The Cream Legbar

The Cream Legbar is a cross between the Brown Leghorn, Araucana and Barred Plymouth Rock. It is an  autosexing breed which means young chicks can be sexed by the colour of their down shortly after hatching. The 'barring' pattern that is found on Cream Legbars are sex-linked, i.e. the males have two chromosomes for barring and the females only one.

Day old chicks have a light patch on the top of the head. When the barring is combined with brown colouring the light spot on the head of the females is small and well defined and in addition there is a very clearly defined dark stripe down the back. The stripe down the back on the males is much fainter and they have a light patch that covers most of their head. Their down is much paler.

The female (left) and the male (right).

The Cream Legbar lays a blue coloured egg that is ever so slightly lighter than an Araucana. A few Cream Legbars will lay an olive coloured egg. The photo shows the difference between an Araucana and a Cream Legbar egg, as you can see from the photo, there is very little in it.

The head carries a large single comb which should be straight and erect with five to seven even spikes with broad bases. The face has ‘pendant’ ear-lobes, with long and thin wattles.

Colouring:

Male – A yellow beak, legs and feet. Red face, comb and wattles. Ear-lobes white or cream A cream and grey crest, barred dark grey breast and tail with slightly paler sickles. Some white is permitted. Cream barred neck and saddle hackles, dark grey tipped with cream. Dark grey barred primary feathers in the wings, secondary feathers have grey barred coverts with cream tips. The back and shoulders are cream, barred dark grey. Weight should be between 2.75 and 3.5Kg.

Female – A yellow beak, legs and feet. Red face, comb and wattles. Ear-lobes white or cream. A salmon coloured breast and silver-grey body with broad indistinct barring. Primary feathers of the wings are peppered grey, the secondary feathers are lightly barred, with silver grey coverts. The tail has light barring. Neck hackles are cream with soft grey barring. Weight should be between 2 and 2.75Kg.

 The purest strains of Legbar will lay predominantly blue eggs and will lay at least 175 or so eggs per year in their first few years. Hatchability of these eggs should be at least 75% and be a good shape with a weight between 50 and 65 grams and for this reason pullets should not be used for breeding whilst they are still young. There are a number of egg colours in the Breed Standard and the Cream Legbar may lay different colours of eggs. This means that selection for blue egg colour has not been carried out, or that they are not a very pure strain. Cream Legbars are not the commercial ‘supermarket’ blue egg layers such as the Cotswold Legbar! these are Hybrid birds that have been created to lay blue eggs and as always to lay as many saleable eggs as possible in their early years. More photos can be found here.