The Legbar Thread!

[debs_flock]

All beautiful chicks!

Deb

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

All beautiful chicks!

Deb

I agree with Deb...all beautiful chicks! Love seeing pictures of them all.

 

[blackbirds13]

Haven't posted here in a while. My younger girl's eggs hatch at 18-19 days - took me by surprise. This happened for 2 batches so we'll see what happens with this next batch due in about 10 days. The other breeder's eggs were pretty much a bust so I'll probably not ever buy shipped eggs again as this just continued my lousy luck with them... well at least not until next spring.

I messed up on the humidity for one hatch so that was a bit depressing. My older girl's eggs tend to hatch on day 20-21. I don't think I've gone past day 22 for any CLB chicks to hatch...pretty much I can toss anything that's not hatched by day 22 it seems. My younger's eggs are smaller but they hatched out just fine. They are definitely bluer but both girls eggs were bluer than the ones I purchased so it was interesting to see the range and the shipped eggs were similarly smaller as opposed to those of my older girl... Think it may be time to give everyone a name.
No white chicks at all so far, so I'm happy about that and we'll see what colors we have as they grow out. I'm really hoping for some cream colored chicks but I'm sure that I have a lot of work ahead of me when it comes to the gold issue as I have a number of my gold girls eggs up to hatch in the next few batches - I'm gonna try to work with them to improve the size of the eggs. I gotta admit I am really enjoying this despite the hurdles. Sorry no pics yet but one difference I've noted was that the spot on the boys from the younger cream girl eggs was more distinct than those from the older gold girl.
Had a lot of predator (domestic pets it seems) issues lately...lost a few more birds including my awesome roo and a couple Marans roos but have hatched a few more so we'll see who makes it to spring. I stopped free ranging for a while but they'll be up and about again soon so hopefully I'll have something to breed next year. Just waiting for everyone to grow up and start laying...
Almost finished my second larger coop so I'm excited about getting everyone organized. Going to build a brooder inside it for my little guys as I hate the dust in the basement.
Had not a single local taker on the Juvie CLB roo on craigslist ($15 and I'm not ready to ship anything yet so had to turn down a Vermont buyer) so I'll maybe try see what he produces. His comb was straight but he was too colorful for my taste but seems to be what most folks seem to like and have so what the hey it's something to do until I see what boys I get from this fall's batch. Hope all is well where ever you are. Love these chickens.

 

[GaryDean26]

Haven't posted here in a while....

Nice update. It seam like a few of the folk that were on this forum when I start looking into cream legbars in October of 11' have faded out of the cream legbar community (i.e. has anyone heard from Jarod at Sunny Dale Farms or others that haven't posted in the past couple of months?)

I have been enjoying hatching cream legbars too.

No takers on Craig's List? Have you considered organizing a Cream Legbar Egg Show in NH? I am not sure how many people there are with CL's near you, but any exposure they get to the local poultry community will help. Everyone wants a Cream Legbar hen in their backyard flock they just don't know it yet. A little hard work goes a long way. Craig's List is a good start. I also did a breed display at a large Poultry show in March, opened discussions with two local back yard chickens groups, and another lady in my area (who I don't even think has Cream Legbars) got the CL to be the breed of the month for her son's 4H group (which went up on their group's webpage in February and was still up last I checked). With all of those, and efforts from many others that I am not aware of the breed is slowly gaining ground in Texas. I think that egg/breed displays at poultry shows is one of the best venues for promoting the Cream Legbar.

Keep us updated on the color in you flock. I am guessing you will have the color fine tuned in your flock in 2-3 years.

 

[ChicKat]

Is it post 1094 where GaryDean26 gave us this link??

http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jgenet/41/1.pdf

This is Punnett's original work. To me, the crest on the female looks dark. It's text-fig. 1. Legbar Pullet. And THAt may be the exact difference I was seeing in UK Cream Legbars and USA Cream Legbars.

As GaryDean said the UK standard islumage, Female : Neck hackles cream, softly barred grey. Breast salmon, well defined in outline. Body silver-grey, with rather indistinct broad soft barring. Wings, primaries grey-peppered; secondaries very feintly barred; coverts silver grey. Tail silver grey, feintly barred. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut permissible.

I have to say that I like the dark crest better.... JMO, but then I have yet to actually see a barred crest on a female up close and personal.

Wow, if anyone comes across a color plate of that illustration, please be sure to post a link!

 

[normanack]

As GaryDean said the UK standard islumage, Female : Neck hackles cream, softly barred grey. Breast salmon, well defined in outline. Body silver-grey, with rather indistinct broad soft barring. Wings, primaries grey-peppered; secondaries very feintly barred; coverts silver grey. Tail silver grey, feintly barred. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut permissible. 

It all sounds so simple! But --

Hackles: what is the difference between cream and gold, especially when they are combined with softly barred grey? Is it like warm vs. cool tones? In the British pictures, I have trouble distinguishing between cream and silver hackles, when both are also softly barred grey.

When a CL hen's breast gives me the impression of a softly watercolored American robin, I'd call that salmon. More heavily pigmented, or darker, I'm assuming is chestnut. Is that correct?

Just slap me if I'm getting too wound up. ;-)

 

[lonnyandrinda]

This photo DOES NOT belong to me, it belongs to Emily de Gray in the UK, she is very involved with these birds, but it shows the difference between the EUROPEAN standard cream versus gold.
I would DEFINITELY call the hen on the left a gold-toned bird, personally I would call the hen on the right a white or silver tone but cream is the description of it. If you want to see a similar pictures with roosters she has one of those- let me know i will message it to you I don't want to go posting a bunch of stuff that is not my intellectual property.

 

[normanack]

That picture is very helpful, thanks!
That left one does have a definite yellow tone to it -- yup, looks gold.
The right one -- I can't tell if the warm creamy yellow is just late afternoon light or the true color of the feathers, but I see what you mean -- it isn't the same as the left bird's.

Off to look at the British pictures again.

Thanks!

 

[ChicKat]

It all sounds so simple! But --
Hackles: what is the difference between cream and gold, especially when they are combined with softly barred grey? Is it like warm vs. cool tones? In the British pictures, I have trouble distinguishing between cream and silver hackles, when both are also softly barred grey.
When a CL hen's breast gives me the impression of a softly watercolored American robin, I'd call that salmon. More heavily pigmented, or darker, I'm assuming is chestnut. Is that correct?
Just slap me if I'm getting too wound up. ;-)

No not too wound up---- I think that we in the USA may be bouncing around on this question for a bit longer in our lives. There are a lot of things--- I'm considering are a bit open to interpretation....

"Carriage: sprightly and alert but free from stiltiness" so I have a webster's dictionary moment -- what in the heck is stiltiness in a chicken?? :O{

Thanks for the pictures lonnyandrinda

 

[blackbirds13]

Nice update. It seam like a few of the folk that were on this forum when I start looking into cream legbars in October of 11' have faded out of the cream legbar community (i.e. has anyone heard from Jarod at Sunny Dale Farms or others that haven't posted in the past couple of months?)

I have been enjoying hatching cream legbars too.

No takers on Craig's List? Have you considered organizing a Cream Legbar Egg Show in NH? I am not sure how many people there are with CL's near you, but any exposure they get to the local poultry community will help. Everyone wants a Cream Legbar hen in their backyard flock they just don't know it yet. A little hard work goes a long way. Craig's List is a good start. I also did a breed display at a large Poultry show in March, opened discussions with two local back yard chickens groups, and another lady in my area (who I don't even think has Cream Legbars) got the CL to be the breed of the month for her son's 4H group (which went up on their group's webpage in February and was still up last I checked). With all of those, and efforts from many others that I am not aware of the breed is slowly gaining ground in Texas. I think that egg/breed displays at poultry shows is one of the best venues for promoting the Cream Legbar.

Keep us updated on the color in you flock. I am guessing you will have the color fine tuned in your flock in 2-3 years.

I have been lurking but I guess I'm in a holding pattern. I'm interested in what others are doing and wondering what direction these birds will take and what they will look like as a breed in the years to come. I wonder if they'll end up like Marans where it's hard to really get you own decent flock going because there are so many faults in them and I guess the Marans gene pool is small. I also wonder about all the folks that buy them just to breed and sell with out any concern for advancing the breed positively. I wonder how precipitously the price will go down next year or in the years to come. In a state like NH where a chicken is just a chicken and everyone wants pullets and only pullets I can see this as a popular breed regardless of conformity. I'm breeding my gold girl but really would prefer not to advance that color outside my flock but at the same time need to make culling decisions while wondering about all the gold birds and colorful roosters and how we have a preponderance of them here,while they seem totally unacceptable in the UK. Torn because I like some color but personally I really want a Cream colored Legbar flock. I think this is a wonderful breed of chicken and I'm hoping that at some point there will be some uniformity that we can all strive towards but wondering if it will be one that I personally will concur with. I don't have the time to do everything I'd like to do with my 3 year old running around (should stuck with my 26, 25 and 22 year old sons JJ

). I would love to do an open discussion and I hope to attend some fairs this fall (as an observer) but summer's over and the work begins anew. Wish I could hatch larger batches and had time to really keep detailed records and the like but....