The Legbar Thread!

[flyingmonkeypoop]

So my final batch of 'legbarhorns' is hatched and I am seeing some off colored legs. My leghorn hen had nice bright yellow legs before laying, same with the legbars, but some of the chicks have green legs, not sure where it came from but we'll see how they turn out. In total I think I have about 25 chicks, all rose combed. I also moved my other leghorn pullets in with the legbar cockerel because they should be laying in the next month or so, there is a single combed and a rose combed so I should have nice diversity. I plan to hatch another batch of the crosses this fall that I will breed to pure legbars again. This batch will be bred to Rupert (the cockerel from Mary who has tail issues [maybe it was due to the eggs being blown around] which is like a partial rumpless araucana tail type thing) to get a seperate line than my original one.
Which, my legbar pullet Ingrid finally laid her first egg on Friday. It is much more green than I expected but she is from line 'c' which is the more show type line, right? I know line A has better blue eggs because Mary sent me some eggs that Rupert hatched from which were a gorgeous blue. So by breeding back to line a birds,it should clear it up.

Sorry about the ramble... I should be able to post pics soon, we are getting internet again at home this week.

 

[The Sheriff]

Hi Michael. Sounds like you will be busy for the next year or so! I am having an issue with my pullet who started laying a couple of weeks ago. She lays a gorgeous deep blue egg but they are the size of bird eggs! I have had birds lay those from time to time but not for weeks. I hope the eggs will gradually get bigger, If not, she'll go in my layer flock because the grandkids love the little blue eggs! You can see I can easily fit a half dozen in my hand.

 

[blackbirds13]

I'm not up to date on the complexity of the genetics of crosses. As far as the cream legbars are concerned, it seems that we in the USA have had a hard enough time getting foundation stock that meet the standard, so it might not be a great idea to stress that the crosses are "what ever bars" as some of the hybrids might sneak into the gene pool for the CLs.

It also seems that it is a huge undertaking to develop a stable cross, involving generations of breeding and a lot of culling, moving many of the offspring into the laying flock,but not the breeding stream. That being said, there seem to be a lot of CL roos in excess (am I the only one that gets the impression that the male count in the early hatchings exceeds the female?), they reportedly heve a lot of good qualities for a homestead chicken ( good foragers, not too large, good layers) and might be good to use to breed some hardy "mutt" chickens for home use on family farms.

I worry a bit about the large straight combs as I live in a cold climate, so a cross with, say a rosecomb brown legharn (which is one of its foundation breeds and a good forager and layer) or hamberg might work well for a homestead chicken, but calling them something bars might be a problem and might hurt the chances of getting the CLs accepted as a breed in the future,

However, it seems that excess CL roos would make good sires for EEs, since they are just hybrids that lay blue or green eggs. It might reinforce the blue egg quality and stabilize the size a bit.
i am thinking of hatching some eggs from my EEs and my CL roo as "practice" until I can get a couple of CL pullets or some CL hatching eggs. However, if I sell any they will be "EEs". not "half CL".

I felt like I was hatching out 3 roos to each pullet. I've heard it said that early spring hatches reap more boys than girls and i did have more success as the year progressed but it'll be interesting to compare next year.

boykin2010 - I like the light brown leghorn cross - not a fan of some of the others on the list ( don't really care for the turkens). I am interested in comb issues especially with my harsh winters. I don't have the pen or coop space for that process myself and am hoping to concentrate on getting 2 to 3 decent breed flocks that I can then perpetuate without outcrossing as I go along.

I am down to 4 CL girls my husband says. I have been out of town visiting the folks and the hawks have been busy. Not sure what I will do now - darn hawks!!!

Have some rooster decisions to make... and the color issue will be a part of my decision as they differ quite a bit so far but the comb issue may be what prevails. Just bummed about the girls...from 9 to 4 in about 2 weeks - hawks, cats...

 

[The Sheriff]

I have another four week old broody. She has adopted one of the white chicks that hatched last week. She sleeps with her baby under her wing. Please ignore the poopy paper towels. We switch to shavings tomorrow!

 

[RachaelS]

I have another four week old broody. She has adopted one of the white chicks that hatched last week. She sleeps with her baby under her wing. Please ignore the poopy paper towels. We switch to shavings tomorrow!

that is soooooooooooooooooo gosh darn cute!!!!

 

[blackbirds13]

x2!

 

[ChicKat]

that is soooooooooooooooooo gosh darn cute!!!!

X3 -- what a nice pullet...Is there something in your water?? you have quite a few young ones that have such strong maternal instincts. I'd love that nurturing in my bunch.

My Cream Legbar hen has reduced egg size too. Her first egg was something like 1.2 ounces...she got to normal size 2. ounces (normal for my flock, I should qualify)...then went back down. She is laying around 1.5 ounces now, and I wonder if I should even incubate such small eggs...or hope when our heat wave is over she gets back up there.

Flying--- looking forward to seeing those pictures also....

 

[anniesmom]

My chores came to a screeching halt this afternoon when I found - my first Legbar egg! They are just 20 weeks old today. I don't know which one laid it but intend to try out my Critter Cam I got for Christmas to find out who it is. The egg is more of an aqua than blue. It weighs 48 grams (1.69 ounces). Not bad for a very first egg. The other eggs in the picture are SFH (the light ones) and Marans and Wellie (the dark ones).

 

[The Sheriff]

Nice egg! Looks to be the same color as mine.

 

[RyeRanch]

Congrats on the early laying Legbar! That is awesome. I have a CL hen who is about 15 weeks or so. I would love it if I am only 5 months away from blue eggs. WAHOO!!