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I would not cull a good female with what some are terming the wickle comb. If a herniated skull is the issue it is a recessive gene and a male with a straight comb will dominate and produce good offspring. After time you can try to eliminate the gene - single pairing test breeding could work here. Plus there is no guarantee that any straight comb female you replace them with does not carry the same recessive gene. If you are culling females that have comb issues without know if its a skull or crest issue that makes no sense to me.
It has not been proven that the crest or the herniated skull is the issue here. I think a lot more work concentrated in this area needs to be done. The comb flopping can also be caused by environmental issues like the weather, humidity or other issues within the coop or environment. The comb is a fault not a disqualifying issue and I have been advised (and also believe) while it is preferable to have a straight comb the breed has other type issues that need more work. The crest may be the issue for the curl.
I have females with s curls and when I hatch uncrested birds the combs are usually straight and right now I have quite a few males growing out with some nice looking combs. The herniated skull and the crest are not synonymous from what I gather - not all crested birds will carry the gene and there are many un-crested males out there with the floppy combs.
The combs on my roosters are much more twisted in the winter than the warmer months so you can have perfect combs in Florida and someone buys the eggs in the Northeast and ends up with some floppy combs because the genes have not been tested. My combs on my roosters now don't look as bad as they will in January. I think if folks are culling for combs that are not severely distorted they may be doing their flocks a disservice.
This is the response I got from Tim Adkerson, who knows his chicken genetics, when I asked him about this last year when I was making decisions on what roosters to cull. I have 2 boys left. One has a s curl up front but the back is not as distorted - its more like a slight wave. The other, who I prefer all around for barring and size, has a good front with no wickle but a bent back end. Whether its the skull or the crest is still a puzzle to me and to folks who know genes so I suggest to anyone to test your own flock in regards to the comb as I think it will be a good time before this is worked out. If you are outsourcing you cannot guarantee that any bird you get with a straight comb will not throw crooked combs as know one can look at the bird and say it does not have a recessive gene within. It is a good start but will still need a lot of work going forward. If you have a good overall rooster but the comb is a bit of an issue I'd see how he works with your flock first before tossing him or your girls for something else that may have other issues... and we all have other issues.
Pullets can have floppy combs it is allowed in the SOP and will probably happen to most just as it does overseas, same with the males. I'd be more concerned with size, barring and other issues while looking out for better combs. I would not cull an overall excellent type bird due to comb at this point - male or female.
Maria,
It has been my experience that birds that have a crest/cerebral hernia and a single comb will have crooked combs because of the crest/crebral hernia. The crest or the cerebral hernia associated with the crest is causing the strange shape in the comb. I never have produced a single combed bird that had a crest where the comb was not pushed forward and crooked on the anterior end.
II do not know if it is the crest or the cerebral hernia that is causing the comb to be pushed forward and wrinkled. My best guess is that it is the cerebral hernia that is the biggest problem.
The crest gene is incompletely dominant so one gene will produce a crest but smaller than a bird that has two crest genes. If you have birds with the small crests they only carry one crest gene.
The herniated skull gene is recessive. It is possible that some legbar do not carry the gene that causes the cerebral hernia. If this is the case, any bids that do not have a herniated skull could produce better combs.
If the herniated skull is causing the problem- if you cross a male ( crooked comb) to a female with a straight comb- most or all of the offspring should have good combs. The offspring will be carriers of the herniated gene, You will not know if the offspring carry a gene or do not carry a gene. Recessive genes are not expressed unless the bird inherits two of the genes. If you cross two birds that carry one gene, then about one in four of the offspring will have herniated skulls ( cerebral hernias)..
If the crest can cause some crookedness in a comb, then birds that have smaller crests would be your best bet. If you cross a non crested bird with a crested bird, all of the offspring that have a crest would only carry one crested gene and would have smaller crests.
If you cross two birds with small crests ( they both carry one crest gene), then some of the offspring will not have crests, some will have crests like the parent and some will have larger crests.
Tim
could anyone help me out with this male legbar..This is the first one I've ever had. So I don't know anything about breed standards on them. Is he good enough to use in a breeding program? A friend sent me 2 eggs to hatch and he's what I got,she wanted me to see if I liked them..now I need to find some girls for him. He's 5 months old.
Your boy may be single cream so with the right cream hens he will throw some good offspring for color. His tail lacks any white feathering which is good as that is a frequent problem - I have that in my flock. His comb seems to have a slight wave but not too bad so far. He is young but seems to be a nice size so far but hard to really tell in a photo. I am not sure on his shank color - they are yellow but they look pale in this photo. His earlobes appear nice and white. I cannot judge his barring.
