The Legbar Thread!

[GaryDean26]

I've got two broodies sitting on birchen and/or duckwing marans eggs from H&H Poultry in Texas, aka April Howington -- can't wait to see what they look like! i didn't think to ask her about CLs as well...

I would wait on the CLB from H&H in Texas. She crossed her Gold Legbar Line that she build from scratch with a cockerels from the GFF lines. She reported 4 months ago that she is now getting 75% crested birds and 75% blue eggs. Once she has her blue eggs stable it will be ready to go.

I am more intrested in April's "American Cream Legbar" that she has been working on for 8 years from scratch. She introduced Icelandic to her Gold Legbars to get cresting and Americanas for the Blue eggs. It will be a cream Legbar line build only with readily available US stock and will be truely unique. I don't know if she found Iclandic with the Cream gene or not. Hopefull she did. If not she will have a gold colored American Blue Egg Laying Legbar. It would be nice if she could breed that line to SOP quality. It is a project she will likely be working on for a few more years.

 

[lawatt]

I would wait on the CLB from H&H in Texas. She crossed her Gold Legbar Line that she build from scratch with a cockerels from the GFF lines. She reported 4 months ago that she is now getting 75% crested birds and 75% blue eggs. Once she has her blue eggs stable it will be ready to go.

I am more intrested in April's "American Cream Legbar" that she has been working on for 8 years from scratch. She introduced Icelandic to her Gold Legbars to get cresting and Americanas for the Blue eggs. It will be a cream Legbar line build only with readily available US stock and will be truely unique. I don't know if she found Iclandic with the Cream gene or not. Hopefull she did. If not she will have a gold colored American Blue Egg Laying Legbar. It would be nice if she could breed that line to SOP quality. It is a project she will likely be working on for a few more years.

so fascinating! i'm one of those weird people who prefers uncrested birds, so perhaps can scoop up any uncrested culls she ends up with...

 

[ChicKat]

My two co-brooding little Silkie hens have hatched out 3 of the 5 CL eggs they have been sitting on - 3 pullets with very different down color, out of a pen with 3 cream birds (main rooster and 2 pullets) and 3 gold (backup roo and 2 pullets).










They were so cute on the nest together - I had to unscrew the bucket from the wall to move them to a broody pen, and they never made a sound, just hunkered down even tighter on the eggs/chicks

You have the three down types that Punnett mentions. As I recall, he didn't know the explanation -- but he did say that the dark down seems to be dominant. In this link it is the very last page --Plate 1-- Hopefully it will show up. It is color but this version only shows B&W....maybe some have a blank for Plate 1. On eBay, I purchased the page that someone had ripped out of a publication in the UK & sold. Your down colors match the ones that Punnett showed. Since it was 1940 when the article was written, I believe Punnett's Cream Legbar project was already underway....

ETA oops the link: http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jgenet/41/1.pdf

 

[1muttsfan]

Interesting article on legbar down color. Now we only have to figure out how (or if) the down color relates to adult plumage.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

That's the 50 million dollar question.....

 

[GaryDean26]

Interesting article on legbar down color. Now we only have to figure out how (or if) the down color relates to adult plumage.

Many people have finished photo documents of the various down types from chick to adult.

My foundation group have multiple down types and the only concultions that I was able to draw was that the dark down time made for brighter red and chestnut while the light down a slightly duller color. I also wanted to see how it effect fluff and under coat colors as well as crest colores, but my f1 generation was 100% dark down so I haven't done any more follow up. My F2 had both light and dark down color, but I haven't done a big grow out group of them yet. The single pair that I do have has a 3 month old pullet with a lot of rust in her crest and a 3 month old cockerel that is cream and doesn't have much red or rust al all so I can't really do much comparision to the gold foundation birds.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I have had folks here ask for pics of my phoenix x legbar pullets. They are from my clb cock on silver phoenix hens, I did this mainly for EE pullets to sell but saved a few to breed back to phoenix. The color of hackle in person is more of a lemon color, I thought cream at first but they are LF phoenix with clear colored males so I think this is a different diluter at play.

 

[LaBella]

so fascinating! i'm one of those weird people who prefers uncrested birds, so perhaps can scoop up any uncrested culls she ends up with...

Me too. I am hoping when I am able to get a breeding flock, that enough people will have uncrested throwing in their lines that I'll be able to get mine.
I mean it's cute, but it's just not.. me I guess.

Oh, and you know the cost of the CL when they first came here? I know the price has gone down a lot since then... But if any of you pioneers that took the plunge when they were at their most expensive ever wondered what in the world you were thinking buying chickens at that price, don't worry.
Just go to Greenfire's site and look at the cost for the Ayam Cemani, and bask in knowing that compares to the pioneers of that breed... you had it cheap, lol.

 

[FridayYet]

I was just telling my friend at work that I need to make the nesting boxes since my Legbars are about 20 weeks old. When I got home from work and checked on them, I found a perfect little blue-green egg in the back corner of the run behind the waterer!!!

My first egg ever

! It is pretty close in color to OAC 178.

Since no one around here is into chickens, I just had to tell someone. Will make 2 nest boxes in the morning and try to figure out who was my first layer.

 

[ChicKat]

I was just telling my friend at work that I need to make the nesting boxes since my Legbars are about 20 weeks old. When I got home from work and checked on them, I found a perfect little blue-green egg in the back corner of the run behind the waterer!!!

My first egg ever

! It is pretty close in color to OAC 178.

Since no one around here is into chickens, I just had to tell someone. Will make 2 nest boxes in the morning and try to figure out who was my first layer.

Congratulations!!