The Legbar Thread!

[chicken pickin]

To me from that pic to go by only I see 2 boys. The large head splotches are the giveaway. Females can have small head dots but they are typically very small if at all.

 

[A6chickenhome]

To me from that pic to go by only I see 2 boys. The large head splotches are the giveaway. Females can have small head dots but they are typically very small if at all.

Yes, I agree. They do have a stripe behind the eye but the head dots are very obvious.

 

[ChicKat]

X2

 

[ochochicas]

Here is a question for all of you legbar experts out there. I purchased a small flock of legbars. The hens are 1.5 years old and the rooster is unrelated to them. Despite the eggs being fertile, the hatching success rate is very low. I have incubated Legbar eggs along side eggs from my other hens. All of my eggs hatched EXCEPT the legbars. I have given eggs to other people with the same result. The chicks develop but die in the second or third week. I had one person that hatched the majority of her eggs, and one person that hatched 2 eggs out of 10. Everyone else has 0% hatching.

After doing some research, I found that this seems to be a common issue with people trying to hatch CCL eggs. Is there something these eggs need that is different from other eggs? Do they need a different humidity? Higher or lower temperature?

If my friends were just hatching the legbar eggs with no success I would chalk it up to incubator failure. However, the eggs from all the other breeds hatch just fine in the same incubator. I'm trying to find a solution to this before I cull my flock and go back to the trusted Ameraucanas.

Thanks in advance.

 

[chicken pickin]

Here is a question for all of you legbar experts out there. I purchased a small flock of legbars. The hens are 1.5 years old and the rooster is unrelated to them. Despite the eggs being fertile, the hatching success rate is very low. I have incubated Legbar eggs along side eggs from my other hens. All of my eggs hatched EXCEPT the legbars. I have given eggs to other people with the same result. The chicks develop but die in the second or third week. I had one person that hatched the majority of her eggs, and one person that hatched 2 eggs out of 10. Everyone else has 0% hatching.

After doing some research, I found that this seems to be a common issue with people trying to hatch CCL eggs. Is there something these eggs need that is different from other eggs? Do they need a different humidity? Higher or lower temperature?

If my friends were just hatching the legbar eggs with no success I would chalk it up to incubator failure. However, the eggs from all the other breeds hatch just fine in the same incubator. I'm trying to find a solution to this before I cull my flock and go back to the trusted Ameraucanas.

Thanks in advance.

This has been mentioned by many of us CL owners, me included. My CL hatch rate is always low. And I like you do always hatch along side other breeds that hatch fantastically. Nobody has seemed to gotten to the bottom of this and no different incubation techniques have been discussed. I plan to fidget with my incubator during my next Spring hatches and see if I can find something that works.

 

[enola]

Here is a question for all of you legbar experts out there.  I purchased a small flock of legbars.  The hens are 1.5 years old and the rooster is unrelated to them.  Despite the eggs being fertile, the hatching success rate is very low.  I have incubated Legbar eggs along side eggs from my other hens.  All of my eggs hatched EXCEPT the legbars.  I have given eggs to other people with the same result.  The chicks develop but die in the second or third week.  I had one person that hatched the majority of her eggs, and one person that hatched 2 eggs out of 10.   Everyone else has 0% hatching.  

After doing some research, I found that this seems to be a common issue with people trying to hatch CCL eggs.  Is there something these eggs need that is different from other eggs?  Do they need a different humidity?  Higher or lower temperature?  

If my friends were just hatching the legbar eggs with no success I would chalk it up to incubator failure.  However, the eggs from all the other breeds hatch just fine in the same incubator.  I'm trying to find a solution to this before I cull my flock and go back to the trusted Ameraucanas.  

Thanks in advance.  

I am having the same problem with me legbars. I am running about 85% on the eggs for my other breeds. I have not hatched a single purebred LB chick yet. The eggs are fertile but die somewhere between 10 & 18 days. Two of them made it to lockdown and then died. To say I am extremely disappointed in this breed is an understatement.

 

[ochochicas]

Sorry to both of you that are having the same trouble I am. I have just one egg under my broody hen right now (she is a Marans, and if she can't hatch the egg, nobody can). The egg looks awesome at 15 days so maybe that one will hatch. My eggs do seem to be a bit porous, which could let bacteria in, but they aren't that bad.

I suspect severe inbreeding is culprit to some of the hatching issues. The original gene pool was very small and has probably negatively impacted the breed.

 

[ladycat]

Sounds to me like they're carrying some sort of lethal gene.

 

[Flaming Chicken]

Here is a question for all of you legbar experts out there. I purchased a small flock of legbars. The hens are 1.5 years old and the rooster is unrelated to them. Despite the eggs being fertile, the hatching success rate is very low. I have incubated Legbar eggs along side eggs from my other hens. All of my eggs hatched EXCEPT the legbars. I have given eggs to other people with the same result. The chicks develop but die in the second or third week. I had one person that hatched the majority of her eggs, and one person that hatched 2 eggs out of 10. Everyone else has 0% hatching.

After doing some research, I found that this seems to be a common issue with people trying to hatch CCL eggs. Is there something these eggs need that is different from other eggs? Do they need a different humidity? Higher or lower temperature?

If my friends were just hatching the legbar eggs with no success I would chalk it up to incubator failure. However, the eggs from all the other breeds hatch just fine in the same incubator. I'm trying to find a solution to this before I cull my flock and go back to the trusted Ameraucanas.

Thanks in advance.

I have had 80% hatch rate from my own Cream Legbar. I have had easier hatches and better humidity control in my Brinsea Octagon. In my Hovabator, the eggs would get shrink wrapped. When I hatched my first Breda fowl from shipped eggs, I had a lot of late quitters as you described, they also had missing toes and other foot problems that made me think inbreeding was the culprit.

 

[KPenley]

I have had varying success with shipped eggs, but high hatch dates from my own birds 80%+). Broodies seem to do the best, like you would expect. I can not hatch CL eggs in the warm months of the year, so I I think that they are sensitive to humidity. During the months that we use the heater they hatch well. I dry incubate, then raise the humidity to 60 for lockdown. Some people found out that they were dealing with some kind of bacteria, and washing the eggs with oxine helped. If you have an agricultural school or NPIP state office nearby they might be able to test eggs that die for you to discover if it is a bacteria infection. So far the only eggs with possible lethal connections are the white Legbars, and even that hasn't been proven and has been at best a guess.