I had both Black and Crele and let me say if I ever got them again I would raise them much differently.
My black pair was insane and she laid four eggs in about a week and when I moved her to a breed pen she just stopped cold turkey and never laid another egg for two years. For a while they were the only two birds in the pen so I thought she might be uncomfortable. I added some extra Buttercup girls in there so I could tell their eggs apart and never saw another brown egg.
The crele hens layed much better but they were just as flighty. It was impossible to get a decent pic from any of them because they never stopped pacing the side of the pen farthest from where I was. And the rooster always rushed me and spurred the sole of my shoe every time I left the pen.
In the birds' defense though I will say this. As chicks and started birds they were coddled. As in they stayed completely apart from any of the other birds for fear they would catch something. Silly I know but when you've got a thousand dollars that could get sick you act silly. And when I lost the only black roo for no apparent reason I was nearly hysterical. They were never handled and were never moved until their breed pens were completed when they were about 6 1/2 months of age. During that time they lived in a tractor/coop by themselves. Their breed pens were also built a fair distance from my other breeders and so they were socially retarded. When they were finally put into their breed pens, the males fought incessantly through the wire until I put tin along the bottom two - three feet of the wire. So it probably isn't really the breed it was they way they grew up. Their enviroment and experiences molded the way they behaved. Imagine raising leghorns like that... ep
Basically I had them when they were the new 'it' bird and when day-old chicks were going for $100 bucks and I already had a waiting list when the birds were three months old, I wasn't taking any chances.
Their chicks were raised with everyone else though and they were much calmer. They weren't cuddly like Cochins or Faverolles, but they weren't crazy like their parents. But they did all stalk around together. They were pretty cute. Looked like a group of long-legged raptors. And boy were they fast.
Here is the only decent pic I managed to get of my roo in thirty minutes.
There were four hens flapping hysterically in the corner, opposite of him.
