Thanks for the links GaryDean. In one of them Robert Blosi from Alabama said:
"This is my goal to have a flock that looks like these birds and performs with great fleshing and egg laying ability. Rock mixes are great for getting the hybrid vigor. Heck, that is the way the broiler industry today got started using Rocks. Today as it was in the past, Rocks are great birds and bring a lot to the table for versatility and ability. That is what they were originated for. I understand about working with birds on others property. If the customer doesn't like the way the bird looks or acts, then they will not care for it and allow it to reach its greatest potential. That is why there are so many breeds and colors. The issue I see is that with a dual purpose bird, especially a parti-colored one is you can only work on one issue at a time. Fix type and fleshing first, build the body get the structure correct. Then work on egg laying, while maintaining the body, then color it. If you get a flock of any breed that you are trying to fix, outcrossing and hatching enough to be able to select the best of the best is paramount. I hatched 200 from 2 trios to select hard enough to get to this point. Selection and culling is more important that mating and breeding my mentor once said......"
I think a lot of this thread was focused on feather color, but not much has been said about body type for the 'ideal' of Cream Legbars.
Also I think I encountered somewhere-- and not sure where it was...(maybe someone here can point me to it), that Punnett developed the Cream Legbar at a time when there was a lot of scarcity in the UK, thus the value of not feeding the male birds to adult hood - when a person wanted egg layers. His goal Was the leghorn influence (obviously) to get plenty of eggs, the BPR influence to have a partially dual purpose bird? or simply for auto sexing? - and the Blue egg gene to show off his genetic chicken knowledge... anyone else read this? Thanks if you have a source -
"This is my goal to have a flock that looks like these birds and performs with great fleshing and egg laying ability. Rock mixes are great for getting the hybrid vigor. Heck, that is the way the broiler industry today got started using Rocks. Today as it was in the past, Rocks are great birds and bring a lot to the table for versatility and ability. That is what they were originated for. I understand about working with birds on others property. If the customer doesn't like the way the bird looks or acts, then they will not care for it and allow it to reach its greatest potential. That is why there are so many breeds and colors. The issue I see is that with a dual purpose bird, especially a parti-colored one is you can only work on one issue at a time. Fix type and fleshing first, build the body get the structure correct. Then work on egg laying, while maintaining the body, then color it. If you get a flock of any breed that you are trying to fix, outcrossing and hatching enough to be able to select the best of the best is paramount. I hatched 200 from 2 trios to select hard enough to get to this point. Selection and culling is more important that mating and breeding my mentor once said......"
I think a lot of this thread was focused on feather color, but not much has been said about body type for the 'ideal' of Cream Legbars.
Also I think I encountered somewhere-- and not sure where it was...(maybe someone here can point me to it), that Punnett developed the Cream Legbar at a time when there was a lot of scarcity in the UK, thus the value of not feeding the male birds to adult hood - when a person wanted egg layers. His goal Was the leghorn influence (obviously) to get plenty of eggs, the BPR influence to have a partially dual purpose bird? or simply for auto sexing? - and the Blue egg gene to show off his genetic chicken knowledge... anyone else read this? Thanks if you have a source -
