The Legbar Thread!

[chicken pickin]

I am currently in the process of making arrangement to rehome a trio of Cream Legbars. They are roughly 6-7 months old and from what I can tell they are correct for cream. Im having a hard time deciding on what they should be priced at, I want to be fair but don't want to undersell as I have put time and effort into them. I was thinking $100. Does that seem too steep, or is it fair?

I also posted this in the other Cream Legbar thread. I keep second guessing myself lol.

 

[ChicKat]

Actually, that's not a bad idea. You could breed him to your girl to confirm if they have recessive stubs with the expectation that 100% of their offspring would have stubs if that were the case. If less than 100% the. You could conclude that the stubs are a dominant mutation or that there are other genes that may be influencing the expression of the stubs.

He's a nice boy although you may find him too light for your taste. He most definitely has cream coloration, but is hard to capture depending on lighting, the top one is probably a better representation of his color:

Check out how much creamier he appears with the less reflective lighting

He is a little narrow, but his father has really broadened out over time.

He's about 6 1/2 months old.



he lost most of his comb in the great polar vortex of 2014, and has the stubs, but that may turn out to be his biggest selling point!

I haven't ever shipped live birds before, it would be happy to go outside my box for the sake of science

I wonder about shipping in winter....how cold do those plane's cargo holds get at those altitudes....but I think we may have a match --- for Science and for Legbars the world over....or at least in my flock. LOL

ETA: Have to add, since it is objectively to ferret out any recessive feather leg genetics, and since he would pass it along to all his offspring since he probably is homozygous for it -- all the chicks from a pairing with him would be culls. Same with all the chicks from my pullet with feather legs. --

Also, I love the camera angle and the color saturation of the female chicken on the right of the top picture she reminds me of a pumpkin. I think next year I will get a pumpkin at halloween and try to paint that face on the chicken and it will look like a CL. ;O)

 

[ChicKat]

I am currently in the process of making arrangement to rehome a trio of Cream Legbars. They are roughly 6-7 months old and from what I can tell they are correct for cream. Im having a hard time deciding on what they should be priced at, I want to be fair but don't want to undersell as I have put time and effort into them. I was thinking $100. Does that seem too steep, or is it fair?

I also posted this in the other Cream Legbar thread. I keep second guessing myself lol.

Too bad you couldn't auction them - then they would get the highest bid. When you consider that day-old-chick can sell for $60 to $150 for a female, and $30 to $150 for a male -- then $100 is a bargain. You need to find an educated buyer. I did list a pair for 50.00 that were POL.

People don't know the advantages of getting older chickens...but on the other hand...some want to know exactly what they were fed from day 1 and to acclimate the chicks to themselves and their environment. IMO $100 is well worth it....

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Gosh, I feel like I am giving my birds away. I sell my legbars for chicken prices ($5/male, $15/pullet and $10 for hens) just because I get so many. There are a couple other local breeders with them that try to sell them for $30-50/bird but they are so common anymore it seems.

 

[stryker]

Gosh, I feel like I am giving my birds away. I sell my legbars for chicken prices ($5/male, $15/pullet and $10 for hens) just because I get so many. There are a couple other local breeders with them that try to sell them for $30-50/bird but they are so common anymore it seems.

Thats how I got my birds. A guy was selling his day olds at regular chick prices. He hatches tons and sells them in the area.

Too bad you couldn't auction them - then they would get the highest bid. When you consider that day-old-chick can sell for $60 to $150 for a female, and $30 to $150 for a male -- then $100 is a bargain. You need to find an educated buyer. I did list a pair for 50.00 that were POL.

People don't know the advantages of getting older chickens...but on the other hand...some want to know exactly what they were fed from day 1 and to acclimate the chicks to themselves and their environment. IMO $100 is well worth it....

I would agree. The spring livestock auction sale in our area, a regular chickens brings between $25-$40 a head with 3-6 birds in a cage, while the same chicken in the fall auction sale doesn't even bring $5 a head. I am guessing it is the attitude of the buyers or area.

 

[MrsFitzDarcy]

Gosh, I feel like I am giving my birds away. I sell my legbars for chicken prices ($5/male, $15/pullet and $10 for hens) just because I get so many. There are a couple other local breeders with them that try to sell them for $30-50/bird but they are so common anymore it seems.

I wish you lived in Arizona!

 

[ChicKat]

There is a chicken auction down the street from me. I had two Cream Legbar females POL - put them in the auction - they sold for $16 and $17 - while most pullets there were going for $6. Even in my rural area...someone knew that Cream Legbars have more value---but it is a supply/demand curve. As more people know about them and how great they can be, then the demand will go up-- and so will the supply. :O)

ETA - these pullets were not for my breeding program, and I think that their underlying genetics were not quite correct. They are pictured in the thread about alternative SOP. To me they are not quite CL-like.

 

[ChicKat]

Was reading a book called: Exhibition Poultry Keeping by David Scrivener. If you can get your hands on this book it is excellent.

He talks about how various colors and breeds do in shows, and as you can imagine, the solid colors do better for the very top awards than the patterns - because of the inherent difficulty of getting the pattern right.

When he was discussing white ear lobed breeds, he mentions that they may only be good for one showing season. - There is a picture of an Ancona where he says : "The neat white spots, straight comb and good white ear lobes only last for one season on most Anconas, so a fresh show team must be bred annually. " p.23

He also says: "Some breeds can be successfully shown for several years, indeed they do not look their best until they are two years of age. Other breeds may have a normal lifespan, but only a short show career; light breeds with white ear lobes, especially Minorcas, are in this category, and a constant stream of young Minorcas are needed by regular exhibitors" [emphasis is mine].

So of course I had to take a look through the photos and here's an example:


Old guy- darkest spot may even be fowl pox


Young guy -- nice light earlobes........

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

There are some judges that appreciate a good patterened bird. My phoenix bantam hens look amazing, their silhouette compared to the standard is spot on but they always get passed over for the leghorn bantams at shows. I had a judge place one of my phoenix as reserve of show, she told me she finds the solid birds boring and knows the skill it takes to breed a bird with good type AND pattern.
I think legbars are still up in the air as far as show age goes. My pullets look better than my hens but the roosters look better after they are a year old.

 

[KPenley]

There are some judges that appreciate a good patterened bird. My phoenix bantam hens look amazing, their silhouette compared to the standard is spot on but they always get passed over for the leghorn bantams at shows. I had a judge place one of my phoenix as reserve of show, she told me she finds the solid birds boring and knows the skill it takes to breed a bird with good type AND pattern.
I think legbars are still up in the air as far as show age goes. My pullets look better than my hens but the roosters look better after they are a year old.

X2 I know it's just one show, but a Barnie did win Champion Continental at the APA National...so maybe more judges are becoming open to patterned birds!