The Legbar Thread!

[ChicKat]

cones in different sized bottles etc. An old fashioned - cure all

http://www.amazon.com/BND-034923-GO...&qid=1386025798&sr=8-5&keywords=vetrx+poultry

TSC has it among other places. It is good for rubbing on combs, legs/shanks and for 'croup' - It also claims to be one way to rid your chicken of eye-worms should you ever have them. it is like a fragrant oil -- and my chickens like having it on them....

 

[DeltaBluezTess]

VetRX sounds interesting....who has used it and did it work for you? It says it is used for colds? News to me as I didn't think chickens got colds.

also who has used apple cider vinegar and for what?

 

[soldier]

Hi Soldier --

Love your solar humming bird -- bet it is really pretty at night!

Your rooster is really an interesting and unusual version of a Cream Legbar - and the whitest one that I have seen also. So, if you won eggs in the Spring, is your rooster in this picture about 6-months old? Nice yellow legs and beak...Comb looks straight and a bit smaller than most CLs - which would be a good thing, for those of us who prefer a bit smaller comb - The wattles look very delicate and refined no wrinkles, not too long -- but I suspect that comb and wattles may grow larger as your rooster matures. That is also the fullest- fluffiest crest that I have seen on a male. Most males have a very small crest and small is mentioned in the USA SOP - Have you read the newest DRAFT version that the Cream Legbar Club is working on? You can find it on the Club's website - Here is a link to the page:https://sites.google.com/site/thecreamlegbarclub/29-draft-standard-of-perfection-revision-2

As TheTropix said, he appears to have a very short back and that could easily be the camera angle or the fact that he isn't fully grown as yet. In the top picture the hackle and saddle feathers touch -- and a LOT of Cream Legbar males are like that at a certain phase of their growth....

ETA - just spent some time searching the internet and a LOT of roosters have touching hackle and saddle feathers - so I guess that isn't an indicator. -- CL roosters have very thick hackles - I remember summer before last -- I couldn't even get through the hackles to the skin to put dewormer on the skin directly because it was so deep in hackle feathers.... On a side note - we raise registered cattle and increasing the length of the animal is one way to increase weight. The CLs here in the states are lower in weight than the proposed draft of the SOP so people are aware that we need to increase weights of both males and females if those poundages are ever to be met. -- That is one reason I believe you may hear a lot about length of the cockerels in the future.

You will need to post the picture of your female - you have us all curious now....

Your male looks light enough to be a silver legbar -

Do you have any chick pictures to share with us? Some folks really are attracted to the super-light looking CLs - It would be so interesting to see 'baby pictures' of him - and do you recall the color of egg(s) that your chickens hatched from? Some CL eggs are bluer or greener than others. If you plan to breed Cream Legbars - it would be interesting to see what your future generations look like. We feel that the most important CL trait is the autosexing at hatch time - and some CLs have been showing up white (there is even a thread called White Sport Cream Legbars) - they are very pretty birds, like you rooster, but more difficult to autosex. Thanks for posting and show us more pictures....

I wanted to thank everyone for their evaluation of my rooster. When he was a chick he was easy to sex. He looked lighter then most males but not white. I do not think I have any photos of him as a baby chick. I will look. Greenfire Farms sent me 4 Cream Legbar eggs and 2 hatched. The eggs were labeled from 2 different pens. The eggs that hatched were out of two different pens, so I assume lines may be a bit different. The eggs were blue in color and not green. The hen and rooster are about 6 months old. I think they will both fill out much more as they look like gangly teenagers now. I thought the roosters color paralleled the lighter cream legbar hens that Greenfire has on the website. I guess I was wrong.

I also decided to try to add more Cream Legbars to my flock. I did try my hand at purchasing some on Ebay. Disappointing as none hatched. I then purchased some from someone on Backyard chickens, she purchased hers directly from Greenfire farms. Of those eggs 7 hatched. ALL of them females. So now I have one male and 8 females. I plan on breeding them and loved your input. I will post my Greenfire farms pullet so you can see her.

Thanks again for your time

 

[soldier]

Below are photos of the pullet I hatched out from the eggs I won from Greenfire farms. She is approximately 6 months old. I would love evaluations of this pullet. Thanks for letting me share

 

[ChicKat]

VetRX sounds interesting....who has used it and did it work for you? It says it is used for colds? News to me as I didn't think chickens got colds.

also who has used apple cider vinegar and for what?

Apple Cider vinegar is a good thing to add to the drinking water at the rate of 1 to 2 Tbsp per gallon. It helps the chicken maintain a good pH in their digestive system.... good pH can help prevent things like gleet.

For me, I first got VetRx some years ago -- Chickens get a raspy breathing sometimes and I think it is called roup in the olden days. I remember being very scared for the well-being of one of my BPRs and talking on the phone to a Vet at Texas A&M Diagnostic Labs for chickens in Gonzales TX -- (You can imagine a million things wrong with them--Vet seemed to think it wasn't something contagous and the rest of my flock wasn't in danger) -- and this roup as the VetRX box names it is one of the things that the product is good for. The same pullet also had eye-worms - and that is what I had originally purchased VetRX for. Now I kind of just use it as a dressing on the combs and rub on the shanks to prevent dryness and discourage any scaly leg mites. It is a nice - all natural product to have on hand... Maybe there is more info about how people use it on some of the other bYC threads??

 

[ChicKat]

Hey Soldier,

You are a good photographer. With 8 CL hens -- you are going to have quite a lot of variation to make a choice from. Is your pullet in the pictures laying?

Type-wise I think she is very nice - and I like the head and neatness of the crest - straight and upright comb - although other variations are accepted as long as the eyes aren't obscured...thinking here that straight combed females will produce straight combed chicks -

Color-wise -- as I re-read the SOP -- I'm not sure any of us have it down pat.... the dark tips and light spots on her feathers are something that I would breed away from to get more smooth coloration.

Thanks for answering all the 'third-degree' questions ... LOL

 

[normanack]

I figure VetRx works like Vicks -- part comfort, part medicine, part magic. I dripped it in the nostrils of a hen who was coughing last year, and rubbed a little on her skin. (She recovered. No one else caught it. No idea what she had.)

 

[GaryDean26]

Below are photos of the pullet I hatched out from the eggs I won from Greenfire farms. She is approximately 6 months old. I would love evaluations of this pullet. Thanks for letting me share

Very nice pullet. I would be very happy with that hatch.

I culled for the black tips on the hens my first year, but stopped when I was learned that my cockerels require black melonizers on their shoulders and saddles to fit the standard. I figured I better breed a few of the hens with the black tipped feathers to see if it helped with the definition of the cockerels, before I breed it completely our of my stock. So... we are all still learning how to breed correct cream Legbars.

The wings are horizontal and well tucked up which should offset the cockerel nicely. The comb is very nice. Not too big or bushy. It will be interesting to see how the offspring turn out since the Cockerel has such a big crazy crest. The standard is for a Cream Colored Crest, but most of the pullets I see have this dark grey crest color.

The hen also looks like she may be a little weak in the Brest. She also needs a well rounded breast that extends past the beak. This area many be difficult to improve.

The fan of the Tail looks better than most I have seen. It looks like about a 5 feather fan and I a see some with only a one feather fan. The tail need to open more in the back to where the tail looks like a tent from the back.

The Lobes are nice and white on this pullet which hopefull will counter the yellow lobes of your cockerel.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Very nice pullet. I would be very happy with that hatch.

I culled for the black tips on the hens my first year, but stopped when I was learned that my cockerels require black melonizers on their shoulders and saddles to fit the standard. I figured I better breed a few of the hens with the black tipped feathers to see if it helped with the definition of the cockerels, before I breed it completely our of my stock. So... we are all still learning how to breed correct cream Legbars.

The wings are horizontal and well tucked up which should offset the cockerel nicely. The comb is very nice. Not too big or bushy. It will be interesting to see how the offspring turn out since the Cockerel has such a big crazy crest. The standard is for a Cream Colored Crest, but most of the pullets I see have this dark grey crest color.

The hen also looks like she may be a little weak in the Brest. She also needs a well rounded breast that extends past the beak. This area many be difficult to improve.

The fan of the Tail looks better than most I have seen. It looks like about a 5 feather fan and I a see some with only a one feather fan. The tail need to open more in the back to where the tail looks like a tent from the back.

The Lobes are nice and white on this pullet which hopefull will counter the yellow lobes of your cockerel.

Curtis,

You make many points with the aforementioned evaluation. I guess that I am finding myself somewhat confused by what appears to be the character of "later" GF stock and progeny. It is clear that the colors of the females have changed. I have a female that was hatched by a breeder in NC on September 18 and a female that I hatched from one of her eggs on October 12. Both of these young pullets (not pictured) are looking like Soldier's pullets. This includes the nearly black crest and the black tips in the breast area. So ... lets compare photos.

Soldier's Pullet

My Pullet from an April 7 Hatch







Jill Rees' "Lillian", the award winning UK CCL

So when we place the pictures "side-by-side", what have we learned? Soldier's pullet is a beautiful bird and my two "dark ones" will be very similar, if not even darker. Yet this taking all of the above photos into consideration, how can we be so sure in our views of what the "correct color" is for what we are trying to achieve. At this point, I am almost at a loss in trying to decide what direction the breeding should go.

When one looks at the colors in the above photos, what is the correct color that should be documented in the SOP? With all the information that I had acquired as well as foundation stock, I thought that I had a decent handle on what I was trying to breed and develop. Even the colors of Jill Rees' birds are in line with my earlier conceptions. However, with the advent of this darker version of CCL pullets, I am starting to question just what our friends in the UK may have bred into cream legbars for which we are totally unaware. The occasional production of a white sport CCL is one in which I can accept and manage. These very dark CCL pullets are another story.

I would certainly like to hear others views on this!

 

[DMRippy]

I am new to this breed and have been lurking but on her website in the gallery of her birds she has both dark med and light pullets/hens in her pens. If she is the premier breeder in the UK she must have a reason for keeping them in all colors and variations. Why does she not have pics of her roos?????