Cream Legbars

[Bluebelle7]

I now have 4 Cream Legbar pullets, and I would like to know what their breed name means?

My Henrietta and Harriet 8 weeks old. We also have Cordelia and Isadora, they are 10 weeks old and hang around with the d'Uccles.

 

[JedJackson]

Cream is simply the color variety. Legbar is an amalgamation of Leghorn and barred rock, two of the three parents in the original crosses for this breed. The other is the British Araucana, which give Legbars their crests and blue eggs.

The bird in front of the picture is kind of off for a cream Legbar. She might be a Legbar type Easter egger, which means she could be a mix. Or she just inherited some funky color genes.

 

[CurlyChickenGirly]

Your birds are gorgeous! We have a cream legbar pullet as well. Ours looks a lot like the one in the back right of your photo. The one in the front of the photo is pretty, too… I wonder if she might be a silver legbar? That’s another color variation of legbars. I’m not sure if that’s what you have for sure. It’s very pretty! And as was mentioned, cream describes the color. Leg is for Leghorn. Bar is Barred Rock. Cream Legbars have apparently have Araucana (or something similar) heritage as well to get that “tuft” on top. I don’t know if all Legbars have it, though.

 

[JedJackson]

Your birds are gorgeous! We have a cream legbar pullet as well. Ours looks a lot like the one in the back right of your photo. The one in the front of the photo is pretty, too… I wonder if she might be a silver legbar? That’s another color variation of legbars. I’m not sure if that’s what you have for sure. It’s very pretty! And as was mentioned, cream describes the color. Leg is for Leghorn. Bar is Barred Rock. Cream Legbars have apparently have Araucana (or something similar) heritage as well to get that “tuft” on top. I don’t know if all Legbars have it, though.

All cream Legbars should have it, and also the sports derived from Cream Legbars, Frost White Legbars and Opal Legbars. Gold Legbars do not have crests and lay brown eggs. I'm not sure if the Gold ones are present in America.

There are other breeds with "bar" in the name. Welbars, which are Welsumer X barred rocks, and Cambars, which are gold Campine x barred rocks. There are probably more.

All of these breeds were created to be autosexing, meaning you can tell males and females apart at birth by coloring. And it works through generations, not just on the first cross like with red or black sex links.

 

[Bluebelle7]

Thanks everybody. I did hatch this very expensive batch of eggs because the Legbars can be sexed at hatching. Although mine were not all that straightforward; it took several experts. Only 5 hatched, only 2 are pullets, Isadora and Cordelia. In one stage I started to worry they were all cockerels, and so when Greta went broody, and would not break, I went and got 2 day old, Henrietta and Harriet, from well known breeder, and they were definite girls.

 

[Shadrach]

They're not exactly the greatest examples of Crested Cream Legbars I must say. They'll be lovely I don't doubt but as an example of the breed...