The Legbar Thread!

[anniesmom]

I'm not happy with my roos combs. Do most of them flop to the side?? I need to take a pic but don't have one yet to post.

I remember reading some time ago - somewhere - that the first line GF imported had too much red on the breasts of the hens. The second line had combs that were too big and flopped over. It said they were importing a third line (which they have done) to combine with the first two. I just looked at the Cream Legbar page on GF's website and found this statement: "One line produces slightly larger birds that are prolific egg layers. The other line produces birds with less chestnut coloring in the feathers and erect combs in the roosters."

 

[cjwaldon]

Ok...I take that as one vote to for any future US CLB standards to allow people to breed for olive eggers.

I didn't veto anything. I agree that we should breed towards only blue eggs from our CCLs. I was only pointing out that we are not starting with only blue eggs.

 

[The Sheriff]

I recall back in the beginning when Greenfire started shipping pairs, a couple of people got older cockerels with the flopped over combs. I recall someone stating that the flopped over comb is a fault. There was a discussion and I think the people that got them were fine with it because they didn't plan to breed them. I was very please with my boy, his comb is straight as an arrow. I also sold an extra cockerel with an erect comb. I imagine Greenfire might have an extra cockerel around there somewhere. Maybe they would ship you another one.

I'm not happy with my roos combs. Do most of them flop to the side?? I need to take a pic but don't have one yet to post.

 

[braindead101]

I've been reading this thread and decided to offer my 2 cents. If a bird lays a green egg she will always lay a green egg. The colors don't mature into something else. In order to better define egg color we should all be using the same color chart. I know the colors in my box of crayons and there isn't any marked robins egg blue. Araucana/ameraucana charts are out there, maybe this would get us all on the same page for color. At the current rate of maturity of the legbars and their rate of laying I can't believe the Brits used these birds as battery hens. With brown leghorn in their lineage we should expect over 200 eggs per year, per bird. I don't see any one claiming to this. People! What are we missing?

 

[ChicKat]

Hopefully this link will lead to the color and colour charts for eggs:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...earch?q=egg+colour+chart+araucana+Image&tbm%3

there is also a discussion on BYC under aracuanas about matching to the charts. It definitely helps to have something solid to go by, but.... each monitor, printer etc are different. Even print the same chart on your printer on glossy and matte paper and it will be different.

Ohhh so confusing.

 

[ChicKat]

It does seem difficult to match egg colors to the color charts, .

I guess if Leghorn, Plymouth Rock and Araucana are in the mix...there would be some brown egg genes in Cream Legbars that could produce green eggs. Maybe for genetic diversity it would be one way to keep track of some different gene sources.

If Leghorns have a flopping comb, then that would also appear in some of the Cream Legbars. Maybe floppy comb means more eggs? -- I read where someone in UK was aiming for above 180 eggs per year as a breed standard. So that would be an average of an egg every-other-day. Individuals here could work on --high egg productivity, or bluest egg color---and down the road Those who want to continue having flocks of legbars could get birds from someone who has specialized in something that their flock needs. such as bluer eggs.

Hope I am making sense here.


Here is a link to Emily de Gray's site, she is working on improving the breed (in the UK)
http://www.cream-legbar.co.uk/history.html

 

[roncrna]

Well I was ok with it for one roo but it looks like both of mine are going to flop and they are from two different lines. They sent me 3 total from 3 different lines but the one roo died in shipping. So maybe I can breed it out?? Or at least I hope so.

I recall back in the beginning when Greenfire started shipping pairs, a couple of people got older cockerels with the flopped over combs. I recall someone stating that the flopped over comb is a fault. There was a discussion and I think the people that got them were fine with it because they didn't plan to breed them. I was very please with my boy, his comb is straight as an arrow. I also sold an extra cockerel with an erect comb. I imagine Greenfire might have an extra cockerel around there somewhere. Maybe they would ship you another one.

 

[Johnn]

Melow has started to get abit louder now, is this a sign she will lay soon?

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Braindead, my plan is to breed for the perfet bird with a couple outcrosses. I plan to have 3 lines going, the pure line that I keep as a pure base line.
Line 2 will be production aimed, I plan to outcross to some good egg layers to try for early egg production and lots of eggs like they were known to be in the past.
Line3 will be aimed at improving the type. Most of the birds I have seen don't have an attractive body type to me, they look feral and just not appealing to my eye. I want more of a nice sweep to the tail, a good neck, a deep body overall. This is more for myself because as they say, if you don't like it, it wont keep your interest.

In a couple years I plan to cross lines 2 & 3 to get a bird that looks good in my eye and has great early production. Ideally, I will keep the pure birds seperate from the 'made' birds but I might use some of the pure birds in the home made birds from time to time. I will strive for a nice pure blue egg, any green egg laying birds I will probably cull, just because the breed is known to lay blue eggs, not green.

Just an update on my chicks, Ingrid is now about double the size of Frederick and Priscilla. She is also the only one with any sign of a crest. A good way to compare them is like comparing a show type wyandotte with a hatchery white leghorn in size. Frederick's comb is also turning red already. I will try to get a picture of them this week using my actual camera instead of my cell phone.

 

[GaryDean26]

About 6 weeks ago I sent an email to the contact listed on the UK Araucana Club website that was listed for obtainning colour cards. I asked if she knew if there was a UK Cream Legbar Club or colour cards that listed the Cream Legbar breed on them.

There are already color cards for the UK Araucana, USA Araucana, and USA Ameracauna. I told her I was intrest in getting cards made up for the cream legbar and asked for her to cooperate with me on thisr. I never heard back from them. I haven't followed up with them yet since I had higher priorities (we were prepareing a Cream Legbar Display for a Poultry Show near San Antonio, TX that was held last week). Before I get back with them or contact the USA organization I want to ask if anyone else knows if there is a UK Cream Legbar Club we could work with or has any inside connections with any of the organization that print the other cards so that we get our own cards aprroved and printed because I agree that the color on the computer screen doesn't cut it and and know people will want a standard card for the breed.