The Legbar Thread!

[fatcatx]

My question is pullet related - but these roo stories are very entertaining.
I am new to CCL and I can't find any info on when they typically reach point of lay. I'm sure there is a discussion somewhere in the thread, but I did not have any luck finding it. When do most of you get your first egg? We trying to determine when we need to integrate the pullets into the coop with the big girls.

 

[chicken pickin]

My question is pullet related - but these roo stories are very entertaining.
I am new to CCL and I can't find any info on when they typically reach point of lay. I'm sure there is a discussion somewhere in the thread, but I did not have any luck finding it. When do most of you get your first egg? We trying to determine when we need to integrate the pullets into the coop with the big girls.

Most people say the average laying age for CL pullets is 24-26weeks.

 

[tobit]

Lovely photos - I think your garden, the chickens and the angle of the photo and the slant of the sun make it all beautiful. -- Now -- weekly updates are expected. ;O)

Thanks, if I'm honest my parents (well my mum actually) maintain the garden and i just try to take over as much space with my chicken's as i am allowed

Sadly behind our property we have really tall coniferous trees that block most of the late afternoon and evening sunlight, but they do let some light through that allow cute chicken photos from time to time

I will keep updating about them until late september - when i move out, but I'm sure i can still let you know how they turn out as adults when i come home to visit my CHICKENS ...and maybe my family...

 

[tobit]

after spending a decade on a cattle ranch and living with the animals always in close proximity -- I have a differing perspective of aggressive and normal animal behavior. Maybe because the bulls weighed 2,000 pounds and working with them in a smallish pen -- you had better be totally aware and respectful of exactly where the male IS, exactly what signals he is sending, what he is doing, how agitated he is -- and were he is looking. -- In some ways I would consider aggressive an unwarranted attack. But then what is the line between protecting his family and being 'evil' to humans.

I have had two CL roosters that were really quite mean...and they were both dispatched because of that -- (and a few other things)---- The rest fall into what I would expect. One rooster here is fearful strangely enough and always runs when I enter the pen. I am always aware of what they are doing, where they are and how they are acting. Picking up and dropping food/treats for the female is one thing....picking up and dropping stones, sticks -- to me a sign he is agitated (this really confused me when I first saw this behavior). Two of them here I consider 'mean' - but they never get the opportunity to express it. -- For one I carry a squirt bottle into his pen and when he looks at me askance I'm ready to squirt water right in his face if he acts with even the slightest aggression - he always will walk away, back down or go on about his business. I need to only hold or shake the bottle -- occasionally squirt in the air -- The bottle hangs on the fence outside his coop run.

I have an Omlet Eglu - The classic Pod kind that you can't even get in the USA any longer....infact, I think from ebay I purchased the very first one imported to the USA it is in perfect condition too! Once I was reaching in the egg-port to get eggs -- and the rooster I had in there with 2 hens came after my arm and made some holes in it. ouch. - Now when I replace feed and water at one end, I have put scratch at the opposite end to occupy them. It isn't ideal -- but there are ways to handle them that are very easy, safe and no harm done to either them or myself. I don't believe that trying to dominate or out-rooster (alpha-dog stuff) the rooster is productive or useful. JMO. This breeding cycle I am working to lower tail angles, and when I have that trait--- I will work on disposition.

All that being said. I would NOT allow small children with my roosters (and would be nervous to have small children around any breeding male, of any species actually) - to a 2,000 pound bull a toddler or a 3-year old is a predator and needs to be treated as such and killed-- so I have been told that their brains work that way) Had a little girl of about 8 over here that thought it was fun to tease the rooster and run in front of his fence so he would chase her. Needless to say - she has not been back.

If you have little children - be super careful and extra watchful. I may have some genetics that contain a mean gene and many other people's flocks won't have that.... If it is yourself and other adults use the normal caution that you would use with animals..... HTH

I guess you're right about where protecting his family ends and where being "evil" to humans starts, it's only natural for him to protect his flock from any threat as best he can right!

I will closely monitor their behaviour as they grow, and if they do end up "mean" i will have to sell them as my mum won't keep it, replacing him with an unrelated rooster would actually be a good solution as my current cream legbar rooster is the sibling or half sibling of the CL pullets - so i can't breed them! There won't be any small children around them, not under 13 anyway, but my mum uses heavy duty gloves to pick up hens from a nest so lets just say she wouldn't feel comfortable handling (i.e. with a squirt bottle or literally picking up) a "mean" rooster. You say "yourself and other adults" and i was like "what, im not an adult!" but then remember my 18th birthday was in June

Just a little observation, the breeder I bought the chicks from had his breeding pens right next to the shed where he kept younger birds, the adult rooster he had actually seemed fairly small (size of my welsummer hen) compared to most large fowl roosters i've seen (my mum would prefer this if im honest...) so i was wondering if CL's are typically a bit smaller than most other birds when in a mixed flock? Obviously i will have a different line to you, but id assume they'd be of a similar size.

 

[ChicKat]

I guess you're right about where protecting his family ends and where being "evil" to humans starts, it's only natural for him to protect his flock from any threat as best he can right!

I will closely monitor their behaviour as they grow, and if they do end up "mean" i will have to sell them as my mum won't keep it, replacing him with an unrelated rooster would actually be a good solution as my current cream legbar rooster is the sibling or half sibling of the CL pullets - so i can't breed them! There won't be any small children around them, not under 13 anyway, but my mum uses heavy duty gloves to pick up hens from a nest so lets just say she wouldn't feel comfortable handling (i.e. with a squirt bottle or literally picking up) a "mean" rooster. You say "yourself and other adults" and i was like "what, im not an adult!" but then remember my 18th birthday was in June

Just a little observation, the breeder I bought the chicks from had his breeding pens right next to the shed where he kept younger birds, the adult rooster he had actually seemed fairly small (size of my welsummer hen) compared to most large fowl roosters i've seen (my mum would prefer this if im honest...) so i was wondering if CL's are typically a bit smaller than most other birds when in a mixed flock? Obviously i will have a different line to you, but id assume they'd be of a similar size.

Happy belated birthday!

You and your mum will love that the CL cockerel is around 6-pounds and the cock/rooster is about 7# so that will be small compared to a lot of the large fowl. Most likely your strain wouldn't have the mean streak some of mine do....and mine would not have it to the degree that they do if it weren't for the raccoons and other predators around here at night IMO.

Especially if the parent birds weren't human-aggressive your guy probably won't be. When it comes time to breed them, you will be in a good position to evaluate the behavior of the one you want to play the role of 'dad' to your chicks. ;O)

 

[tobit]

Happy belated birthday!

You and your mum will love that the CL cockerel is around 6-pounds and the cock/rooster is about 7# so that will be small compared to a lot of the large fowl. Most likely your strain wouldn't have the mean streak some of mine do....and mine would not have it to the degree that they do if it weren't for the raccoons and other predators around here at night IMO.

Especially if the parent birds weren't human-aggressive your guy probably won't be. When it comes time to breed them, you will be in a good position to evaluate the behavior of the one you want to play the role of 'dad' to your chicks. ;O)

Thank you

Yes that's what i thought! Hmm probably, i guess there's really only one way to find out

But we have minimal predators (cats mysteriously keep out of our garden ever since we got rid of 2 bantam roosters...) so the next biggest "threat" are squirrels and pigeons

I'm pretty sure the father of my CL's was fine, the breeder I bought them from had a young cockerel from the same trio as mine are from, running around his garden and he was pretty skittish... I will, although I'm only keeping the one that's feathered out more... As I've promised my girlfriend that she can have my "runt" cockerel

 

[henless]

You and your mum will love that the CL cockerel is around 6-pounds and the cock/rooster is about 7# so that will be small compared to a lot of the large fowl. Most likely your strain wouldn't have the mean streak some of mine do....and mine would not have it to the degree that they do if it weren't for the raccoons and other predators around here at night IMO.

Especially if the parent birds weren't human-aggressive your guy probably won't be. When it comes time to breed them, you will be in a good position to evaluate the behavior of the one you want to play the role of 'dad' to your chicks. ;O)

They are going to look awful small next to my English Orps! lol

The breeder I'm getting my Legbars from said all of her Roos have been really nice. I'm hoping the attitude will continue.

 

[ChicKat]

They are going to look awful small next to my English Orps! lol

The breeder I'm getting my Legbars from said all of her Roos have been really nice. I'm hoping the attitude will continue.

The attitude will probably continue. :O)

A friend of mine has Orp - her male is something like 15 pounds... when you pick him up and he has a wing-flapping episode you feel like you have been in a boxing match -- and here hens are 10 pounds and 11 pounds....we are talking BIG here....but they all have sweet dispositions.

 

[tobit]

Luckily I don't have any 11 pound hens (always have to convert it to kg to get an idea lol) else my rooster may struggle to control his "larger ladies"

 

[ChicKat]

Luckily I don't have any 11 pound hens (always have to convert it to kg to get an idea lol) else my rooster may struggle to control his "larger ladies"

i know, that is so big compared to cream Legbars -- and my other breed is Isbars and they are even a bit smaller. 2 Legbars = 1 Orpington......

. kilograms are a mystery to me. Some here want to convert the states to metric....but I think our minds aren't wired for it.