The Legbar Thread!

[1muttsfan]

As others have said, egg color will lighten as the hens lay and use their stored pigments up. Selecting for the brightest color eggs in hens that have been laying for a while can cause you to select for the poorest layers, as, since they lay fewer eggs, their eggs maintain a more saturated color. This has unfortunately happed in some cases with Marans, leading to lines with hens that lay fewer eggs. Egg color is best determined in birds just as they start laying, and should not be expected to stay as dark as time goes on.

 

[GaryDean26]

1muttsfan, did we talk with each other about Marans eggs previously? That has been my theory on the Marans egg, that selecting dark eggs tends to favor the low producers. You are the first person (other than myself) to have come out and said that though. It seems a taboo among the Marans breeders to suggest that the practice of putting 8 hens in a pen together and then selecting the darkest eggs to hatch without trying to figure out which hen is laying what egg might be achieving darker egg color by reducing the number of egg the hens are laying. I am still trying to wrap my head around who selecting for slacker hens could be considered an improvement to the line. I know, I know, quality over quantity.

In the Marans I like to wait until the 2nd laying season to see the egg color. My hens all come in at about a #6 with their first few pullet eggs so choose one pullet from another is like splitting hair. I see a bigger variation in color at the beginning of the 2nd laying season. I also see some hens that hold the color for a longer time that other hens that are laying the same number of eggs over a given time. I may never figure out all this egg color selection. For the time being I have put egg color on the back burner for the CLB's, but will come back to it once some of the other items on my breeding list are to where I want them.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Thanks for the thoughts... I, too see quality over quantity getting a bit extreme with the marans.

 

[1muttsfan]

Guess we can't fix everything in one or two generations!

 

[Flaming Chicken]

I gave a friend 15 eggs to hatch. 8 hatched, 1quit, 6 weren't fertile . Of the eight that hatched he thinks 7 are boys and 1 is a pullet. The curse of boys continues.

 

[soldier]

I thought I would post some photos of my two Cream Legbar chicks. I won a dozen eggs from Greenfire Farms earlier this spring when I entered a photo contest. They shipped 18 eggs, several different breeds. These are the Cream Legbars that I had hatch. I was so lucky to get a male and female. Later I purchased some Cream Legbar eggs from Ebay and they did not hatch. I since have purchased more from a different seller on Backyard chickens. They should hatch any day now. I just LOVE these chicks!!!!

I just wanted to share my excitement!

 

[FridayYet]

They are so cute!

 

[Flaming Chicken]

I thought I would post some photos of my two Cream Legbar chicks. I won a dozen eggs from Greenfire Farms earlier this spring when I entered a photo contest. They shipped 18 eggs, several different breeds. These are the Cream Legbars that I had hatch. I was so lucky to get a male and female. Later I purchased some Cream Legbar eggs from Ebay and they did not hatch. I since have purchased more from a different seller on Backyard chickens. They should hatch any day now. I just LOVE these chicks!!!! I just wanted to share my excitement!

They are cute! Great pictures too. Looks like they are sitting on a bike?

 

[soldier]

They are cute! Great pictures too. Looks like they are sitting on a bike?

Oh thanks, they are actually sitting on the handle bars of a 4 wheeler.

 

[miohippus]

I thought I would post some photos of my two Cream Legbar chicks. I won a dozen eggs from Greenfire Farms earlier this spring when I entered a photo contest. They shipped 18 eggs, several different breeds. These are the Cream Legbars that I had hatch. I was so lucky to get a male and female. Later I purchased some Cream Legbar eggs from Ebay and they did not hatch. I since have purchased more from a different seller on Backyard chickens. They should hatch any day now. I just LOVE these chicks!!!!

I just wanted to share my excitement!

aww.. they are adorable