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Cream Legbars

We do not have Cream Legbar pullets in stock.

Cream Legbars have been described as ‘a blue egg laying autosexing pure breed of chicken.’

Let’s look at that in more detail.The start of the breed can be attributed to Clarence Elliott. His passion was rare plants and he traveled widely in search of new and rare species of plant. He returned from such a trip to Patagonia with the extra bonus of three hens and a cockerel. The cockerel did not survive, but the three hens made their way to Professor R C Punnett at Cambridge University. He was studying poultry genetics and experimented with the cross breeding of these Patagonian hens. The breed was further developed in the 1930’s using Brown Leghorns, Barred Rocks and Araucanas.

It is a breed, rather than a hybrid, because the chicks are the same as the adults, as their chicks will be, and so on. A hybrid is the first breeding each time between the two breeds chosen to create the hybrid and the chicks cannot, by definition, be the same as the parents.The heritage of the Araucana gives the Cream Legbar the ability to lay blue, sometimes olive, eggs. It also accounts for the ‘hat’ or ‘pompom’ the hens have on their heads. The Leghorn heritage is clear from the large, floppy comb on the Cream Legbars. The Legbar half of their name derives from their heritage: ‘Leg’ from the Brown Leghorns and ‘bar from the Barred Rocks. The Barred Rock was used because of its egg laying qualities and hardy nature.

The autosexing, nothing to do with breeding techniques, relates to the instantly recognisable distinction between the sexes as soon as they hatch. The surprising bit for the bird world is that the girls are by far the most striking with dark stripes on a yellow background and a wonderful sweep of dark eye liner, whereas the cockerels are almost plain yellow.The chicks grow into very pretty hens and quite striking cockerels. They are a slender bird and smaller than most traditional breeds. They have a fairly long, upright tail and carry their wing tucked close to their body. They have red skin on their faces and yellow beak, legs and feet.

Cream Legbars are an alert breed and quick on their feet. They are small enough to be kept in an enclosed run, such as the ones attached to commercially built hen houses or arks. They can be kept in a larger pen if there is no need to catch them as they are so nimble they are virtually impossible to catch! Imprinting them to the henhouse is therefore vital at the outset!

Price:

We only sell at point of lay. They are £40.