Opal Legbars

Description

These are a lavender version of the common Cream Legbar. They are much lighter in color, as all the blacks and greys are muted to very light grey. Our flock has been genetically tested to lay all blue eggs.

Opal Legbars are a color variant sometimes known as “isabel”. It was created by adding the gene for lavender to cream legbars. They are a very pretty color, but the other genetic traits important for Legbars are not completely fixed yet. The most significant issue is that not all are fully crested. This is a partially dominant gene, so it is just a numbers game of hatching enough chicks to allow for selection of all well crested birds.

Breeding Goals

  • FIXED as of July 2023 – Blue Eggs – Foremost in our breeding is to fix the dominant gene for blue eggs in out flock so that white eggs will not be possible in the future.
  • Calm and docile – The cockerels are showing some mild aggression, similar to what the Rees line Creams had years ago. We are confident we can eliminate this in the future, but since most people are only looking for females, this is not a huge problem.
  • Crests – Not all the birds have full crests. By careful selection and breeding these back to the Cream Legbar line with great crests, this should be improved in the future.
Opal pullets
opal pullet in nestbox, unhappy to be disturbed
Opals lay pretty blue eggs