Reviews by dheltzel

I had heard of Welbars and read about the ones in the UK, but they were not available in the US, so I decided to re-create the breed here. It turns out that this is easy to do, there are known "recipes" for the crosses that are needed. It took over 2 years of intensive crossing and selection to get there, but I'm extremely pleased with how they turned out. I am surprised at how dark the eggs are compared to pure Welsummers, I expected the initial cross to a barred rock would more or less permanently lighten the eggs, but I can't find any discernable difference in coloring or size. I have a pullet that lays lighter colored eggs than the others, but then I have 1 or 2 Welsummer pullets that do that also.

These are now one of my favorite breeds, I expect to have them for a long time.

Welbar related web pages:

http://www.harislau.info/welbars - Best site for info about history and genetics behind Welbars
http://welbars.com - My site with pictures
https://www.facebook.com/greenfirefarms/posts/719438931492991:0 - Facebook post about Greenfire importing Welbars for 2017 availability

The first pullet laid an egg at exactly 5 months of age and before they were 6 months old, I was getting 20 eggs from 24 pullets. None of my other breeds come close to that. I am using them to produce black sexlinks that lay blue eggs by putting an Ameraucana roo over them. I'm pretty sure this cross will be a great layer of blue eggs.

They are similar to leghorns in temperment, much more nervous than the Barred Hollands I used for the sexlink cross the previous year. Once they matured they were considerable calmer.

Take a Rhode Island Red, add barring and take away a few other genes, and you have an auto-sexing brown egg layer. The commercial world is dominated by sex-link hybrids, but as everyone knows (or soon finds out), the magic of color sexing chicks does not continue into future generations. Hatcheries might like this because it keeps customers from raising their own replacement stock, but backyard breeders who would like to hatch their own, would be much better served by keeping auto-sexing breeds.

Our hens are top notch layers, yesterday I collected 10 eggs from 11 hens, and one of those is the original hen and is likely still completing her molt. They are calm but curious, always first in line for anything that looks like a treat.

Roosters are pretty and never people aggressive. They get large too (like a RIR) and would no doubt make a reasonable meat bird.