The Legbar Thread!

[TheTropix]

He is indeed a very pretty rooster, but not really my idea of a Cream Legbar. I agree with HaplessRunner on how light/white he is. I noticed is how incredibly yellow his earlobes are. I haven't seen that before. How old is he? His tail seems small and his body looks short from front to back. May just be the angle. Do you have a picture of your girl? Has anyone else had yellow earlobes?

 

[ChicKat]

He is indeed a very pretty rooster, but not really my idea of a Cream Legbar. I agree with HaplessRunner on how light/white he is. I noticed is how incredibly yellow his earlobes are. I haven't seen that before. How old is he? His tail seems small and his body looks short from front to back. May just be the angle. Do you have a picture of your girl? Has anyone else had yellow earlobes?

in the UK, cream and white earlobes are in their Standard, I believe. The USA has only 1 color choice - so white was the chosen one.

 

[ChicKat]

I thought I would post a photo of my young rooster'; still maturing. I was fortunate to win some eggs this past spring from Greenfire Farms. Several breeds were shipped but out of the hatch I got one male and one female Cream Legbar. Attached is a photo of the male. What do you think. Thanks for letting me share.

Hi Soldier --

Love your solar humming bird -- bet it is really pretty at night!

Your rooster is really an interesting and unusual version of a Cream Legbar - and the whitest one that I have seen also. So, if you won eggs in the Spring, is your rooster in this picture about 6-months old? Nice yellow legs and beak...Comb looks straight and a bit smaller than most CLs - which would be a good thing, for those of us who prefer a bit smaller comb - The wattles look very delicate and refined no wrinkles, not too long -- but I suspect that comb and wattles may grow larger as your rooster matures. That is also the fullest- fluffiest crest that I have seen on a male. Most males have a very small crest and small is mentioned in the USA SOP - Have you read the newest DRAFT version that the Cream Legbar Club is working on? You can find it on the Club's website - Here is a link to the page:https://sites.google.com/site/thecreamlegbarclub/29-draft-standard-of-perfection-revision-2

As TheTropix said, he appears to have a very short back and that could easily be the camera angle or the fact that he isn't fully grown as yet. In the top picture the hackle and saddle feathers touch -- and a LOT of Cream Legbar males are like that at a certain phase of their growth....

ETA - just spent some time searching the internet and a LOT of roosters have touching hackle and saddle feathers - so I guess that isn't an indicator. -- CL roosters have very thick hackles - I remember summer before last -- I couldn't even get through the hackles to the skin to put dewormer on the skin directly because it was so deep in hackle feathers.... On a side note - we raise registered cattle and increasing the length of the animal is one way to increase weight. The CLs here in the states are lower in weight than the proposed draft of the SOP so people are aware that we need to increase weights of both males and females if those poundages are ever to be met. -- That is one reason I believe you may hear a lot about length of the cockerels in the future.

You will need to post the picture of your female - you have us all curious now....

Your male looks light enough to be a silver legbar -

Do you have any chick pictures to share with us? Some folks really are attracted to the super-light looking CLs - It would be so interesting to see 'baby pictures' of him - and do you recall the color of egg(s) that your chickens hatched from? Some CL eggs are bluer or greener than others. If you plan to breed Cream Legbars - it would be interesting to see what your future generations look like. We feel that the most important CL trait is the autosexing at hatch time - and some CLs have been showing up white (there is even a thread called White Sport Cream Legbars) - they are very pretty birds, like you rooster, but more difficult to autosex. Thanks for posting and show us more pictures....

 

[GaryDean26]

I would like to see what your hen looks like also.

Yep me too. You can't say that you have had cockerel and a pullet and then only post the cockerel. You are killing us.

I would not use him for breeding.

I would use him, and I will tell you why.

1) He has the recessive cream color which puts him ahead of 90% of the rest of the Cream Legbars in North America which display the dominate gold color. Cream is the direction that our Cream Legbars need to me moving and not using this guys means that there is a 90% chance that a #2 cockerels or breeder's cull that you would have to source from someone else is going to be gold and therefore a step in the wrong direction as far as color is concerned.

2) You stated that you only hatched one pullet and one cockerel, so you don't have the luxury of being choosy. I would pair the two that you have together and in the spring hatch as many as you can to start your flock. You can be choosy with their offspring and look for a cockerel that has better type and color.

I need to take new photos of my main cock bird. This one was taken in the spring when he was only about 6 months old. He is now 15 months old and has done a lot more maturing. He is one of the best cock birds I have see anywhere in North America. As a bonus his temperament is also better than any other cockerel I have worked with.

Other things...your cockerel has wings that are nearly horizontal. This is good. If you see offspring that start to show the tips of the wings lowering, then try to work away from those birds. His comb looks fairly good. If any cockerels from him have the blade of the comb folded forward or is flopped completely to one side, then work away from those birds. Also look for a good rounded breast that protrudes past the beak of the bird. You cockerel looks like he will throw birds that tend to have no breast meat on them. Work for full rounded breasts that don't have any straight lines. Also I would look for a lower tail angle. My boy isn't a good example here either, but the tail should not form an angle with the back but rather have a sweep that blends from the slope of the back to the angle of the tail.


This cockerel has white ear lobes. The yellow ear lobes that I am seeing on your cockerel is something I would cull for in his offspring.

This cockerel has good barring on this tail. As HaplessRunner pointed out your cockerel has too much white on the tail. Again I would cull for the white tails in his offspring and aim for barring on all the tail.

You should also see the black barring marks on the saddle feathers. My doesn't show this, but it is another area that will add more definition to your cockerels and bring it closer to the breed standard so the cockerels don't look all white.

There is a hint of rust color on the shoulder and crest of your cockerel. This needs to be very faint. My cockerel has a lot more than yours does, so your bird is better colored than mine in that area. You can eliminate the rust color completely in your birds through selection if you want. The red comes from the Brown Leghorn background of the Cream Legbar. The Brown Leghorns are red enhanced. The red enhancers are fused to the Gold based birds to where is it almost impossible to get rid of so the red is allowable. Some people favor more red on the solders and some none at all. You can choose what you like, but I wouldn't keep a cockerel going forward who had more red on this shoulders than what my cockerel shows.

Good luck...We look forward to photos of your pullet and their offspring the end of next summer.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Sad news on my main cockerel.

We had very cold weather with temps down in the low to mid teens (F) with winds that blew 20-35+ mph for an extended period of time. It looks like his comb has suffered some frostbite damage. He will probably lose 3-5 points on his comb. They have blackened with the smallest points already drying. We were away and could not check them while they were outdoors. Chickens just do not always go to the smartest places!

So far he is acting normally and carrying on. Still active with the hens and maintaining his position relative to the other cockerels.

 

[ChicKat]

Sad news on my main cockerel.

We had very cold weather with temps down in the low to mid teens (F) with winds that blew 20-35+ mph for an extended period of time. It looks like his comb has suffered some frostbite damage. He will probably lose 3-5 points on his comb. They have blackened with the smallest points already drying. We were away and could not check them while they were outdoors. Chickens just do not always go to the smartest places!

So far he is acting normally and carrying on. Still active with the hens and maintaining his position relative to the other cockerels.

So sorry to hear that! Glad that he did his winning before this happened!!! The very good thing is that although cosmetically he is marred, genetically he will pass those winning qualities that got him his place to his chicks!

 

[KPenley]

@Mr T: Do you have any VetRx? Grey had a similar comb to what you described after being in his show cage a few days (no wind block on the front side, plus cold temps) and I started cleaning and rubbing VetRX in. It was applied once on wash day, and again on show day and I was amazed by the difference. Hopefully it can heal your boy too! Best wishes!


After the first application, already the red was moving up into the darker dry tips (they really soaked up the VetRx) and brightening the greyish color that happened after a few really cold nights.


After second application 4 days later, the deadened skin had become like new (or flaked off) and the comb was all healthy and red.

 

[HaplessRunner]

@Mr T: Do you have any VetRx? Grey had a similar comb to what you described after being in his show cage a few days (no wind block on the front side, plus cold temps) and I started cleaning and rubbing VetRX in. It was applied once on wash day, and again on show day and I was amazed by the difference. Hopefully it can heal your boy too! Best wishes!


After the first application, already the red was moving up into the darker dry tips (they really soaked up the VetRx) and brightening the greyish color that happened after a few really cold nights.


After second application 4 days later, the deadened skin had become like new (or flaked off) and the comb was all healthy and red.

I will have to check this out.

 

[DeltaBluezTess]

What is VetRX and the uses?

 

[normanack]

VetRx ingredients:
Active Ingredient(s): Made with 3.3% (v-v) alcohol U.S.P. The mixture contains Canada balsam, camphor, oil origanum, oil rosemary, blended in a corn oil base.

Kind of like liquid Vicks Vapo-Rub.