The Legbar Thread!

[cluckcluckluke]

Quote:
Sorry, good as in the same reputation. I understand that they are not as popular as the Cream's nor have the same features. I was just wondering if there where any other features/ behaviors about them that differed from the Cream Legbars.

 

[ChicKat]

Sorry, good as in the same reputation. I understand that they are not as popular as the Cream's nor have the same features. I was just wondering if there where any other features/ behaviors about them that differed from the Cream Legbars.

Hi cluckcluckluke--

Are you in Australia? I have been following the Australian Legbars from a distance (no pun intended) - There are some beautiful silver and gold legbars in Oz - and I know that there was interest in the cream gene. Here are some links that may give you some insight, and may lead you to some Aussies that you could check with:

Silver Legbars here:
http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7967614

This one is Welbars -
http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7960029&start=15

The person named 'Nick' may have a ton of information and insight. good luck with it...and think about checking back and letting us know the status of Cream Legbars in Aust.

(I lived near Brisbane when I was a kid and my father was working on his PhD at the University of Queensland.)

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Quote:
Yes I am in Australia. I have heard that there are some attempts to make them/ bring them in over here but I have yet to find anyone. Thanks for the link I will check them out and do some research and get back to you.
I have found one breeder with Golden Legbars that she said her lines are from the UK.

Thanks, Lucas

.

 

[chicken pickin]

Thanks everyone. I will let you all know how her eggs look after she has laid a few more. Im just really hoping I don't have this huge set back.

Quoted myself so I can update you all. Egg is still the same a pinkish brown.



Here is something I copied and pasted from the Cream Legbar hybrid

Quote:
Originally Posted by nicalandia [View Post]

your CL must have been only heterozygous for the blue egg shell gene, where did you get him from?

He hatched from blue CL hatching eggs that I got from a local source that got their stock direct from GFF.

I was thinking that maybe it wasn't her egg after all and maybe it was my Olive Egger that laid it. But the pinkish brown egg is very similar to the cochin eggs these pullets hatched from. So it must be from the CLxSLW.

I did get a green egg yesterday but its shape resembles the OE and EE eggs that I get. So it must be from the Olive Egger pullet.


Now thinking about how some peoples CL pullets lay green eggs and even in the UK green eggs is an accepted part of the SOP most likely because grren eggs are as common as blue in their CLs. Im wondering if this could be a defect in the CL breed that hasn't been picked up on yet. I wondering how many other CLs only carry one blue egg gene. Or maybe I just got REALLY unlucky.



Thoughts?

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I have a CCL pullet laying tinted eggs and a Roo that sires white eggs in crosses.... they are not related to each other either. TOTALLY different breeders.

 

[GaryDean26]

Im wondering if this could be a defect in the CL breed that hasn't been picked up on yet. I wondering how many other CLs only carry one blue egg gene. Or maybe I just got REALLY unlucky.



Thoughts?

This HAS already been pick up on by some. I know of two people that picked on this in 2013.

We already knew that the cresting wasn't fixed and that the Cream Plumage wasn't fixes, so it wasn't too much of a surprised that there was stock only carrying one copy of the blue eggs gene.

The only way I know to test for the blue eggs gene is to do what DMRippy is doing and that is cross the stock to other breeds as a test mate. Olive egger are popular so if you have a dark egg breed you can put a dark egg hen in the breeding pen with the Cream Legbars and if any of them start laying brown eggs rather than olive eggs you will know your boy is only carrying one blue egg gene and can switch him out for another cockerel. The "Super Blue Egg Layers" and Sapphires are popular too, so if you have a Commercial White Leghorn you can do the same thing with and add those hens to the Cream Legbar Breeding pen. If the offspring lays white eggs then likewise you can swop out the cockerel knowing that he isn't Homozygous for the Blue Egg gene.

I have a CCL pullet laying tinted eggs and a Roo that sires white eggs in crosses.... they are not related to each other either. TOTALLY different breeders.

DMRippy,

What is the egg color like on the crossed hens that ARE laying blue eggs. I have heard that the White Leghorns with the "white egg" gene that blocks brown egg pigments also can block the blue coloring creating very pale eggs. I also have heard that hens that only have one blue egg gene as opposed to two blue egg genes lay less saturated eggs. I don't know if either of these theories are true, but if they are true, then could culling hens based on egg color be an effective way to ensure that the hens are carriers of two Blue Egg Genes? If you don't have to test mate the hens, then you are just down to test mating the flock sire and can fix blue egg genes relatively quickly.

 

[Laingcroft]

The only way I know to test for the blue eggs gene is to do what DMRippy is doing and that is cross the stock to other breeds as a test mate. Olive egger are popular so if you have a dark egg breed you can put a dark egg hen in the breeding pen with the Cream Legbars and if any of them start laying brown eggs rather than olive eggs you will know your boy is only carrying one blue egg gene and can switch him out for another cockerel.

X2 --- except I think you meant the offspring of the cross laying anything other than olive eggs. The hens bred to the CL cock will still lay brown eggs.

If you like your heterozygous cock, switching him out isn't necessary, you can concentrate the blue gene by culling any of his offspring with a homozygous hen that don't produce blue eggs (in the case of female offspring) or produce the next generation laying blue eggs in the case of males. Statistically, crossing the heterozygous male to homozygous female gives you only 25% offspring that aren't homozygous for blue egg.

 

[cjwaldon]

. . . I also have heard that hens that only have one blue egg gene as opposed to two blue egg genes lay less saturated eggs. 

I don't know about that. My CLB x NJ hens, therefor known to cary only one copy of the blue egg gene, produced eggs that were indestinguishable from my CLB eggs. If there were a way to tell the 2-gene CLB eggs from the 1-gene CLBxNJ eggs, I never picked up just what it was.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I don't know about that. My CLB x NJ hens, therefor known to cary only one copy of the blue egg gene, produced eggs that were indestinguishable from my CLB eggs. If there were a way to tell the 2-gene CLB eggs from the 1-gene CLBxNJ eggs, I never picked up just what it was.

Usually with completely dominant genes you can't tell the difference between one gene and two. Incompletely dominant genes, like the CL cresting gene, you can tell one copy from two copies. My understanding is that the blue egg gene is completely dominant. I have not done enough cross breeding and growing to say by experience though.

 

[Laingcroft]

Usually with completely dominant genes you can't tell the difference between one gene and two. Incompletely dominant genes, like the CL cresting gene, you can tell one copy from two copies. My understanding is that the blue egg gene is completely dominant. I have not done enough cross breeding and growing to say by experience though.

Then how do we end up with olive eggers? My CLB rooster crossed with Marans produced all OE layer pullets. Perhaps it is the intensity of the brown that counts? Would be interesting to explore this in more detail.