The Legbar Thread!

[ChicKat]

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Sunny, my main rooster is throwing three colors of chicks this year, with his hens, based on down - dark gray - brown - and yellowish. The dark gray are currently showing the best barring and less color as they grow out. The brown boys, look like they are going to be colored like Sunny and the yellows ... Are all over the board. Now I have to work on knowing exactly which combination of hens is creating this mix. His tail and legs are fading a bit with age. I have 2 other Roosters that are getting their Rooster colors. Sunny is such a perfect "flock rooster" I almost hope none turn out better than Sunny.

This is very cool. Punnett shows three colors of chicks on that plate that is from a genetics journal (it is in the Breed Guide on the website --as well as various places in BYC) !!

 

[chicken pickin]

,
Sunny, my main rooster is throwing three colors of chicks this year, with his hens, based on down - dark gray - brown - and yellowish. The dark gray are currently showing the best barring and less color as they grow out. The brown boys, look like they are going to be colored like Sunny and the yellows ... Are all over the board. Now I have to work on knowing exactly which combination of hens is creating this mix. His tail and legs are fading a bit with age. I have 2 other Roosters that are getting their Rooster colors. Sunny is such a perfect "flock rooster" I almost hope none turn out better than Sunny.

Sunny is such a pretty male and I hope he throws you some other great males that you can use going forward. Its good to see you are noticing certain down colors feathering out similarly to each other in your flock, that is something that would be handy for many flocks.

I know others have color slammed you in the past so just know Im not doing that, also I dont recall if you plan to breed forward the more colorful CL or if you are planning to breed to standard. I did want to point out one thing I just noticed, and Im sure you are already aware but it might be helpful to others just joining us. I did just notice in the bottom picture that Sunny does look to have a lot of chestnut/gingery color all over his breast. Cream Legbars should have no color on their breast and the fronts of their necks should match the breast also which is dark gray evenly barred. So one thing you might consider working toward in the future is lessoning the amount of color you see there.

If your going for colorful than I think you are good to go

I know what you mean about not wanting the young males to be better then the father its hard to replace the adult male especially a well behaved male. But if you are getting better looking males you are doing something right and that it great. I seem to replace my male every year and its tough each time but each year I get more and more excited about my birds. I cant wait to see some pics of your grow outs, I hope you post them for us.

 

[KendyF]

Sunny is such a pretty male and I hope he throws you some other great males that you can use going forward. Its good to see you are noticing certain down colors feathering out similarly to each other in your flock, that is something that would be handy for many flocks.

I know others have color slammed you in the past so just know Im not doing that, also I dont recall if you plan to breed forward the more colorful CL or if you are planning to breed to standard. I did want to point out one thing I just noticed, and Im sure you are already aware but it might be helpful to others just joining us. I did just notice in the bottom picture that Sunny does look to have a lot of chestnut/gingery color all over his breast. Cream Legbars should have no color on their breast and the fronts of their necks should match the breast also which is dark gray evenly barred. So one thing you might consider working toward in the future is lessoning the amount of color you see there.

If your going for colorful than I think you are good to go

I know what you mean about not wanting the young males to be better then the father its hard to replace the adult male especially a well behaved male. But if you are getting better looking males you are doing something right and that it great. I seem to replace my male every year and its tough each time but each year I get more and more excited about my birds. I cant wait to see some pics of your grow outs, I hope you post them for us.

Hi Chicken Picken,

Thank you for the response. I am no longer defensive about Sunny's color, and I didn't feel slammed by you at all. When I was asking questions in the "Alternative SOP" thread, I was really trying to get people to break it down for me. Where is he "too colorful". I appreciate your feedback.

I am not interested in breeding all of the color out of my flock, at least not yet, as the breed develops, I do want a more consistent color. I am not sure about the Chestnut on his chest, or if that is shadow, going to have to check. He does for sure have orange and yellow under his neck in his hackles. Clarifying question, when you say say "no color" on the chest, do you mean just gray and white barring, or something else. I noticed in this picture he looks a little more "brown" that he looks in real life, including his tail.

I have 2 boys just coming into their rooster feathers, who are beautiful, but seem to be carrying more Chestnut, my next batch is a little too young to tell. I will post pictures soon.

I completely agree I would like each generation to be better than the last. However, I have grown probably too fond of Sunny!
I would like to mention, in my experience this breed creates some of the best flock roosters I have ever known. They are protective, beautiful and easy to handle. Sunny feeds the chicks, watches over the flock with diligence, and is always the last chicken in the house, after his hens are in. My friend has tells me her rooster does the same. It is part of what endears me to the breed. When I do retire Sunny, I sure hope I can find someone who wants an awesome flock rooster.

I am not breeding the color out yet, as I love some color in there, but I am watching how the breed develops, how the first shows go, and to get a better definition of "Cream". I will make further decisions from there. There are a lot of things to improve on in the meantime.

 

[chicken pickin]

Hi Chicken Picken,

Thank you for the response. I am no longer defensive about Sunny's color, and I didn't feel slammed by you at all. When I was asking questions in the "Alternative SOP" thread, I was really trying to get people to break it down for me. Where is he "too colorful". I appreciate your feedback.

I am not interested in breeding all of the color out of my flock, at least not yet, as the breed develops, I do want a more consistent color. I am not sure about the Chestnut on his chest, or if that is shadow, going to have to check. He does for sure have orange and yellow under his neck in his hackles. Clarifying question, when you say say "no color" on the chest, do you mean just gray and white barring, or something else. I noticed in this picture he looks a little more "brown" that he looks in real life, including his tail.

I have 2 boys just coming into their rooster feathers, who are beautiful, but seem to be carrying more Chestnut, my next batch is a little too young to tell. I will post pictures soon.

I completely agree I would like each generation to be better than the last. However, I have grown probably too fond of Sunny!
I would like to mention, in my experience this breed creates some of the best flock roosters I have ever known. They are protective, beautiful and easy to handle. Sunny feeds the chicks, watches over the flock with diligence, and is always the last chicken in the house, after his hens are in. My friend has tells me her rooster does the same. It is part of what endears me to the breed. When I do retire Sunny, I sure hope I can find someone who wants an awesome flock rooster.

I am not breeding the color out yet, as I love some color in there, but I am watching how the breed develops, how the first shows go, and to get a better definition of "Cream". I will make further decisions from there. There are a lot of things to improve on in the meantime.

Yes when I say no color I do mean only the dark gray and white barring.

Here is an example from my grow outs today

 

[KendyF]

Yes when I say no color I do mean only the dark gray and white barring.

Here is an example from my grow outs today

Beautiful boys! Thank you for clarifying. Some other threads I am on, seem to want them nearly white with very little barring. I don't care for that look. I love these guys! Have a great 4th.

 

[Finnie]

My Legbars are 13.5 weeks old now. A while back someone said Westley's comb looked nice and straight. I think so far, it is still looking pretty good.




Here he is with Buttercup, the pullet I got from Racinchickens:

My other 13.5 week pullet, Peach, did not get in any of the photos. I do have a third younger pullet though, and she seems to be coloring up on the gold side just like Peach, so I will probably have to band one of them to tell them apart. Peach is Westley's sister, so I want to keep track of that.

This is Leia, 6 weeks old:

 

[tobit]

I just bought some cream legbar chicks and was wondering what egg colour chicks that are cream legbar crossed with a brown or white egg layer would lay?

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I just bought some cream legbar chicks and was wondering what egg colour chicks that are cream legbar crossed with a brown or white egg layer would lay?

Crossed with a brown egg layer you get green eggs and with a white egg layer you get very light blue (almost white). Crossed with a very dark egg layer (like a Marans) you get olive green. I crossed mine with a Black Star that layed vet dark eggs (not Marans dark but very dark) and expected mid to dark green but the eggs were so light green they almost looked identical to the regular Cream Legbar eggs. They only looked slightly green when held next to a blue Cream Legbar egg.

 

[chicken pickin]

I just bought some cream legbar chicks and was wondering what egg colour chicks that are cream legbar crossed with a brown or white egg layer would lay?

Cream Legbar carry 2 blue egg genes so they will always pass one blue egg gene to their offspring.

If you cross a Cream Legbar to a brown egg layer the chicks will get one blue egg gene and one brown egg gene giving you a chick that will lay green egg if female.

If you cross a Cream Legbar to a white egg layer the chicks will get one blue egg gene and one white egg gene giving you chicks that will lay blue eggs if female.

If you cross a Cream Legbar to a dark brown egg layer the chicks will get one blue egg gene and possibly one dark brown egg gene giving you chicks that will likely lay olive eggs if female.

If any of the brown or white egg layers in the scenario are already mixes then the egg color results in the chicks might vary slightly.

 

[tobit]

Cream Legbar carry 2 blue egg genes so they will always pass one blue egg gene to their offspring.

If you cross a Cream Legbar to a brown egg layer the chicks will get one blue egg gene and one brown egg gene giving you a chick that will lay green egg if female.

If you cross a Cream Legbar to a white egg layer the chicks will get one blue egg gene and one white egg gene giving you chicks that will lay blue eggs if female.

If you cross a Cream Legbar to a dark brown egg layer the chicks will get one blue egg gene and possibly one dark brown egg gene giving you chicks that will likely lay olive eggs if female.

If any of the brown or white egg layers in the scenario are already mixes then the egg color results in the chicks might vary slightly.

Thanks a lot!!