The Legbar Thread!

[GaryDean26]

Is anyone else seeing pink spots on their Cream Legbar eggs?

My Ladies are just coming off their first moult and laying darker eggs with pink splatters on them that looks like toothpaste stuck to the outside of the shell.

I only saved two blown eggs from before the moult. Both of them were pale blue eggs without any pink spots.

I finally got a photo of my one of my pink spotted eggs. The pink turns a purpleish color after a few days which didn't photograph well, but you can see the big spots. Some had smaller spots with greater frequency, but the larger spots showed up better on film.

Note: This is a 70 gram Cream Legbar egg. Her last 10 eggs have all been over 70 grams. That is a White Leghorn Egg on the Left and Black Copper Marans egg on the Right. Both of which are from hens a year older than the Cream Legbar.

 

[ChicKat]

I finally got a photo of my one of my pink spotted eggs. The pink turns a purpleish color after a few days which didn't photograph well, but you can see the big spots. Some had smaller spots with greater frequency, but the larger spots showed up better on film.

Note: This is a 70 gram Cream Legbar egg. Her last 10 eggs have all been over 70 grams. That is a White Leghorn Egg on the Left and Black Copper Marans egg on the Right. Both of which are from hens a year older than the Cream Legbar.

Thanks for the photo---let's hear it for the Cream Legbar!!!

Amazing decorated eggs right from the chicken.

 

[ChicKat]

Found my head rooster dead today when I got home (Cream Legbar)....killed by our family dog. Found a dead guinea the end of last week and could not figure out what happened. I was in the coop Saturday and he snuck in past me and killed a 6 week old blue English Orpington and I caught him and now this. We only let them free range in the afternoon when we are home.....no more.

chickchickapea,
so sorry to hear the sad news.

You may want to check out this site
http://canterlc.com/StopChickenKillerDogs/site/pages/home/

When I first had chickens I was so worried about the dogs and the chickens. If you click on my page down by my signature, you can see a picture of our two dogs with chickens. I think that the excitable factor is one thing that gets dogs after chickens... Dogs can truly be trained not to attack chickens even if they have in the past IMO.

 

[GaryDean26]

I wonder how much effort has been made to keep egg laying as an important selection trait - as opposed to just looks

I know the Legbars of Broadway have a flock of 200 pure Cream Legbars that they use to create their Old Cotswold Legbar hybrids. The photos of their Cream Legbar show lots of gold plumage (but lots of cream too) twisted combs (good combs too), and other things that are insignificant in production, but big deals in show birds. My thoughts are that you can really only focus on one thing at a time in any breeding. If you are breeding for fancy point (show birds) then your production is going to drop. Like wise if you are breeding for production, your sow qualities are going to drop. So...it doen't take much effort to determine which lines are breed for what.

Wondering how the broodiness fits the eggs per year equation, -- Ideally have some other hen raise the chicks? Hope that she only goes broody once per year or twice? -- (and that would cut her egg average down to 180 as being good; and 200 as being outstanding...right? )
I guess I would almost rather have fewer eggs per year...and a hen that will raise chicks for me. Here is where everyone will choose their own preferences for their flock --

Yep, another example of how what you select for effect what you get in your line. If you cull broody hens you will get higher production. If you breed for a self sufficient breed, then you trade off less egg for hens that raise the young and teach them how to forage.
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I just finished the first year laying chart on one of our Marans. She went broody on us at least 4 times, and one time we let her sit on eggs. I was surprised that she came in with 182 eggs for the years. I noticed that when she wasn't thinking about going broody she would lay for 2-3 days in a row then take 1-2 days off, but when she was getting ready to go broody she would lay an average of 10 days in a row with out any days off (then sit on the nest and we would have to break her which would mean no eggs for 2-3 weeks). So...the months she went broody weren't too much lower production than the months she didn't go broody. Still 182 egg is not that good compared to the 317 eggs from one of our White Leghorn.

 

[chichichickapea]

chickchickapea,
so sorry to hear the sad news.

You may want to check out this site
http://canterlc.com/StopChickenKillerDogs/site/pages/home/

When I first had chickens I was so worried about the dogs and the chickens. If you click on my page down by my signature, you can see a picture of our two dogs with chickens. I think that the excitable factor is one thing that gets dogs after chickens... Dogs can truly be trained not to attack chickens even if they have in the past IMO.

thank you, will definetly check it out.

 

[redchicken9]

GaryDean26, nice overview summary! I built nesting boxes months ago with drop down doors to be able to determine which eggs came from which hens. Spent a few weeks, getting the hens adjusted, then ended up jimmying the doors from coming down. I just wasn't checking on them regular, so didn't want them trapped for hours. Now eggs are rare in coming. I think Spring will be good time for me to do this, maybe the month of March or April, but I doubt I'll have the fortitude to collect data for a year! Way to go!

 

[GaryDean26]

I didn't have to trap nest this year because the 12 laying hens all gave distinctly different eggs (color, size, shape, texure).

Before I discovered the BYC, I had spare time for other things and was trying to figure out how to rig roll out nesting boxes with RFID so that I could identify what hen was in the laying box at the time each egg was layed. My lack of any type of know how with regards to RFID impeded me from finishing this project (If any one with the know how wants to sell me some RFID nesting boxes let me know). I know some people use web cams to see who is laying, but my ability to set up a web cam is about as limited as my RFID ability. I pretty much stick to things with out electrical components or computor programing requirements.

Here is a sample egg chart. they are pretty easy to fill out as long as you know which hen the egg is from.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Says the chicken genetics genius....

 

[blackbirds13]

I will not be posting on BYC anymore. Today i got home and Macbeth, my legbar rooster is missing. This was a two legged predator as he is the only bird missing and there is no way out of the pen. It is someone local and who knows me from BYC because they knew to look for a crocked toe rooster. It has been fun but this makes me very uncomfortable. I posted those pictures 2 days ago and it worries me that someone would do such a thing and violate my personal life and space in this way. Good luck to all with their chicken endeavors but this really disgusts me and worries me that I have left myself open to such a thing and invited someone into my life with smiles that was a thief. Hopefully Karma bites them on the behind. I will definitely be changing how I operate from here on in.

Well went back out now that I am a little less frazzled and realized it was not Macbeth missing (Whew) but 2 others so at least I can rest my mind on that but will probably post less and no pictures for awhile. I'm hoping it's just someone playing tricks on me since I am so paranoid and was boasting so much about finally selling off some birds these last weeks. This sucks!

 

[KPenley]

I will not be posting on BYC anymore. Today i got home and Macbeth, my legbar rooster is missing. This was a two legged predator as he is the only bird missing and there is no way out of the pen. It is someone local and who knows me from BYC because they knew to look for a crocked toe rooster. It has been fun but this makes me very uncomfortable. I posted those pictures 2 days ago and it worries me that someone would do such a thing and violate my personal life and space in this way. Good luck to all with their chicken endeavors but this really disgusts me and worries me that I have left myself open to such a thing and invited someone into my life with smiles that was a thief. Hopefully Karma bites them on the behind. I will definitely be changing how I operate from here on in.

Well went back out now that I am a little less frazzled and realized it was not Macbeth missing (Whew) but 2 others so at least I can rest my mind on that but will probably post less and no pictures for awhile. I'm hoping it's just someone playing tricks on me since I am so paranoid and was boasting so much about finally selling off some birds these last weeks. This sucks!

That so so awful! Have the missing two been returned yet? Please keep in touch with the club, and if we don't see you around BYC I look forward to perhaps meeting you in person at the big show in a few years. *hugs*