The Legbar Thread!

[Miss Molly]

And I'll admit to being OCD, I only got those feed store chicks in the spring of 2011.



Deb

Your coops are amazing.... And yes, OCD for sure....

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: We won't start on the weighing each egg and recording it in grams, back to that first egg,

And I'll leave out the brooders and chick growout pens, indoor and out, although the outside one is The Patio.

Now I'm working on planning conditioning pens, since I know the birds I'm taking to State Fair this weekend won't be competitive due to lack of isolated conditioning.

Deb

 

[cjwaldon]

Isolated conditioning? What's that?

 

[debs_flock]

Isolated conditioning? What's that?

I just meant to pen them up individually. Right now everyone is living in with their own breeds. Feathers get picked, broken, the occasional peck to the comb. The pullets are being bred so they are missing a few feathers at the back of the neck. You know, the trials of being a chicken in a flock.

Put into an individual pen, they can put all their energy into growing perfect feathers, stay clean and unblemished. I'd also like to set up A/C for anyone being conditioned. Which means I'd have to have a shed for the conditioning pens. Not too hard for the bantams, but I have mostly LF. Right now, as long as I keep buying the building materials, DH just keeps building,

See, told you all that I was OCD!

Deb

 

[cjwaldon]

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks. I was wondering if conditioning meant little chicken treadmills and special diets.

 

[aurissavannahs]

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks. I was wondering if conditioning meant little chicken treadmills and special diets.

Actually you are not too far off. Conditioning enclosures for some breeds are fairly small but tall with a high roost. The food and water are mounted up by the roost so the chicken has to fly up to eat, drink, and sleep. This exercises the flight muscles so the chicken has larger firmer chest muscles need to meet the standard for some breeds. It works just like a treadmill for chicken breasts. If Legbars are considered duel purpose then they may need large firm breasts.
Kat

 

[LiAuEv]

I have a question for anyone concerning Cream Legbar crosses- I am hatching some crosses just because none of my Legbar hens are laying yet & I like to hatch. So far it is just Legbar / BCM and the chicks are hatching out black like a Marans but with a white dot on the head. Does the white dot mean anything as far as gender or future coloring? Or not really because these are crosses? Next to hatch will be Legbar / RIR, might I get red barred chicks? I think that would be pretty, especially if they were crested or were similar in appearance to the Rhodebar (which I could never afford). Our RIR hen is an egg laying machine so I at least know they should be great layers of probably green eggs (resulting from the combo of blue & brown).

 

[madamwlf]

No, the white dots don't mean anything. All of my Legbar/Marans crosses came out that way.

 

[GaryDean26]

...Do the Whites also lay blue eggs, or is it too soon to know yet, in that no one's chicks are old enough? ...

Yep...The whites will lay blue eggs. The recessive white gene is well established and is know to only impedes the pigment in the plumage. Not the egg pigment.

Just to gamble...a gene was discovered that impedes brown egg pigment. It is in a lot of the white commercial laying breeds now. To my knowledge there are no genes that impede the blue eggs color though, and the blue egg gene is dominant, so the egg color will be the same in the whites as the darks.

 

[phantomriver]

Does anyone follow this UK page on Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/groups/332175963534766/ I just watch trying to learn. It seems their birds are generally lighter colored than the american birds. I guess I don't personally care so long as the birds are auto-sexed and blue layers but I find it interesting. I wish I understood the genetics better. Anyone have link to a good page with pictures explaining chicken genetics? I understand horse color genetics but it seems chicken is more involved.