# A Cream Legbar? Need help identifying



## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

I have what I believe to be a Legbar. I thought it was a hen but it has started to crow somewhat feebly each morning. I work on a farm and it’s in good hands but someone ditched a few chickens on the side of the road here and I need help identifying one and sexing both of them. One is a Deleware Blue. Haven’t heard it crow yet.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

It's becoming a thing to dump unwanted roosters. 

Agree, that top one is a roo. I'll get @imnukensc and @fuzzies involved with the rest of your questions since I'm not very good at it.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

robin416 said:


> It's becoming a thing to dump unwanted roosters.
> 
> Agree, that top one is a roo. I'll get @imnukensc and @fuzzies involved with the rest of your questions since I'm not very good at it.


Thank you!


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## imnukensc (Dec 5, 2020)

I believe the rooster in the first picture is a cream legbar. I know nothing about Delaware Blues.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

Thank you for the response. I was thinking this was a cream Legbar. I have purchased two actual 6 week hens of the same species and built a 9.71 square foot coop with a run. That gives them a little more than three interior square ft each. Should the rooster be in there with them or do I need to slowly introduce them? I can’t take the rooster into the main barn here because there already is one and the one I have is much smaller.


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## fuzzies (Jul 27, 2021)

The first bird is male, but not a pure Legbar. He is single-factor barred (meaning he's not pure for the barring gene as a Legbar male should be) and his leg color is wrong. I would suspect that he's a Black Copper Marans x Legbar cross olive-egger, which would account for the leg color and not being pure for barring.

The second one is not a Delaware Blue, either. Delaware Blues have large single combs and they wouldn't have that little tuft of a crest. He is a male, though. He is likely also an olive-egger or Easter-egger mix.

It's so sad that people think it's acceptable to dump them instead of trying to find a proper home for them.  Good on you for taking them in!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Thanks, you two. I don't know what I'd do without you.

@Cadaigle that's a bit small for a coop. Should be 4 sq ft of open floor space. In other words no space taken by a nest or food and water. I sure hope your run is a lot larger.

All you can do is test to see if it's OK to put the two ladies in with him. BTW, how old are they. If they're still too young he might make life miserable for them.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

I just re measured it and the open floor space is 10.28 sqf. I am still constructing it and will hang the nest boxes over the edge to preserve that floor space. Perhaps I’ll just keep the two new hens in there when I get them and maybe the Legbar mix if I see that they are getting along. The roosters are let out all day every day and seem to stay within 30ft of their food and water. Right now I put them in a 10’x12’ canvas tent with a roost food and water at night. As of now they are getting along fine with each other but I know that could very well change as they mature.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

robin416 said:


> Thanks, you two. I don't know what I'd do without you.
> 
> @Cadaigle that's a bit small for a coop. Should be 4 sq ft of open floor space. In other words no space taken by a nest or food and water. I sure hope your run is a lot larger.
> 
> All you can do is test to see if it's OK to put the two ladies in with him. BTW, how old are they. If they're still too young he might make life miserable for them.


I forgot to mention that they are 6 week cream Legbar hens that are due to ship on the 13th of September. I do not have them yet and can still make adjustments to their coop. The frame is 36x41.125 and it’s up off the ground with a mini run beneath. They will be free range though with a much larger fenced in area. The picture is what the farmers do here with their egg layers. They let them out all day and move the whole setup to a different patch of grass every week. I could do something similar on a much smaller scale here.










robin416 said:


> Thanks, you two. I don't know what I'd do without you.
> 
> @Cadaigle that's a bit small for a coop. Should be 4 sq ft of open floor space. In other words no space taken by a nest or food and water. I sure hope your run is a lot larger.
> 
> All you can do is test to see if it's OK to put the two ladies in with him. BTW, how old are they. If they're still too young he might make life miserable for them.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That is a really neat setup. Are you going for the same thing or are yours extra good about staying close? 

Age is going to be the biggest issue with the two new girls. They don't mature as fast as the boys and the young boys can very demanding. But you probably know that.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

Yes a very similar setup only on a less crowded scale. I’ll update a picture of the coop that I’m building tomorrow. I added a 12” by 42” bump out on the back exterior for the two hens to nest without taking up sq ft. It’s hard to say how old the rooster is being an abandoned one although it only started to crow three days ago. The farmers wanted nothing to do with them but I’ll make sure both the hens and the roosters are all well cared for. If they don’t get along I’ll keep them separated until the hens mature.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

If by any chance they do get along and one day decide to brood, do you think the eggs would then be green? It would be cool to have both blue eggs from the cream Legbars and green ones from the hybrid hens.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

Yes, my Legbar hybrid sits on my knee at all times and crows outside of the am ritual only when he knows I’m going to work or leaving him for a bit. He stays within about 30 ft of the tent I have for him even when I’m not there.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Time will tell. He might have chosen not to crow because everything was new. Now he's home and feels secure, obviously, and lets the world know he's in charge. 

Love that pic.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The 1st rooster is a polish legbar mix ( polish chickens can be "candycorn" colors ,really pretty) the head feathers is a polish crest.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)




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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

You did that? You didn't mention you were also an artist. That is an absolutely lovely addition to your place.


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## Cadaigle (5 mo ago)

Yes I did! So far just the two Cream Legbar Hens are in it. I think I’m going to have to slowly introduce the polish Legbar mix to them. I don’t know what to do with the Easter egger rooster (the gray one) it would be great to grow a small flock next summer and possibly have more egg colors for the farm to sell. Keeping Johnny Blue around for the Easter egger gene might help with that.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I need to check to see who it is that determines egg color. I think it's the hen. So you might be keeping him because you like him and his feather color.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

That coop is amazing omg.
Both the rooster and hen determine egg color. If the rooster is a ccl mix then he has 1 copy of the blue gene.. but being a mix there is no guarantee that his blue egg gene will produce a chick that lays blue eggs. You would need a ccl hen or Americana hen who lays blue eggs to breed with the ccl mix rooster. Hatch out those chicks and wait for the chicks to mature to see what color eggs they lay.

I used to breed my pure ccl rooster to some of my brown egg layers and I'd get light olive eggs from those chicks once they matured and laid eggs and brown eggs. 

The hens that lay blue eggs bred with your rooster have a good chance of producing chicks that will possibly lay blue eggs as well. The polish mix side lays light cream eggs so you might get light cream or tan eggs ..


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Thanks, ME. I forgot to dig deeper on the egg color thing. 

I remember that pic you posted so many years ago of the basket full of all the multicolored eggs. It was beautiful.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I've got somewhere a picture of egg colors to get from breeding I'll try to find it to post here


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Let's hope you can.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I've got 8400 pictures on my.sd card it's there somewhere lol


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

LOL Even if you find it, will you be able to post it? We never did figure what the reason was why you couldn't.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I don't know probably not


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

These are from @Maryellen.


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## fuzzies (Jul 27, 2021)

Blue eggs are simple, it's one dominant gene. Having either one or two copies of the gene makes blue shells, no copies makes white shells. Note, I mean the actual shell; if you peel the membrane out of the inside of a blue or green egg, it's blue on the inside. A brown egg is white on the inside because brown is a sort of overlay put on toward the end of building the egg. All eggs are either white or blue with varying amounts of brown 'painted' over them.

Brown is a lot more complicated. There are a ton of genes for that brown overlay that make a spectrum of different shades. Some of these genes are sexlinked, and some are not. Those sexlinked genes are why it is said that the rooster determines the egg color in his daughters; he can pass sexlinked genes to both his sons _and _his daughters, while a hen can _only_ pass sexlinked genes to her sons, so her daughters will never inherit those genes from her.

There's also apparently a gene that some white egg layers like Leghorns have that whitens their white eggs to be extra bright white, which can effect other shell colors as well, making them paler. Legbars being part Leghorn may carry this gene, which is likely why their blue eggs are often paler than blue eggs from an Ameraucana, for example.

Anyway, not knowing 100% the background of these two roosters, it's really hard to predict what egg color their daughters will produce.


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## ChickenBiscuts (May 28, 2021)

Both are male.

x2 on all of what Fuzz said.


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## Poultry Fancier (7 mo ago)

The first one looks a Legbar, regarding the second, I can’t say anything, the Delaware is not admitted in the European standards


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