The Poultry Keeper

NannyP · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject:

Oh yes, it sounds definite. Put some photos on tomorrow, so I can be jealous. I have lost 3 hens this year.

bettyakimbo · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 28 Location: county durham

ok will do. i didn't even go to the sale to get them but at £15 for 8 who could say no! Laughing

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1896 Location: Cheshire

I got a cream legbar yesterday which I am VERY pround of, (and an araucana) to complete my wishlist... well, it has completed the 'desperates' on my wishlist anyway, there are plenty more I would like, but I am happy with my lot now and dont intend to get anymore.

The 2 new comers are definately getting their fair share of hen pecking, they are just hiding in their house at the moment. Do new comers always automatically go to the bottom of the pecking order, or can you get new comers that soon rise and have more status than the original queen bee?

bettyakimbo · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 28 Location: county durham

here they are!

this is one of the paler ones - its got a poorly foot.

holly loves them!

vanessa · Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 1163 Location: Correze

Awww, that's SO cute!!

bettyakimbo · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 28 Location: county durham

got a new addition to our little flock. he came with his wife but i haven't a photo of her yet. they are in with the columbine ladies and are all getting on nicely. i know very little ofthe true standars etc but i think hes a very handsome chap!

excuse the slight blur!

oh and heres a more recent pic of the growers - some are dark and some are pale...hmm odd.

Wilt · Joined: 09 Nov 2006 Posts: 30

It could be from someone like myself, trying to create a new colour. Creating these cuckoo crested, I had a have a few darker ones similar to the ones in the picture?

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 2890 Location: Monmouthshire

Wilt - just tell me, is that the background bird a cream legbar cock?

bettyakimbo · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 28 Location: county durham

they are adorable, is there a maran in there somewhere.

so as for my legbars, if i wanted to breed a very true legbar which would be best to keep? dark or light or in between? i plan to sell some anyway to pay for my obbsesion - partly at least Embarassed

NannyP · Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:17 am Post subject:

The background bird certainly looks like my two coqs.

Wilt · Joined: 09 Nov 2006 Posts: 30

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 2890 Location: Monmouthshire

Tim, my Cream Legbar breeding has gone pear shaped and I'm starting all over again. I'm down to about three well marked pullets and an awful lot of little brown crested jobs. Cock's not too bad, but carries too much chestnut to be acceptable for pure breeding. Yours looks far closer to standard

bettyakimbo · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 28 Location: county durham

hi HW

so does my cockeral look correct to type then? he is in with our columbines and his original cream legbar wife, you have to look twice to see they are different breeds.

my dark chicks, although prob not to standard, are absoloutley stunning, one in particular has a nearly black crest.

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 2890 Location: Monmouthshire

British Poultry Standards 5th edition

Male Plumage. Neck hackles cream, sparsley barred. Saddle hackles cream barred with dark grey, tipped with cream. Back and shoulders cream with dark grey barring, some chestnut permissable. Wings, primaries dark grey, faintly barred, some white permissable; secondaries dark grey more clearly marked; coverts grey barred, tips cream, some chestnut smudges permissable. Breast evenly barred dark grey, well defined outline.Tail evenly barred grey, sickles being paler, some white feather being permissible. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut being permissible.
Female Plumage. 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 faintly barred; coverts silver-grey. Tail silver-grey, faintly barred. Crest cream and grey,some chestnut permissible.
In both sexes. Beak yellow. Eyes orange or red. Comb, face and wattles red. Ear-lobes pure opaque white or cream, slight pink markings not unduly to handicap an otherwise good male. Legs and feet yellow.

Hope this helps - there are very few properly marked Cream legbars around, which is partly why I'm starting again. Having a crest and laying green eggs doesn't make a Cream Legbar.

Wilt · Joined: 09 Nov 2006 Posts: 30

These are a couple of mine, I've added some of Jilly Potters birds to the mix this year. I only hatched out pullets though. So my idea of putting one of her cock birds to mine and my cock bird to hers is out the window Very Happy

Tim