I was told this is a cream legbar, is it?

[seacrow13]

Hello! I have several cream legbars, but in a group that I raised last year from chicks only one ended up being a rooster. He and one of the hens actually looked like twins for a little while until he started getting oranger at the top and then all sorts of vibrant colors different from the hens, I’ll post pictures of his progression below. When I google “cream Legbar roosters” there are some images that look like him, but lots of them look like typical cream legbars, or some will look like him but paler near the head.

I understand that cream legbars are themselves created by a mix of breeds, do chickens have recessive genes the way we do? But really: Is he a cream legbar like the others? Or did I somehow get a mix in there?

 

[Rose the Legbar]

He looks to be either a hatchery quality cream legbar or an Easter egger that had a Legbar/Legbar mix parent.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Is he a cream legbar like the others?

Ear lobes aren't white either.

So *if* he is pure for CCL it's quite low quality with regards to breeding IF SOP has any importance.

Maybe he is single barred instead of double?? While I have a hard seeing the exact difference or know if that's accurate the obvious difference is the darker appearance.. which you are also noting.

Unless the auto sexing traits are selected for and maintained.. the breed loses that ability.. I would not "breed" him and call them CCL *IF* it were me.. though I MIGHT do some test hatching just for fun to see if the auto sexing was maintained or not, IF I had a plan for all the extra cockerels that will hatch.

I'm not an expert on genetics or CCL so please consider my information as just for fun possibilities and practice on my part. I will be watching to see what the other response are!

 

[nuthatched]

He looks like my olive egger (welsummer x legbar) roo. Course, those are stereotype rooster colors.

 

[NatJ]

I understand that cream legbars are themselves created by a mix of breeds, do chickens have recessive genes the way we do?

Yes, chickens definitely do have recessive and dominant genes.

But purebred chickens are supposed to breed true for the correct genes, and not carry any recessive genes that would cause a different appearance.

Even though Cream Legbars began as a mix, by now they are supposed to be a pure breed, and not carry any genes for the wrong traits (no gene for not-blue eggs, no gene for not-barred, no gene for dark-colored feet, no gene for not-crested: those are examples of recessives that could hide in a Cream Legbar without being immediately obvious, but should have been removed during the generations of breeding between the original crosses and the current "purebred" status.)

In practice, "purebred" chickens do sometimes carry recessive genes, and offspring with the wrong traits do sometimes appear, even though they are not "supposed" to.

I don't know enough to recognize a good-quality vs. poor-quality Cream Legbar rooster, but I see that has already been addressed by others. If you want to raise good-quality chicks, you wouldn't want to breed from a poor-quality rooster.

 

[seacrow13]

He looks to be either a hatchery quality cream legbar or an Easter egger that had a Legbar/Legbar mix parent.

I see someone else posted a photo of their legbar mix too that looks very similar to this one, so he definitely could be the case. Or maybe a hatchery quality group is what these ones are. Interesting!

Ear lobes aren't white either.

So *if* he is pure for CCL it's quite low quality with regards to breeding IF SOP has any importance.

Maybe he is single barred instead of double?? While I have a hard seeing the exact difference or know if that's accurate the obvious difference is the darker appearance.. which you are also noting.

Unless the auto sexing traits are selected for and maintained.. the breed loses that ability.. I would not "breed" him and call them CCL *IF* it were me.. though I MIGHT do some test hatching just for fun to see if the auto sexing was maintained or not, IF I had a plan for all the extra cockerels that will hatch.

I'm not an expert on genetics or CCL so please consider my information as just for fun possibilities and practice on my part. I will be watching to see what the other response are!

I’ll probably see what comes of him breeding with my cream legbars just out of curiosity lol. I just have chickens for fun and have lots of space so I’m not too concerned with hatching specific breeds or selling them, I was just curious about him. I do actually want some olive eggers, so hopefully I can’t get some out of him one way or another this year

Yes, chickens definitely do have recessive and dominant genes.

But purebred chickens are supposed to breed true for the correct genes, and not carry any recessive genes that would cause a different appearance.

Even though Cream Legbars began as a mix, by now they are supposed to be a pure breed, and not carry any genes for the wrong traits (no gene for not-blue eggs, no gene for not-barred, no gene for dark-colored feet, no gene for not-crested: those are examples of recessives that could hide in a Cream Legbar without being immediately obvious, but should have been removed during the generations of breeding between the original crosses and the current "purebred" status.)

In practice, "purebred" chickens do sometimes carry recessive genes, and offspring with the wrong traits do sometimes appear, even though they are not "supposed" to.

I don't know enough to recognize a good-quality vs. poor-quality Cream Legbar rooster, but I see that has already been addressed by others. If you want to raise good-quality chicks, you wouldn't want to breed from a poor-quality rooster.

Interesting to know!

 

[seacrow13]

He looks like my olive egger (welsummer x legbar) roo. Course, those are stereotype rooster colors.View attachment 3764628

They do look very similar! Like another comment said maybe he is a mix like this one or maybe “hatchery quality”. I love him regardless, he’s ended up being such a great rooster with the hens and isn’t mean or hateful toward humans, so that’s all I can ask lol.

 

[seacrow13]

Cream Legbar doesn’t have an SOP in the APA, so he might be one because the breed standard isn’t really established. That said, he really should have white earlobes and carry the blue egg gene. The people developing the Legbars have created their own standard, though: https://creamlegbarclub.com/breed-1/

They specify that they only have to have white earlobes over one year old.

He’s technically a cockerel a bit short of a year, so maybe I’ll have to just watch what his earlobes do as well. Thanks for the link and info!

 

[Coop-de-doop]

He looks like my olive egger (welsummer x legbar) roo. Course, those are stereotype rooster colors.View attachment 3764628

I have a question! How do you know this is an OE rooster? I am asking because I have the same bird, but was told he’s a cream legbar. Have you hatched any chicks from yours and seen the eggs his offspring lay? I don’t want to sell cream legbar chicks, if mine is an OE. The only difference I can see, is mine has a crest. Which isn’t the easiest to see in my pic

 

[Rose the Legbar]

I have a question! How do you know this is an OE rooster? I am asking because I have the same bird, but was told he’s a cream legbar. Have you hatched any chicks from yours and seen the eggs his offspring lay? I don’t want to sell cream legbar chicks, if mine is an OE. The only difference I can see, is mine has a crest. Which isn’t the easiest to see in my pic

Where did you get your boy from? Your boy seems to be a Legbar mix as well. He is very red and colorful compared to the more pale colored purebred cream legbar. Here is a good photo of a cream legbar rooster from Greenfire Farm’s website to show what I mean color wise.