The Legbar Thread!

[boykin2010]

The chick down often varies. On my first hatch, my two cockerals looked nothing alike. Many people say sometimes it can be very noticeable and almost make the cockeral look like a hen or sometimes it can be very very light almost white color. Once they grow up, I think the roosters don't look much different from each other. The chick down just looks different.

 

[GaryDean26]

I have been reading all the chick down information I could find for months trying to figure our the genetics of the male chick down color. I have now had (5) day old cockerels which I have photo documented very well. I also have studied photos of baby chicks from many other Cream Legbar owners with greenfire stock.

My efforts to try to trace the genetics backwards have lead me to hypothesize that the sources in the UK probably all had uniform (I use that term lightly) colored chicks with-in the line, but when Greenfire started mixing them to boost the genetic diversity in the US that we ended up with single pairs capable of producing a variety of colored males. Personally I think this is more fun that a line bred strain that produces the same color every time.

Cockerel/ Source/ Down Color/ Comments
1) Lium/ GFF - Red banded day-old chick/ dark walnut/ This guy ended up with a nice straight comb, good color (less red than Larry) / light body (smaller as a chick)/small body type/small crest

2) Larry/ GFF - Yellow banded day-old chick/ light cream/ This one ended up with the floppy comb, good color (more red than Lium), heavy body (larger as a chick)/large crest

3) Lance/ hatching eggs from Kentucky (owner?)/ dark walnut down with red on head around eyes, comb not floppy but not not as nice as Lium, good color (less red than Leo), Light body type (smaller as a chick), extra large crest.

4) Leo/ hatching eggs from Kentucky (owner?)/ mix of the walnut color down overlaid with the light color resulting in a brown swirl with both light and dark patches, comb not floppy but not not as nice as Lium, good color (more red than Lance), Heavy body type (larger as a chick), small crest.

5) Spot/ GFF hatching eggs/ Dark Walnut with red on head. There were no other males in this hatch to compare size to, and it it too early to say anything else as this guy is only a week old.

If anyone know what modifiers create the dark colored male legbar down (Cha?, Ml?, other), which make the light golden color (Db?, others?) I would really appreciate any help since the wild type bird (e+/e+) is new to me (and I really have no idea what type of modifiers are in these legbar lines or how to identify them).

To answer the question on which down color is better, I don't know. I have yet to determine how the male down color correlated to what type of pullets he will throw.

I personally would keep the light color if I had to choose based on color alone. It seems to be the more rare, recessive (easier to work with), and the easiest to see for auto-sexing.

However, I wouldn't choose based on color alone at this point. They say build the barn before you paint it. In other words choose based on body type and intangible traits first and work on color later on. Some things can't be fix further down the road but color can.

 

[GaryDean26]

The chick down often varies. On my first hatch, my two cockerals looked nothing alike. Many people say sometimes it can be very noticeable and almost make the cockeral look like a hen or sometimes it can be very very light almost white color. Once they grow up, I think the roosters don't look much different from each other. The chick down just looks different.

The males will look the same because the double barring dilutes most of thier color. variation in chick down however indicate different color modifiers in bird. While these don't show up in the adault males (due to the barring diluting their color) they will show up in the pullets the cockerel throws. At this point I don't know what modifiers are in the lines or what modifiers I should even try to keep and which should be breed out, so I am just documenting what I see to use futher down the road after other breeding goals are met in my breeding pens.

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks for the info GaryDean26!!

 

[redchicken9]

Is there nothing that guy doesn't know?

(GaryDean26 on chick down observations). OK, he's/ we're all still trying to figure it out.

 

[Papa Brooder]

Quote: X3. I really appreciate your insight on this forum! Thanks

 

[GaryDean26]

Is there nothing that guy doesn't know?

(GaryDean26 on chick down observations). OK, he's/ we're all still trying to figure it out.

Thanks, I have been working hard to get up to speed on the Legbars. A new breed is so exciting and I want to do the best i can with it.

I hope that all of you do well with your birds too. I get as exited about the photos you guys post as watching the slow progress of my own birds.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Whoot whoot. Just wanted to share about my first Legbars. Ordered eggs from Madamwlf, 3 females, 1 male, and 2 whites. Couldn't be more thrilled!!

 

[madamwlf]

What does everyone do with their extra chicks? All I'm trying to do is hatch out whites and I'm starting to have an overload of regular cream legbars.

 

[Sphinx]

What does everyone do with their extra chicks? All I'm trying to do is hatch out whites and I'm starting to have an overload of regular cream legbars.

What do you mean by whites?


I had a friend give me a legbar chick because it wasn't autosexed- it came out white. He's now 4-5 weeks old, and I think it's a boy from looking at the comb, but is still all white. She felt like he wasn't fit for breeding because he wasn't fitting the "type" at all. I hadn't realized he would be at all desirable.

This isn't the best picture, as I was trying to get the group, but he's the only white chick in the group, kind of in the middle.