Opal Legbar

[TaylorGlade]

Myers Hatchery has Opal Legbars? That is very sad to hear. They were created by a lady here on BYC and the one flock of them I have been in contact with were pretty nice birds. It seems you can’t have anything anymore without the factories mass producing low cost versions of the breed.

Wow! A person on here created them? And yeah. That is sad.

We have Silver Bielefelder - drove to Greenfire to get them. So far, only two or three breeders have them. It won't be long before big hatcheries follow suit, I'm sure.

And it's sad, too. I'm on the Facebook group BYC and this person posted prices for some unusual breeds which were like $18-$20 a chick and everyone there was flipping their lid. When I pointed out that it seemed low for what breeders sometimes charge, I was flamed. One person even said she sold chicks for $1 apiece and they were quality birds. But I find it hard to believe that she puts as much effort into her backyard mixes as a breeder. Not that there is anything wrong with a backyard mix. They can be great birds too. It's all in what you want. I'm gonna leave the group because most of the people hand out terrible advice and get really rude. Very different than the crowd here - but that's a different matter.

 

[GaryDean26]

Wow! A person on here created them? And yeah. That is sad.

We have Silver Bielefelder - drove to Greenfire to get them. So far, only two or three breeders have them. It won't be long before big hatcheries follow suit, I'm sure.

And it's sad, too. I'm on the Facebook group BYC and this person posted prices for some unusual breeds which were like $18-$20 a chick and everyone there was flipping their lid. When I pointed out that it seemed low for what breeders sometimes charge, I was flamed. One person even said she sold chicks for $1 apiece and they were quality birds. But I find it hard to believe that she puts as much effort into her backyard mixes as a breeder. Not that there is anything wrong with a backyard mix. They can be great birds too. It's all in what you want. I'm gonna leave the group because most of the people hand out terrible advice and get really rude. Very different than the crowd here - but that's a different matter.

Yes, They were created by cjwaldon. She was one of the 22 charter members of the Cream Legbar club. I am pretty sure that some of the hatcheries bought hatching eggs through 3rd party hatchers over the internet to get some of their Legbar stock back in 2012 (and probably did the same thing with the Opal Legbars 4-5 years later).

The breeders on BYC might hatch 100 Legbars and selected the best 6-8 females and best 1-2 males to breed. If it costs them $25 a bird to grow out their stock, their breeding flock cost them about $2,500 and will produce about 3 dozen hatching eggs a week from February-June for the hatching season at a cost of about $4.30 an egg. The hatcheries will hatch 500 legbars and keep the best 250 females and the best 50 males. Since they are keeping more birds let's say that their cost is $30.00 a birds so their breeding flocks cost them $15,000 and will produce around 100 dozen eggs a week so over a 4 month hatching season their cost is about $0.78 and egg (I am using the traditional hatching season but some probably hatch year round to further lower their cost). Their breeding stock at the hatcheries is not the top 5-10% of the gene pool though. It is more like the top 60% of the gene pool. Yes, the effort is different. I am guessing the backyard mixes are more along the line of breeding the top 60% of their flock. They probably hatch 25, keep the top 12 females and the top 1-2 males. Their flock cost them about $750 at $30 per bird hatched. They get 5 dozen eggs a week for a cost around $0.78 and egg. The backyard mixes are competing with the hatcheries. They are keeping their cost low by breeding everything they have on the property with little to no selection. Their birds are very average.

The barnyard mix flock owners have a dozen hens in their flock but there is that one special hen that lays more eggs than the rest of the hens in the flock, is prettier than the rest of the hens in the flock, and that is friendlier than the rest of the hens in the flock. They wish that all the hens in their flock were like that one. The breeders have taken that one special hen decades back and line breed her so that they have a whole flock of clone hens that lay, look, and act like the special hen. That is what you get when you get well breed stock from a specialty breeder. hatchery stock and backyard mixes are not the same. Some the the owners of a breeds don't cull deep for the traits of the breed and through their lack of management may lose the laying ability, looks, or personality in their flock. We compare these average flocks to a hamburger. They are cheap and people love them. We compare the well breed flocks to a steak. The price and quality is different. People can complain that their hamburgers are just as good as the steak but they are not the same thing. We used to have these steak quality chickens that you could get excited about now we have these hamburger quality chickens and that is all people know. We try to tell them what a steak quality chicken is but it is wasted breath.