Legbar – (Cream Crested) (green eggs)

The Legbar is a rare British autosexing chicken breed. It was created in the early twentieth century by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute of Cambridge University. It was created by cross-breeding Barred Plymouth Rock chicken, Leghorns, Cambars, and in the case of Cream Legbars, Araucanas. The Araucana blood in the Cream Legbar is reflected in its crest and blue to blue-green eggs.

cream_crested_legbar_cockerel

History

The Legbar was the second autosexing chicken breed created by Prof. Punnett and M. Pease at the Genetical Institute in Cambridge, after the Cambar, which was created in 1929 by crossing Barred Plymouth Rock with Gold Campine.

The aim was to create an autosexing utility breed with a focus on egg laying, where male and female day old chicks could easily be sexed by their colour. To achieve this Punnet and Pease used a crossing programme with excellent egg layers, the Leghorn and the Barred Plymouth Rock. The Barred Plymouth Rock was used to introduce the sex-linked barring gene (‘barring’ (B)) into the Leghorn. By crossing Brown Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock the Gold Legbar was created and standardised in 1945. The Silver Legbar followed in 1951. It had been created by crossing the Gold Legbar with White Leghorn and Silver Cambar. The Cream Legbar were standardised in 1958 but nearly died out in the 1970s as blue eggs were not in demand. They were created by crossing Gold Legbar with White Leghorn and creme-coloured Araucana chicken. The Araucanas introduced the dilute creme gene (‘inhibitor of gold’ (ig)), as well as the crest and the blue eggs into this variety.

Characteristics

The appearance of the Legbar is similar to that of a barred Leghorn. The Cream Legbar possesses in contrast to the Gold Legbar and the Silver Legbar a crest due to its Araucana blood. The roosters weigh between 2,7 – 3,4 kg (6.0 – 7.5 lbs) and the henns weigh between 2,0 – 2,7 kg (4.4 – 6.0 lbs). They are known to ley between 180 – 200 eggs per year.

The Legbar rooster is a muscular bird with a wedge shaped body which has a promient breast and is wide at the shoulders but tapers slightly towards the root of the tail. It carries itself sprightly and allert. The back is long and flat while the moderately full tail is carried at 45° to the back. The large wings are carried tightly and well tucked up. The fine head has a strong yellow- or horn-coloured beak and a large erect bright red single-comb with five to seven even spikes. The crest of the Cream Legbar is small and compact and carried well back from the red or orange eyes, falling off the back of the head below the extended comb. The face is red and smooth with smooth and pendant cream or opaque white ear-lobes. The red wattles are long and thin and the neck is long and well feathered. The yellow legs are moderately long, strong, and free of feathers and the four toes are straight and well spread. The birds have a plumage of silky texture which is free from coarse or excessive feathers.
The female has general characteristics similar to that of the male, allowing for the natural differences between sexes. The single comb however can be either erect or falling gracefully over to either side of the face without obstructing the eyesight and the tail is carried at a lower angle. The crest of the female Cream Legbar is somewhat fuller and larger than that of the male, but should never be so full as to obstruct the eyes. The legs and feet of female Gold Legbars or Silver Legbars can be either yellow, orange or light willow.

The Cream Legbar male has cream neck hackles which are sparsely barred. The saddle hackles are cream barred with dark grey and are tipped with cream. The back and shoulders are mostly cream barred with dark grey. The wings are dark grey and faintly barred, with the wing coverts grey barred and tipped with cream. The breast and tail are barred dark grey while the sickles are paler. The crest is cream and grey.

The neck hackles of the female Cream Legbar are cream, softly barred grey. The breast is salmon and clearly, while the body is silver-grey with indistinct broad soft barring. The wings are silver-grey, while the tail is also silver-grey with indistinct soft barring. The crest is cream and grey. They lay blue to blue-green eggs.
Today, several so-called Cream Legbars do not fulfil the breed standard of the Poultry Club of Great Britain because they have lost the dilute cream gene (‘inhibitor of gold’ (ig)).

The standards of the Bantam Legbars are similar to those of the large fowl. Males weight 850 g (30 oz) and females weight 620 g (22 oz).

Click below to go to our Poultry Direct Online Shop!