lens and the angle of junior has distorted his head to look larger than it is in 'real life'. Blue cast in photo of junior also is from the blue tarp over his enclosure.
I'm planning to subdivide the 300 square feet and place junior with his mother and aunt, and father with his daughters. The buckets and lids are to make fence-fighting harder for dad and son. Otherwise they would wear a rut into the ground pacing along the fence. Just moved junior's cage this morning in conjunction with worming him.