The Legbar Thread!

[flyingmonkeypoop]

So it looks like I got 2 of each as far as gender goes. One of the cockerels is very light colored and the other is more 'normal' looking. All 4 are rose combed! These chicks will be bred back to some pure cream legbars this fall to improve them further. I will also be hatching some pure cream legbars next week as well so I am pretty happy about that. One of the new pullets I got a couple months back just started laying and she has some very olive eggs. Without the blue, her eggs would be darker than my hatchery stock marans and wyandottes. They are pretty, I just don't know if I want to keep her since I prefer the nice clear blue egg from legbars instead of green. The friend that I got them from purchased chicks from a BYC member that normally has good reports but as we all know, the birds can be unstable still as far as things like this go

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Yay for progress!

 

[1muttsfan]

Too bad about the olive eggs - I think that one of the most disturbing things when I received shipped eggs was the number that were green instead of blue, a big fault in my opinion as egg color is one of the most striking things about these birds. I have not kept any chicks that hatched out of green eggs for breeding purposes.

Great about the Rose Combs, would love to see pictures as they develop

 

[dretd]

Flyingmonkeypoop: congrats on your Rosecomb project, sounds like it is coming along really well! I think your post is the first I have read that reported olive green eggs, how interesting.

Muttsfan1: I was wondering what color of green you had that you didn't like? What color are you going for or have in your flock? The breed standard calls for blue, green or olive green, but I have found when describing colors what is teal to one person might be turquoise to another or sage green to another. I got the OAC so I could see what others are describing. It seems like a lot of folks are listing OAC 123 ( which to my eye is more sea foam green) and OAC 151 which has more blue but still on the green side and I think I have seen others listed maybe 179 and 214 if memory serves.

 

[1muttsfan]

Even though the standard sited about lists all the above colors, I think it would be best to stick with blue - shade-wise, some of the eggs I got were clearly green. If we are going to promote them as blue egg layers, then we should avoid using green-laying birds for breeders. My first batch of eggs were a beautiful clear blue, which maybe gave me more of a taste for them. I disagree with colors other than blue being included in the standard.

I do have a picture, but for some reason can't access my computer pics through the upload. Will try again later.

 

[SusanRenee]

Well I already know now that the rooster and at least one hen are recessive carriers. This white is a female. I will have to wait for a white male so I can grow him out and then start test breeding all my females. I don't really want the gene because with recessive genes the more you breed with it the more it spreads around and you don't even know it.

I know madamwlf hatches out quite a few white ones, and she usually has a listing up for eggs.

 

[yoie]

My hen is finally laying! I am so glad that she is finally giving me some eggs, but a little disapointed about the color. She hatched out of a nice blue egg, but hers are more green then I was expecting. Here is a pic of two of her eggs I gathered today (got lucky today!), along side silkie and TetraTint eggs. Now I am happy about the size, The TetraTint eggs are usually XLarge/Jumbo size, so she is already giving me a large size egg and has only been laying since Easter. I also have some of madamwlf's eggs in the incubator set to hatch out next Monday. Six out of seven eggs are developing nicely so I can't wait. And I have four Legbar x TetraTint mixes set to hatch out Wednesday, so the rooster is doing his job!

 

[GaryDean26]

just curious what makes you think he is s+/s+ ig/ig?

Well, I am looking at a lot more than color...

From color alone all I can say is that this one is either a really poor silver or else a really good cream. The cream being a weaker dilutor than the silver would explain the hint of yellow on the saddles and hint of chestnut on the hackles showing through on the shoulders. If this is a silver, then the bird was not finished off well because it is not as white and clean looking as the silver crele duckwings I have been seeing.

Knowing origin is in the UK tells a lot too. The birds in the UK general do not have the correct Cream color (predominantly gold there too). I also have seen a lot of wrong type and poor angles on the majority of birds in the UK. This cockerel on the other hand looks to have a very good crest/comb balance which doesn't happen by accident, good type and great angles which also don't happen on accident. So...I can't say this is a poorly finished silver bird because anyone that was careful enough to get the other things right on this bird would have been able to get a good silver color too, so my guess was that it had to be Cream.

 

[nicalandia]

Well, I am looking at a lot more than color...

From color alone all I can say is that this one is either a really poor silver or else a really good cream. The cream being a weaker dilutor than the silver would explain the hint of yellow on the saddles and hint of chestnut on the hackles showing through on the shoulders. If this is a silver, then the bird was not finished off well because it is not as white and clean looking as the silver crele duckwings I have been seeing.

Knowing origin is in the UK tells a lot too. The birds in the UK general do not have the correct Cream color (predominantly gold there too). I also have seen a lot of wrong type and poor angles on the majority of birds in the UK. This cockerel on the other hand looks to have a very good crest/comb balance which doesn't happen by accident, good type and great angles which also don't happen on accident. So...I can't say this is a poorly finished silver bird because anyone that was careful enough to get the other things right on this bird would have been able to get a good silver color too, so my guess was that it had to be Cream.

Oh thanks, thats a very keen eye you have there... and I posted the results in the page before this one I beleive. he is infact cream

 

[GaryDean26]

Well...I had a 50% chance anyways. I enjoyed the game. It was a fun test of how much we are learning.