The Legbar Thread!

[blackbirds13]

My pet chicken announced on the Martha Stewart show yesterday ,
That they withh be selling. Cream legbar chicks next year.

I think we all saw this coming. My girl laid for 2 weeks straight then took yesterday off. Not sure when she started laying this past winter as all my birds were in the same coop due to my house fire, but they make perfect hatchery stock - being able to sell sexed birds is a coup for any big business - what will they do with all those males or will they sell pairs or still straight run? Glad i got mine early and have some idea of lines and inbreeding issues. I am not a fan of white birds generally but I see the beauty others find in the white Cream Legbars but not sure I want to propagate a flaw this early in their inception here in America so I'm anxious to see what hatches out for me in the coming weeks and months.I really do enjoy owning these birds. I love the size of the egg I get as the birds are really not that big and my male is not as vocal as my other roosters, and their feed bill is reasonable. I can already see this as a long term breed for me.
I do plan on joining the yahoo group, just pure procrastination on my end.
Though I don't want to I do feel a bit of stewardship in the ownership of this breed. I'm not a big fan of insisting on the SOP, I like to stive towards it as I feel some responsibilty to keep the breed 'pure' but as I own Marans I can just imagine the mess this could all become...

Frist batch are in lock down but like I said not sure how these first few batches will turn out due to hubby having mixed them up for a couple hours.
My little trio are loving the outdoors - they are the cutest things. The 2 males are much friendlier than the female but she has a really nice crest. My layer's creast has been pulled out quite a bit by the rooster whose poor comb took a beating from frostbite this winter - I think that will be a serious issue for this bird here in the North. I'm wondering if it'll be possible to breed a decent size comb that is not so overly large as both my Marans combs were able to make it through okay. Poor Legbar still has black spots above his beak. I keep meaning to take pics but just so much to do.
Hoping to start hatching my Marans in a couple weeks.

 

[boykin2010]

My pet chicken announced on the Martha Stewart show yesterday ,
That they withh be selling. Cream legbar chicks next year.

Did it mention a price? With a hatchery selling them this quick, it is going to really put a hurt on those wanting to get their money back from their original investments in the birds.

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Can anyone tell me how many weeks old that the Legbar starts laying? (roughly)

 

[madamwlf]

So I had my first yellow chick hatch today along with a regular color male. The yellow chick is beautiful and a nice bright yellow. I will get pictures in a few days after it has time to get on it's feet.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Like some of you know, I plan to keep a pure line of legbars while outcrossing them too so I could work on other projects. This weekend at a show, I got a trio of birds that I will use for one of those many projects. Like I've mentioned, I hate the tails of the legbars, where the tail meets the body is just ugly to me, I like more of a gentle sweep from the back to the tail. The birds I got will work great for this. I will work on getting pictures when I get home from the show

 

[Magrat]

It seems that we are VERY lucky. Last w/e we went to a nearby pet shop (England) to choose our hens. The Cream Legbar cost us £12. I feel very privileged. Shall I post pictures to this thread as she is getting older?

 

[ronott1]

Hatcheries know what sex the chicks are since they vent sex the ones that are not sex linked. I am sure they will sell Straight run, pullets and cockerels--like they do with the other chicks. This will add Auto sexing to the mix is all.

To those looking at them as an investment, the high cost was always going to be temporary. This is faster than normal though

.

If you want to make money off of chickens, look more to the standard breeds that still need work. SG Dorkings, Heritage RIR, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons and dominiques and etc.. If you want to cater to the City Backyard chicken market, Australorps and the new EO Basque Hens would be the way to go. Capital investment in them is not too high. You can sell the chicks and hatching eggs regularly, just not at super high prices.

So far I have spent $130.00 on hatching eggs for these guys. So far I have a pullet and a Cockerel. Next weekend I could have five more. Hopefully I will get at least two more pullets. Next year, for $130.00 I will probably be able to buy three dozen hatching eggs.

Quote:

 

[Chris09]

Hatcheries know what sex the chicks are since they vent sex the ones that are not sex linked. I am sure they will sell Straight run, pullets and cockerels--like they do with the other chicks. This will add Auto sexing to the mix is all.

To those looking at them as an investment, the high cost was always going to be temporary. This is faster than normal though

.

If you want to make money off of chickens, look more to the standard breeds that still need work. SG Dorkings, Heritage RIR, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons and dominiques and etc.. If you want to cater to the City Backyard chicken market, Australorps and the new EO Basque Hens would be the way to go. Capital investment in them is not too high. You can sell the chicks and hatching eggs regularly, just not at super high prices.

So far I have spent $130.00 on hatching eggs for these guys. So far I have a pullet and a Cockerel. Next weekend I could have five more. Hopefully I will get at least two more pullets. Next year, for $130.00 I will probably be able to buy three dozen hatching eggs.
Quote:

Most chicken hatcheries sell are Feather Sexed and are bred as Sex-links. That's why the chickens that hatcheries sell look nothing like the true breed.
Most hatcheries crossed Leghorn blood in to there stock for both feather sexing and egg production.

Chris

 

[redchicken9]

It seems that we are VERY lucky. Last w/e we went to a nearby pet shop (England) to choose our hens. The Cream Legbar cost us £12. I feel very privileged. Shall I post pictures to this thread as she is getting older?

Sure, love to see your gal! Looking at the pound/dollar conversion rate, she's about twenty dollars. Curious, what age did you buy at point of sale?

I'm happy to have such healthy and unique birds. Everyone here has nice looking birds that are excellently cared for. The pro of cream legbars being sold by mypetchicken is that they will get the name of the breed out there and create a larger market. I'll bet quite a few of us started with either feed store chicks or large hatchery order chicks. A lot of people start with the more common and known birds, and what's most available. Once you know you like chickens, many (like a lot of us) want to purchase them nearer to home with a small scale devoted breeder, so you can see what you are getting. I look forward to having more people interested in the breed. The future purchase price will find itself with demand and seems likely to be higher than the average chicken. The downside to mypetchicken is the shipping cost. Most of the time if you only buy a few it can add something like four dollars to the price of each bird.

 

[ferrperr]

I haven't read all the posts on this thread but I'm going to. I just hatched out my first batch of legbars and I have a yellow chick. I contacted the breeder and they got their birds from Greenfire and she told me her roo and one of her hens carries recessive and a few other people have hatched out white chicks as well. I was told to join the yahoo group because there is discussion going on there about them and some of the UK people have said they have them also. What do you all think on this and I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like so I don't know if it's hen or roo.