The Legbar Thread!

[KendyF]

I can't speak for others, but I did major culling to get where I am. I started with about 30 birds and have kept less than half. My experience with autosexing is that it has been probably about 95% easy with only two confusing chicks. Again, I culled a lot to get to the birds I have, though.

Thank you for the answer, it is interesting and something which might come up as many attempt to move away from the current goldish colors to the lighter colors. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[ChicKat]

Now I see what you are saying, and lagging behind chick - does look smaller and slower to feather. If you want to weigh them -- you can put the weights IN on the CL Club's webpage -- there is a form to get you started. Once you have made your first entry, you get access to the spreadsheet -- (so you can fill in subsequent entries directly on your chick's row -- under the column of their age.... Or if you let me know the ages I can tell you what weights have been entered for those ages. Not enough data to be scientific as of yet---but it really HELPS to know if the chick has had others that weighted near at about the same age---and there is quite an range in their growth patterns.

That being said -- he could also catch up -- could be just a bit slower to get started....

 

[ChicKat]

I recently noticed my CCL chick's comb... I'm afraid this is not normal and I should not breed her now??

hi Kenzie....
from the photo I cannot tell if your chick has a curve in her comb---or what is called a 'side sprig' -- If side sprig -- then you are right you shouldn't breed her. If it is a curve or a wiggle and the points are all independent of each other -- then females can have curved -- even flopping combs and you could breed from her if you wanted.

HTH

 

[tobit]

Now I see what you are saying, and lagging behind chick - does look smaller and slower to feather. If you want to weigh them -- you can put the weights IN on the CL Club's webpage -- there is a form to get you started. Once you have made your first entry, you get access to the spreadsheet -- (so you can fill in subsequent entries directly on your chick's row -- under the column of their age.... Or if you let me know the ages I can tell you what weights have been entered for those ages. Not enough data to be scientific as of yet---but it really HELPS to know if the chick has had others that weighted near at about the same age---and there is quite an range in their growth patterns.

That being said -- he could also catch up -- could be just a bit slower to get started....

Thanks! i will have a look at the cream legbar club page... I'm not too worried about him - he behaves just like the rest of them, I was just interested because he is way behind, we're on day 10 now and the gap seems to be getting bigger but hes just developing at his own pace so i guess we will see - there's nothing i could do for him anyway

 

[ChicKat]

over the winter, I had a batch of chicks...and one female was significantly smaller, and also kept her down much longer.... My thought was that she could be a way to get bantam CLs going. Sadly she and her hatch mates succumbed to some serious cold weather - I hadn't thought about the cumulative effect of them being just shortly out of the brooder and the temperatures bitterly cold for an extended period of time. Bad move on my part -- I don't know how she would have grown out.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I can't speak for others, but I did major culling to get where I am. I started with about 30 birds and have kept less than half. My experience with autosexing is that it has been probably about 95% easy with only two confusing chicks. Again, I culled a lot to get to the birds I have, though.

The first dozen eggs that I hatched only gave me one pullet and 11 cockerels. Those cockerels were all over the map and I couldn't believe the ratio so I grew them all out. My roo is out of this batch and all of my hens are from a lady who mixed every line except the Rees Line. I've never had a chick that wasn't easy to visually sex out of any of them.

 

[Junibutt]

I just want to warn you that this post will contain a lot of pictures. So, it may take a long time to load for some of you. Sorry that I've been away so long. I've been working full time, doing two therapy trainings with the State of Michigan for work, finished a stressful semester of school, and have been looking for a house. At the beginning of the year, I had a couple of Legbar chicks that were hard to sex. It was suggested that I take photos of them as they grow. Here's what I have found: both chicks were female. I've found that eye-liner was an accurate way to sex these two difficult to sex chicks. If relying on eye-liner alone, I would have said female, but the tops of their heads confused me.

Chick 1

One week old:







Two weeks old:






Three weeks old:






Five weeks old:






Chick 2:

One week old:






Two weeks old:






Three weeks old:






Five weeks old:

Was the issue absence of a V on the head? Even without the V, there did not seem to be any white spots on the head. So that would be clear indicator of a female. Now if your cockerels don't have clear head spots, then there is an issue. Do other Reese line breeders have any issues with clean Vs on the heads?

P.S. Salute you stamina reference all the education stuff.

 

[chicken pickin]

Was the issue absence of a V on the head? Even without the V, there did not seem to be any white spots on the head. So that would be clear indicator of a female. Now if your cockerels don't have clear head spots, then there is an issue. Do other Reese line breeders have any issues with clean Vs on the heads?

P.S. Salute you stamina reference all the education stuff.

My pure Rees line chicks this Spring were not as clearly auto sexed as my other CL chicks from my own line, but there sex was still identifiable.

My Rees Line females had a V but it was fuzzy and broken part way down.


Males didn't have great markings, but all showed head spots

 

[tdhenson86]

Thank you for the answer, it is interesting and something which might come up as many attempt to move away from the current goldish colors to the lighter colors. Keep us posted on your progress.

Will do! I plan to cull these two out of my breeding. I've made a lot of culls and am working toward the proposed standard.

 

[tdhenson86]

The first dozen eggs that I hatched only gave me one pullet and 11 cockerels. Those cockerels were all over the map and I couldn't believe the ratio so I grew them all out. My roo is out of this batch and all of my hens are from a lady who mixed every line except the Rees Line. I've never had a chick that wasn't easy to visually sex out of any of them.

My birds are all Jill Rees birds. So, I've done a lot of culling out of the ones I had. Thankfully, I've had pretty good success after culling several birds. No more green eggs, combs are better in some, coloration is good, and I've had few problems in autosexing (one that was most confusing and another that was kind of confusing, but I was still pretty sure it was female).