The Legbar Thread!

[ochochicas]

My legbar hens all finished molting and are back to laying. Over the winter I hatched out (very successfully) a lot of eggs that were fertilized by the CCL rooster. The hens were different purebreds, but no CCLs. Unfortunately the rooster got a little too aggressive for his own good and we had to cull him. My turken rooster took the job of tending to the hens. I got a 75% hatch rate from my recent hatch of CCL eggs there were fertilized by the turken. I think some of the eggs may have been fertilized by the Legbar rooster, which may be why they didn't hatch.

Now I'm torn between getting another Legbar rooster to breed, or keeping a Marans rooster and producing some olive eggers. My hens are coming up on two years old though so I'm not sure how much longer I can plan to breed them.

 

[stryker]

Not all legbar roos are sterile. From what I am reading from this blog. Only about most are sterile. I would try another roo. You could always put the legbar roo over maran hens. For really dark olive eggs, the F2's lay way darker. Good luck.

By the way I had to edit this to I have no idea on which color works better the blue roo over the brown hens or the blue hens over the brown roo.

 

[ChicKat]

I just wanted to mention that I'm getting better hatches from my Cream Legbars. I'm not sure if it's maturity or just because the pullets that aren't related to my rooster have started to lay but at this point I know that my related hen is at least somewhat fertile when crossed to the related cockerel and that fertility has gone up. My Cream Legbars all started laying at just about 6 months...maybe just a bit earlier and they are laying really quite well now.

Fascinating -

 

[dretd]

Not all legbar roos are sterile. From what I am reading from this blog. Only about most are sterile. I would try another roo. You could always put the legbar roo over maran hens. For really dark olive eggs, the F2's lay way darker. Good luck.

By the way I had to edit this to I have no idea on which color works better the blue roo over the brown hens or the blue hens over the brown roo.

Hi Stryker, of course if all CLB boys were sterile then there would be no more Cream Legbars

...you have referenced a blog that is saying most Cream Legbar males are sterile...or that is the way I interpret it anyway. Could you provide a link to that blog?

Although I have had some late deaths of chicks sometime after day 18, my fertility is has been 100% in most of my hatches.

I think that some problem for some people may be inbreeding in their own flock--how often have we seen a member get a batch of hatching eggs, get both males and females and then proceed to do brother-sister pairings? A number of diseases can cause infertility and there are mechanical issues as well.

 

[stake]

Not all legbar roos are sterile. From what I am reading from this blog. Only about most are sterile. I would try another roo. You could always put the legbar roo over maran hens. For really dark olive eggs, the F2's lay way darker. Good luck.

By the way I had to edit this to I have no idea on which color works better the blue roo over the brown hens or the blue hens over the brown roo.

Sorry to jump in...late in the conversation....the breed is 50yrs old....if roos were sterile then it would've only lasted a generation or two...if a roo is sterile no matter what hen is covered, its the same result.....Your post really doesn't make any sense...my roo has covered four different girl and had no problems hatching chicks from BO, GLW, BCM, and SG Dork.....humm guess my guy isn't 'only about most'....as referenced, what blog post???

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I knew my roo wasn't sterile as he fathered several chicks with my Black Star hens when he was barely over 4 months old. The oldest pullet is a brother/sister pairing and I got at least a few chicks out of them but now that the unrelated pullets have been laying I'm getting really good hatches.

 

[ochochicas]

I was confused by the post, too. My CCL rooster was very fertile. I have a flock of about 20 hens, and with the exception of a few old ladies that refused to be bred, nearly every single egg I got from my hens was fertile. That said, I was getting a 0% hatch rate on my CCL x CCL eggs. When I crossed the CCL rooster with different breeds I got a 100% hatch rate. When I crossed the CCL hens with a Turken rooster I got a 75% hatch rate. My rooster was not related to my hens, but I still think there was something going on with the Legbar genetics that killed off the chicks right before they were supposed to hatch.

 

[chicken pickin]

I have had someone ask me one time if I had problems with my Cream Legbar males being sterile. That was the first I have heard of this Cream Legbar are "sterile" thing.

I have had a few Cream Legbar males now, and none of them have been sterile. Cream Legbars are definitely able to fertilize females Cream Legbar and other breeds just fine. I think the confusion for some people starts when they are seeing others get less than ideal hatch rates from some Cream Legbar flocks. This is NOT a sterile issue but rather a getting chicks to make it past the 18 day mark during incubation issue. Issue all the same. People get confused or misunderstand, it happens. This could be genetic, or maybe we are experiencing stock too closely related to each other being bred together, or many of us could just be bad at hatching eggs

(just kidding on the hatching eggs part lol). If that article is available for us to read Im sure many of us would love to read it, maybe there is something in it we dont know. But as far as we know as a whole, Cream Legbar are not sterile.

 

[stryker]

I have had someone ask me one time if I had problems with my Cream Legbar males being sterile. That was the first I have heard of this Cream Legbar are "sterile" thing.

I have had a few Cream Legbar males now, and none of them have been sterile. Cream Legbars are definitely able to fertilize females Cream Legbar and other breeds just fine. I think the confusion for some people starts when they are seeing others get less than ideal hatch rates from some Cream Legbar flocks. This is NOT a sterile issue but rather a getting chicks to make it past the 18 day mark during incubation issue. Issue all the same. People get confused or misunderstand, it happens. This could be genetic, or maybe we are experiencing stock too closely related to each other being bred together, or many of us could just be bad at hatching eggs

(just kidding on the hatching eggs part lol). If that article is available for us to read Im sure many of us would love to read it, maybe there is something in it we dont know. But as far as we know as a whole, Cream Legbar are not sterile.

Very well said . Guys/Gals I misread "ochochicas" post about not having success rate and misread the roo being sterile. I reread the post again and of course didn't misread it this time

. . What I was trying to say was some of the stuff that Chicken pickin just said.

I read the entire 779 pages from this legbar thread and I guess I misinformed people by saying blog instead of this legbar tread and the wrong wording. Chicken Pickin could have not said it any more clearly and better about the sterile/incubation problem that people are having. I guess I should have paced myself when reading all the pages in this thread before posting something like that.

The good part is that this thread has been really hopping today! By the way, I am that person who is terrible with hatching eggs. The best hatch from my incubator has been around 20 percent. I hope I didn't offend anyone on that post. Should I remove it?

 

[ochochicas]

Stryker - your post was fine. I think a lot of us assumed you interpreted a post wrong or used incorrect terminology. It happens to everyone at one time or another. I can remember in one post I meant to say that Salmonella can be found almost everywhere, but the way i wrote it people read, "all chickens have salmonella". It ruffled a few feathers.

As for my roo, he was very fertile. He's got several dozen chicks running around Washington. Unfortunately he was mean and we had no choice but to cull him last month. He came at my head in the coop one day and also jump on DH's back. That didn't go over well with him.