The Legbar Thread!

[The Sheriff]

Thanks redchicken and everyone else who offered to help. I am just going to be patient and hatch and grow out a replacement rooster.

My oldest pullet stopped laying recently and I attributed it to the heat. Yesterday she spent the day in the nest box and I thought she might be broody. This morning I found in her nest box a shelless egg, just yolk and albumen, completely intact. The pullet was standing outside the door with the white membrane stuck on feathers near her vent. I am not sure what is going on with her. They have oyster shell available and I have never even had a weak shelled legbar egg. So I will watch and wait. Maybe I have been spoiled by the hardy Icelandics who rarely have health issues.

It always something, huh?

 

[CarolJ]

It always something, huh?

Yep - it sure is! My legbars are 17 weeks old, and I figure by the end of August I'll be getting eggs. And I plan to start incubating as soon as they start laying.

Meanwhile yesterday I realized I had not seen my black single-tufted Araucana hen for a few days. I started looking - never found her. This morning my husband searched the woods all around our house - not even a feather was found. All I can figure out is that when they were free-ranging - even though I was right there with them - something got her when she wandered off into the woods out of my sight. They have a very large run - so they're not lacking space. However, they look so happy when they're outside, I've been letting them out for an hour or two right before dark each evening when I can be outside with them the entire time. But apparently my being there isn't enough protection.

 

[blackbirds13]

Not to offend anyone, but my Cream Legbars have been pretty healthy and I have them at all ages running around. I even stuck chicks that were only 2 weeks old outside with no problems or issues arising. I personally am really not willing to nay-say the hardiness of this breed at this point.I have found mine to be no less hardy as all the other breeds I have or have had thus far. It seems that there are problems all over BYC with a variety of breeds and one unfortunate happenstance or another. The heat has been brutal and I don't think that helps either. JMHO.

 

[boykin2010]

Thanks redchicken and everyone else who offered to help. I am just going to be patient and hatch and grow out a replacement rooster.

My oldest pullet stopped laying recently and I attributed it to the heat. Yesterday she spent the day in the nest box and I thought she might be broody. This morning I found in her nest box a shelless egg, just yolk and albumen, completely intact. The pullet was standing outside the door with the white membrane stuck on feathers near her vent. I am not sure what is going on with her. They have oyster shell available and I have never even had a weak shelled legbar egg. So I will watch and wait. Maybe I have been spoiled by the hardy Icelandics who rarely have health issues.

It always something, huh?

Mary, I would be very careful and do extra things to keep that hen cooled off. That sounds like what my legbar hen went through before she passed away. Except, to my knowledge she never laid an egg in the box. She didn't lay an egg for 3 days in a row and then sat in the nesting box as if broody but didn't peck me at me or anything. The next day I noticed her comb was pale and she was dead within a few hours. I had a fan on her and everything.
Since then, I have been doing extra precautions to make sure nobody else dies, and it has been working.

I fill waterers with ice, keep frozen gallons of water in the run, keep a fan on each breed, and I put a pile of playsand in each pen for them to dust in. So far, I have had no other deaths.

Reading your last post was like a flashback for me... I hope everything works out.

 

[Phage]

Bryce, could she have been egg bound?

She laid ginormous eggs. Sounds suspect to me.

 

[boykin2010]

Bryce, could she have been egg bound?

She laid ginormous eggs. Sounds suspect to me.

I thought about that and I checked her body. I didn't see any evidence that she was egg-bound. She always did lay pretty big eggs and like Mary said I never got a soft-shelled egg from her.
I knew something was wrong when she quit laying. She was the most dependable layer I had.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks redchicken and everyone else who offered to help. I am just going to be patient and hatch and grow out a replacement rooster.

My oldest pullet stopped laying recently and I attributed it to the heat. Yesterday she spent the day in the nest box and I thought she might be broody. This morning I found in her nest box a shelless egg, just yolk and albumen, completely intact. The pullet was standing outside the door with the white membrane stuck on feathers near her vent. I am not sure what is going on with her. They have oyster shell available and I have never even had a weak shelled legbar egg. So I will watch and wait. Maybe I have been spoiled by the hardy Icelandics who rarely have health issues.

It always something, huh?

Hi Mary,

It could still be the heat. It could be a reproductive problem or a cancer too. You can't worry about that though.

I would start by taking a manure sample to the vet to make sure she does not have parasites. They will do a float test like they do for Dogs and Cats. Of course if you treat for worms seasonally then they would have been treated at the end of June. I don't see in your post that you give them vitamins and electrolytes. They need vit. D and calcium to make the shells, so that is needed too.

Don't forget that we can have a free necropsy performed by UCD. California the Whole State thread has instructions on the first post as well as an account to get 70% off from Fedex shipping. I hope you sent your Roo in just to be sure he only had a foot infection.

My Best to you! 107 degrees for me today.

Ron

 

[Johnn]

Mama Melow

 

[boykin2010]

Great Picture!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I hatched out a total of 8 eggs that I thought were from a leghorn hen x legbar rooster but it turned out that 2 were from the legbar x polish, so it will be interesting to see them grow. The 6 legbarhorns are all very active and all are crested. They should all be barred but only 4 have a spot. The plan is to breed the best hens from this batch back to the father. I also have a different line of leghorns that I am outcrossing to when they get old enough. This batch is for a production type line and the next will be to fix type some more. I will try to take pics as they grow so I can show how they turn out.