The Legbar Thread!

[enola]

What did you do?  Did you keep trying, or move on to a different breed?

I already hatch a few different breeds, so while it is disappointing, i am looking for another rooster and will try to hatch from 3 hens this year.

 

[enola]

Thanks, for the vitamin D info. So, how do I make sure my hens are getting enough vitamin D?

 

[KPenley]

I'm not sure. But two ways to add it into their diet are non iron baby vitamin drops to water, or calf manna with their feed.

 

[glendor787]

Nice pictures! I got a pair from my petchicken! I love the baby blue eggs! I'm planning to breed them this spring!!

 

[A6chickenhome]

Earlier I posted about low hatching rates in my legbars.  I've been cracking open a lot of egg lately to examine the yolks.  My non-legbar egg yolks are thick and heavy.  You can handle them quite a bit and they keep their shape.  The legbar eggs are runny and not at all stable. Most of them break with very little effort.  Most of the time I can't even find the bullseye on them and they are already running all over the plate.

Do you think the egg yolk consistency has anything to do with the hatch rate?  Several people have incubated eggs for me and the hatch rate has been 0 - 20%.  The legbars are housed with all my other birds and are on the same diet.  My non-legbar eggs have a 100% hatch rate.  Just trying to figure out the problem with the hens before I have to cull them.  The eggs that develop all die between days 11 and 18.

Do you know if all of you're hens are related or what the breeding practices are of the breeder you got them from? Could it be a genetic thing? If the shells are thin one would just think they need a dietary change but they are on the same food as the rest of the flock, so?? Do they eat as well as everyone else? Are they low on the pecking order and getting chased away from the feed bin?

 

[ChicKat]

Extremely important. Vitamin D deficient chicks often fail to turn to proper positions to breathe, therefore drowning at around 17-18 days. So sorry about your chicks

Thanks KP - info we can all use.

I went to WalMart and got a bottle of vitamin D3 (couple of years ago for my BPRs that were having a problem with shell success)--- I crushed the vitamin D3 tablets and mixed with feed/mash.

It did help them - if you are having cloud cover, short sunlight etc. a boost in vitamin D could really help (probably the whole D family) - D3 is essential in egg shells which is why I chose to supplement with that one.

Regarding the eggs/egg yolks...that is every good insight. With those/ that particular hen it could be nutritional, it could be something in their genetics. Somewhere I had read that 'breeder rations' do contain greater amounts of vitamins than normal chicken feed. I think that maybe both of you detected a specific problem - and comparing with your other hatches/eggs proves that CL may need a bit different dietary supplement if it isn't something specific to that set of breeders. Were the other hatches from blue egg layers as well? I recall that creating a blue egg is 'very expensive to the chicken's system' --

Hope you are able to solve it before the next hatching season.

 

[ochochicas]

Quote: I've tried to address all these issues you have mentioned. The three hens came from the same breeder. I do not know if they are related. They do not look alike, so I would assume that if they are related it is not a strong relation (one hen is barred, one is all gray, and the other is more cinnamon). The rooster I have is from a different source so he is not related to the hens. The lady I bought them from had tried hatching eggs for months and only got 4 chicks to hatch (all cockerels). I was trying to see the glass as half full and assume she just didn't know how to run an incubator. LOL My hatch success has been just as poor as hers. I'm thinking it could be a genetic thing. I crossed my CCL rooster with some other hens and those eggs all hatched, so he is apparently capable of producing viable chicks. I incubated my CCL eggs along with other eggs from my flock both with broodies and in an incubator. The hatch rate was 85 - 100% for the non-legbar eggs, and 0% for the CCL eggs. They candle fine on day 7 and 10, and then die after that. The shells seem fine, it is just the yolk that is runny and the membranes seem weak.

My flock has a 200 SF coop, but they free range during the day and come in to roost at night. The CCL hens do not free range much. They will go about 30 feet in front of the barn, and that is it. They are the only ones near the coop all day and are often inside for a large portion of the day. They have all the food and water to themselves. On top of that they are fairly aggressive and will chase the other chickens if they feel like it. I have tried to give them extra vitamins, but they are not nice birds and don't like people. At least one of them bites, so you have to be sneaky when catching them. I've tried putting vitamins on bread...two of the hens eat it, but the third thinks I am poisoning them and won't touch it (that is the biting one, too).

Maybe I will try to get some Vitamin D into them. I'm starting to believe they come from a line of CCLs that have genetic problems. Our rooster has become really aggressive, so at this point I'm not sure how much longer we can keep him or where we'll go with the CCLs. They all just finished molting and should be laying again shortly. I would like to try to hatch one more batch of eggs. After that, the rooster will be gone. I might try to cross the hens with a Marans rooster to produce some sex-linked Olive Eggers. If those hatched it would show the hens aren't compatible with my current rooster. If that doesn't work, I suppose I will give them to my neighbor to use as laying hens. Unfortunately I would loose my initial investment in the birds, but perhaps that is better than continuing to invest money in them with no results.

 

[chicken pickin]

I've tried to address all these issues you have mentioned. The three hens came from the same breeder. I do not know if they are related. They do not look alike, so I would assume that if they are related it is not a strong relation (one hen is barred, one is all gray, and the other is more cinnamon). The rooster I have is from a different source so he is not related to the hens. The lady I bought them from had tried hatching eggs for months and only got 4 chicks to hatch (all cockerels). I was trying to see the glass as half full and assume she just didn't know how to run an incubator. LOL My hatch success has been just as poor as hers. I'm thinking it could be a genetic thing. I crossed my CCL rooster with some other hens and those eggs all hatched, so he is apparently capable of producing viable chicks. I incubated my CCL eggs along with other eggs from my flock both with broodies and in an incubator. The hatch rate was 85 - 100% for the non-legbar eggs, and 0% for the CCL eggs. They candle fine on day 7 and 10, and then die after that. The shells seem fine, it is just the yolk that is runny and the membranes seem weak.

My flock has a 200 SF coop, but they free range during the day and come in to roost at night. The CCL hens do not free range much. They will go about 30 feet in front of the barn, and that is it. They are the only ones near the coop all day and are often inside for a large portion of the day. They have all the food and water to themselves. On top of that they are fairly aggressive and will chase the other chickens if they feel like it. I have tried to give them extra vitamins, but they are not nice birds and don't like people. At least one of them bites, so you have to be sneaky when catching them. I've tried putting vitamins on bread...two of the hens eat it, but the third thinks I am poisoning them and won't touch it (that is the biting one, too).

Maybe I will try to get some Vitamin D into them. I'm starting to believe they come from a line of CCLs that have genetic problems. Our rooster has become really aggressive, so at this point I'm not sure how much longer we can keep him or where we'll go with the CCLs. They all just finished molting and should be laying again shortly. I would like to try to hatch one more batch of eggs. After that, the rooster will be gone. I might try to cross the hens with a Marans rooster to produce some sex-linked Olive Eggers. If those hatched it would show the hens aren't compatible with my current rooster. If that doesn't work, I suppose I will give them to my neighbor to use as laying hens. Unfortunately I would loose my initial investment in the birds, but perhaps that is better than continuing to invest money in them with no results.

Sorry for the poor hatches you are experiencing. Its not just you, MANY of us CL breeders are experiencing the same thing. My pure CL hatches are very very poor, while my CL crosses and other breeds hatch perfectly. But I am still trying and plan to do many CL hatches this Spring. Im anxious for my Rees line to start laying so I can compare the Rees hatch rate to the hatches of the CL from my own flock.

 

[ochochicas]

Sorry for the poor hatches you are experiencing. Its not just you, MANY of us CL breeders are experiencing the same thing. My pure CL hatches are very very poor, while my CL crosses and other breeds hatch perfectly. But I am still trying and plan to do many CL hatches this Spring. Im anxious for my Rees line to start laying so I can compare the Rees hatch rate to the hatches of the CL from my own flock.

Thanks for the reply. I know a lot of others have the same hatching issues. Makes me wonder if the legbars have some lethal gene that no one knows about yet. My hens do lay nice big blue eggs. My neighbor would really enjoy having them as layers if that is where they end up.

 

[enola]

Someone asked if other breeds with blue eggs are hatching. Yes, I also hatch Araucana eggs and both green and blue EE eggs. 80+% in the hatches consistently. When I crossed the Legbar rooster with brown leghorns, those chicks popped out of the eggs and were eating and drinking before other hatch mates figured out they were supposed to be eating. Unfortunately while I was in ND, a dog killed all of the Legbar/Leghorn chicks but one cockerel.