The Legbar Thread!

[Finnie]

And yes, I agree. Someone who sells purebred chicks should go to the trouble to make sure they are selling what they say they are.

 

[Frenchcuffs13]

OK- silly newbie question! After much searching and looking at info.....Are Legbar hens supposed to have a peacomb or a fuller comb?

 

[rebrascora]

Hi

Legbars are supposed to have a single comb that flops similar to a leghorn but not as big and floppy.... at least mine do and they come from different sources, so I assume that is correct for them, here in the UK anyway. I know traits sometimes differ between here and other countries though, like Marans have clean legs here and have feathered shanks most other places.

 

[Frenchcuffs13]

Hi

Legbars are supposed to have a single comb that flops similar to a leghorn but not as big and floppy.... at least mine do and they come from different sources, so I assume that is correct for them, here in the UK anyway. I know traits sometimes differ between here and other countries though, like Marans have clean legs here and have feathered shanks most other places.

I think you're probably right. Perhaps the pics of peacombs are only pullets? Thanks!

 

[chicken pickin]

Cream Legbar both male and female are to have single combs. Males are to have large straight and upright/fully erect combs, meaning no flopping or curves or twists in the back. Females are to have large single combs also, either upright or gracefully dropping to one side without covering the eye.

The SOP calls for very similar here and in the UK.

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks for the question (and answers) about combs...gives me a chance to refocus - and I'm evaluating some juveniles today...

Here is the wording from the SOP:

SHAPE -- MALE​

Comb: Single; large, fine in texture, straight and upright, deeply and evenly serrated with six distinct points, extending well over the back of the head and following, without touching, the line of the head, free from side sprigs, thumb-marks or twists.

SHAPE -- FEMALE​

Comb: Single; large, fine in texture, erect or first point to stand erect and the remainder of the comb dropping gracefully to the side without obscuring the eyes, deeply and evenly serrated having six distinct points.


I'm wondering how small I can select for combs -- and still be inside the parameters of the SOP -- Aesthetically I prefer smaller combs on chickens - and of course the crest and the comb battle for space on the top of the head of the male. ---


ETA - Cream Legbars don't have a domed skull...It seems that most crested breeds do have that skull dome. For members of the Cream Legbar Club - Curtis Hale wrote an article with a cross-section view of a normal skull and a domed skull. -- I have some skulls here
"alas, poor Yorick, I knew him...".

Oh sorry, I digress.... the newsletter issue is in the Club's Clubhouse Third Quarter 2014 - so it would be V2 No 3 in the publications.

 

[chicken pickin]

Thanks for the question (and answers) about combs...gives me a chance to refocus - and I'm evaluating some juveniles today...

Here is the wording from the SOP:

SHAPE -- MALE​

Comb: Single; large, fine in texture, straight and upright, deeply and evenly serrated with six distinct points, extending well over the back of the head and following, without touching, the line of the head, free from side sprigs, thumb-marks or twists.

SHAPE -- FEMALE​

Comb: Single; large, fine in texture, erect or first point to stand erect and the remainder of the comb dropping gracefully to the side without obscuring the eyes, deeply and evenly serrated having six distinct points.


I'm wondering how small I can select for combs -- and still be inside the parameters of the SOP -- Aesthetically I prefer smaller combs on chickens - and of course the crest and the comb battle for space on the top of the head of the male. ---

Its funny you mention about how small we can go and still be "correct" with the SOP. I had the same thought as I was typing LARGE above, and was like hmmm Id like to select for smaller and didn't know how small is acceptable.

 

[ChicKat]

Its funny you mention about how small we can go and still be "correct" with the SOP. I had the same thought as I was typing LARGE above, and was like hmmm Id like to select for smaller and didn't know how small is acceptable.

Brings to mind that old saying '' great minds think alike"....

I have a cockerel that has his crest split on either side of his comb. Or mostly split. Some feathers are sstill directly behind. I will try to get a picture before long --- he doesn't have that interference. Looks really cool IMO. Actually - I think he is a year old now. Some of the eggs I'm sending out are his offspring. I wonder if that trait will pass to offspring. -- I have some eggs from him due in about 10-days. That would 'solve' the problem -- but all my CLs seem to wrinkle right on the top of the beak. I'm guessing the smaller the better that can still be considered Large. AND I was reading my trusty dusty SOP - and it was saying something like the small, medium and large designations are in proportion to the entire bird -- Or maybe it was something else I was reading-- gotta go look it up now.

 

[Junibutt]

Its funny you mention about how small we can go and still be "correct" with the SOP. I had the same thought as I was typing LARGE above, and was like hmmm Id like to select for smaller and didn't know how small is acceptable.

Brings to mind that old saying '' great minds think alike"....

I have a cockerel that has his crest split on either side of his comb. Or mostly split. Some feathers are sstill directly behind. I will try to get a picture before long --- he doesn't have that interference. Looks really cool IMO. Actually - I think he is a year old now. Some of the eggs I'm sending out are his offspring. I wonder if that trait will pass to offspring. -- I have some eggs from him due in about 10-days. That would 'solve' the problem -- but all my CLs seem to wrinkle right on the top of the beak. I'm guessing the smaller the better that can still be considered Large. AND I was reading my trusty dusty SOP - and it was saying something like the small, medium and large designations are in proportion to the entire bird -- Or maybe it was something else I was reading-- gotta go look it up now.

I have a female whose comb is only 1 inch and very straight. She is also tad towards the smaller side, I haven't weighed her in a while, but last time I weighed her at 19 weeks she was 3.2 lbs. I highly doubt she is more than 5 lbs now at 8 months.

 

[ochochicas]

I'm with you on wanting smaller combs. The floppy combs on the hens makes them look silly. I crossed my CCL with an ameraucana hen so the chicks have blue eggs but hopefully smaller combs. I told DH I'd sell all of them, but somehow I "accidentally" kept a handful that looked like they might be pullets. Sexing the pea combs is much harder than the straight combs when they are young.

Another plus to the Ameraucana eggs is that the shells have a nicer texture than my legbar eggs.