Our Story
OUR STORY
Granite Plains Farm in Marble Falls, TX was the predecessor of Gary Dean Farm in McAlester, OK. Granite Plains was started as a two-acre hobby farm with a focus on raising pure chicken breeds known for superior quality eggs. At its peak, there were over 60 mature birds on the property and 12 chicken coops. With flock rotation there typically were about 8 hens in the pasture at a time which gave them enough free range to produce big, dark yolked, natural eggs from the best quality laying breeds we could find. At Granite Plains, there were Black Copper Marans, Maradura Euskal Oiloa (Golden Barred Basque Hens), Blue/Black/Splash Breda Guedre (or Breda fowl), and Cream Legbars. In 2015 the owners were moved to Oklahoma with a job transfer. When the Texas property was sold much of the breeding stock was retained by the new owners. No mature birds could be taken to Oklahoma but chicks were hatched from the Texas flocks before the move and brought to Oklahoma to build new flocks. The more that was learned about breeding chickens at Granite Plains the more convinced the owners became that to reach the goals that were set with chicken breeding that a one breed flock would be required to accomplish them. Gary Dean Farm in Oklahoma was therefore modeled after a traditional one-breed flock that doesn’t require rotating time on the field allowing everyone on the property to free-range 24/7. Gary Dean Farm has continued to breed the Granite Plains line of Cream Legbars which is now one of the oldest lines in the country (established from 2011 breedings).
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OUR BREEDS
The Cream Legbar: This egg is most noted for its blue-green egg shell. It was developed in the 1930’s by the Cambridge University Breeding Program in England by renowned geneticist R.C. Punnett. Punnett achieved both a fun and practical laying breed. They produce colorful eggs and still are a productive layer of eggs that are larger than those of other blue egg-laying breeds. They are very popular for poached egg recipes. Chef Gordon Ramsey has been actively educating restaurants in the UK on the value of the free-range eggs from commercial blue egg Legbar Hybrids that are offered at high-quality stores there and encouraging them to use them to improve what they offer in fine dining. This breed was imported from Europe by Greenfire Farms in 2010.
White Call Ducks: After two years of waiting our 8-year old’s long waiting request for call duck was fulfilled. We started will a half dozen ducklings in the spring of 2019 and enjoy our little flock. They lay a green egg similar in color and size to the Legbars but have a waxy film on the outside of the shell that helps distinguish them.
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NEWS FROM THE FARM
11/7/2020 – The Canadian Valley APA MEGA Show was able to be held this year. Most shows were canceled so we did our best to have a good showing of Legbars in Norman, OK this year. Paul Smith and Aaron Hickson exhibited Legbars with us and there were a total of 22 Legbars at the show. Our winners were the following:
Cream Legbar Pullet – 1st Place, BV, BB
Cream Legbar Cockerel – 1st Place
Note: The pullet that won Best of Breed was also entered in the Ohio Nationals Virtual Poultry Show.
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12/14/2019 – We took a half dozen Legbars to the Shawnee, OK APA show. Paul Smith and Cindy Bailey also were exhibiting their Legbars and I was the best competition we have seen for Legbars in the 9 years that we have been going to shows to promote the breed. Our winners were the following:
Cream Legbar Pullet – 3rd Place
Cream Legbar Hen – 1st Place, RV
Crele Legbar Hen – 1st Place, RV
______________________________________________________________________________ 4/21/2018 – The results of the 2017 On-line Cream Lebar Show were posted. Our birds won Best of Variety with our Gold Crele Legbar Cockerel, first place Cream Legbar Cockerel, 2nd place Cream Legbar Hen, and 3rd place Cream Legbar pullets.
_______________________________________________________________________________ 11/4/2017 – We exhibited 7 Cream Legbars in the Southern Regional Cream Legbar Club Meet at the Candaian Valley MEGA Poultry show in Norman, Oklahoma. We also had three breeding trios of Legbars in the sales area. There were over 3,500 birds at the show with breeders coming from all over the USA and even Canada. Tens of thousands of dollars were given away in pize money. Our top placing bird took first place in the Cream Legbar Pullet catagory.
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9/3/2017 – We enjoyed participating in the Oklahoma Pittsburg Country Fair again this year. We exhibited a dozen birds in the Open Chicken class. Our Cream Legbar pullets to Best of Breed, Reserve Best of Breed, and 3rd place in breed. Our Columbian Plymouth Rock pullet to Reserve Show Champion.
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2/25/2017 – We got our Nigerian Goat Herd registered. Our herd name in Gary Dean. So the Granite Pains II farm in Oklahoma is now Gary Dean Farm. We got the results back from the 2nd Annual On-line Cream Legbar Club Show. The hen we submitted to the show won Best of Show, Best of Breed, and Best of Variety, and first place Cream Legbar Hen. The Cockbird that we entered in the on-line show won 2nd place Cream Legbar Cock.
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12/10/2016 – Curtis hosted the Southern Regional Cream Legbar Club meet at the Shawnee, OK APA show today. Sixteen Cream Legbars were on exhibit. Our hens took best of breed and reserve of breed.
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9/10/2016 – Granite Plains II entered 5 Cream Legbars in the Oklahoma Pittsburg County Fair. We were the only Cream Legbars at the show, but the group showed really well. This pullet took best of breed. This was the top placing cockerel.
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Curtis was appointed to be the 2016 Southern Regional Director of the Cream Legbar club. This is a one year commitment to finish out the elected term of the previous Regional Director.
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The founders of Granite Plains entered two pullet and one cockerel from our 2015 Hatch that will be the foundation of the new Granite Plains flock in Oklahoma in the October 20, 2015 Cream Legbar Club’s on-line poultry show. They cockerel placed 4th and one of the pullets placed 2nd. The first place pullet that beat us out was named best of show out of the 107 entries so we felt pretty good about how well our birds showed.
Cream Legbar Cockerel in On-line Show
Cream Legbar Pullet in On-line Show
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The founders of Granite Plains will be moving to McAlester, Oklahoma June 2015 where they plan to rebuild a Cream Legbar flock. They have decided to go to a one breed flock so that they can devote more time and resources to developing quality Cream Legbar breeding lines in the USA. The new owners of Granite Plains in Marble Falls will be keeping some of the key Cream Legbar breeding stock as well as Basque Hens and possible Black Copper Marans.
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Granite Plains would like to congratulate the Caldwell family of Dripping Springs, TX. Granite Plains was their sponsor for a 4H project where they, along with 5 other 4H families, raised Cream Legbars and showed them at the Texas State fair the 11th of October 2014. The exhibit was followed by a breed evaluation to aid sponsors and Cream Legbar breeders across the country in improving the Cream Legbar breed to the level that would be required for official breed recognition at poultry shows in North America. Of the 30 Cream Legbars that were exhibited the Caldwell family produced the bird that won Best of Breed.
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Granite Plains competed at the Fancy Feathers Poultry Show on March 15, 2014 in Dripping Spring, TX where Curtis held the South Regional Cream Legbar Club Activity and hosted a Club table. At the Show we participated in the egg show held at the Marans Chicken Club table and won the people’s choice award for the best set of eggs.
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Granite Plains competed at the Brazo Valley Poultry Club’s Winter Egg Contest at the Blue Bonnet Classic Poultry Show on January 4, 2014 in College Station, TX. There was a lot of talk about our Black Copper Marans eggs since most people (Marans owners included) had never seen eggs as dark as what we entered in the contest. We placed 4th place in the Open Brown Egg Category. In the Open APA Poultry show Curtis had the first place Black Copper Marans Rooster (3rd photo down on right). He went on to place 2nd out of the 26 entries in the Black Copper Marans Variety.
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Anne was asked to do a presentation on processing chickens for a local event in August 2013. We were a little surprised since we only keep chickens for the eggs, but she did a great job with a focus of self-raised meat & eggs vs. commercially raised meat & eggs. We will try to get her to post some of the presentation on the Mother Hen’s Garden, Kitchen and Coop blog.
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Curtis was asked to be the President for the Cream Legbar Club for 2013-2014. He felt honored by the invitation and looks forward to working with producers across the country to advance this beautiful breed and their remarkable eggs.
