Cream Legbar - pullet or roo

[nittanyxi]

These Cream Legbar chicks are 1 week old today.
No white marks on their heads.
The dorsal stripes down the back don't seem that dark though.
Do these look like pullets or roos to you?

chick 1 and 2



chick 2 and 1



chick 1


chick 2


chick 3


chick 3



chick 3

 

[nittanyxi]

Anyone?

 

[rescueacres]

Can you get a picture of their eye stripes?

 

[nittanyxi]

I added some pics of the eye stripes on page 1

 

[nittanyxi]

I added some eye stripe pics

 

[Wishapup]

Though I don't have personal experience with Cream Legbars, my guesses would be:

Chick 1: Female?
Chick 2: Female.
Chick 3: Male?

I think that either Chick 2 and Chick 1 are female, or Chick 2 and Chick 3 are female, but I'm not sure.

It's hard to tell, as the last picture is a bit blurry. Do you have a picture of all of them together?

Edit: After looking at a few more pictures of other Legbar chicks, they might be all male! A picture with all 3 might help, but sometimes they are tricky.

 

[enola]

Do you have pictures of their parents?

 

[dretd]

Hi and good morning Nittanyxi!

Welcome to Cream Legbars--are these your first hatch?

They are a little confusing, so I see why you are asking for help!

In ideal, well marked Cream Legbar chicks (from the British Standard): Downs, Female (Cream): Silver-grey type. The stripe should be very dark brown, extending over the head, neck and rump. The edges of the stripe should be clearly defined, not blurred and blending with ground colour - the sharper the contrast, especially over the rump the better. The stripe should be broad; a narrow or discontinuous stripe should be avoided. A light head patch should be visible, clearly defined in outline, showing up brightly against the dark background.

Male: The down is much paler in tint, the pattern being blurred and washed out from head to rump; it may best be described as pale silvery-slaty.

What I find interesting is that the ideal females are supposed to have a headspot/patch yet they do not talk about one in the boys. The Cream Legbar is an autosexing breed becasue of the barring gene. The females will carry one copy and the males two copies because it is sexlinked and carried on the Z chromosome--boys are ZZ and girls are ZW (much like humans with the XX and XY only in chickens the sexes are reversed!).

In my experience the male's whitish headspots can be so large and blurred that is blends into the silvery-slaty (US English: creamy grey) and thus you don't see them.

In your chicks, I really don't see evidence in the photos of distinct headspots at all (it seems to be fairly common in females) so that would make them in all liklihood females. I would expect any males to have some evidence of either a white spot or a very large blurred lighter area at the back of the head. However the chick 1 looks diluted to a more greyish color more commonly seen in males so there is some evidence of boy down there.

I hope you are not offended by the question, but I think that seeing pictures of the parents is a really good idea to add in as I did see one internet photo of a supposed Cream Legbar pairing where the male only looked (incorrectly) single barred (indicating not a purebred Cream Legbar) and thus some of his offspring would not be autosexing.

More photos in different lighting might be a really good idea as that may take away some of the ambiguity! For right now, I am guessing 1 and 2 are girls if I had to make a choice. I am also not seeing a headspot on 3 but it really looks cinnamony--lighter/redder brown than is typical for a CL girl.