Skip to main content

Legbar Chicken

The Legbar chicken is a British breed created by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease. It is now a rare breed which was developed in the early 20th century in the Genetical Institute of Cambridge University. The main aim for creating this chicken breed was to create a utility breed with a focus on eggs laying.

Legbar chicken is an auto-sexing breed, which means the males and females are easily distinguished by their color after their birth. The developers used a cross breeding programme with two excellent egg layers; the Barred Plymouth Rock and Leghorn chicken. For introducing sex-linked barring gene into the Leghorn, the Barred Plymouth Rock was used.

The Gold Legbar chicken was standardized in 1945, and was created by crossing Brown Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock. The Silver Lagbar chicken was created in 1951 by crossing the Gold Legbar with Silver Cambar and White Leghorn.

And the Cream Legbar chicken was created by crossing White Leghorn and Araucana chicken. Cream Legbar was standardized in 1958, but nearly died in the 1970s. Because blue eggs are not in demand. Review characteristics, behavior, temperament and full breed profile of Legbar chicken below.

Legbar Chicken Characteristics

Legbar chicken's appearance is similar to that of barred Leghorn chicken. The Legbar roosters are firm and muscular birds with a wedge shaped body and prominent breast. They have long flat back, and their wings are large carried close to the body.

Their beak is strong and yellow or horn colored. They have large erect bright red colored single comb with five to seven even spikes with broad bases.

legbar chicken, legbar chickens, cream legbar chicken, cream legbar chickens, gold legbar chicken, gold legbar chickens, silver legbar chicken, silver legbar chickens, legbar chicken facts, legbar chicken info, legbar chicken characteristics, legbar chicken behavior, legbar chicken temperament, legbar chicken variety, legbar chicken eggs

The crest of the Cream Legbar is small and compact which is carried well back from the red or orange eyes, falling off the back of the head below the extended comb. Their face is smooth and is of red color smooth and pendant cream or opaque white earlobes.

The wattles of the Legbar rooster are long and thin and red in color. They have strong, round and clean legs with evenly spaced four toes. They have long and well feathered neck. Their skin color is yellow. The roosters have a plumage of silky texture which is free from coarse or excessive feathers.

On the other hand, the Legbar hens have some general characteristics similar to that of the roosters. The single comb however can be either erect or falling gracefully over to either side of the face without obstructing the eyesight. The tail of the hens are carried at a lower angle.

The crest of the Cream Legbar hen is somewhat fuller and larger than that of the roosters. But crest should never be so full as to obstruct their eyes. The legs and feet of the Gold Legbar or Silver Lagbar hens can be either yellow, orange or light willow. On an average, the Legbar roosters weight about 3.4 kg and hens about 2.7 kg. Photo from Wikipedia.

Behavior/Temperament

Legbar chicken is a utility breed mostly suitable for egg production. The cream Legbar chicken is a fairly noisy breed. And their voice is very like the Araucana. They Legbars are flighty and tend to be nervous. Hens are cream or white egg layers, but the Cream Legbar hens lay blue or green eggs.

They are not considered as good winter layers. Hens are not broody. The breed is very good for free range system and dislike confinement. The roosters are easily tamed and can be aggressive during the breeding season. Review full breed profile of Legbar chicken below.

Breed NameLegbar
Other NameNone
Breed PurposeEgg Layer
Breed TemperamentCan’t Bear Confinement Well, Easy to Handle, Noisy, Flighty
Breed SizeLarge
BroodinessSeldom
CombSingle
Climate ToleranceAll Climates
Egg ColorCream or White, Cream Legbars lay Blue or Green eggs
Egg SizeMedium
Egg ProductivityMedium to High
Feathered LegsNo
RarityRare
VarietiesCream, Gold and Silver
Country of OriginUnited Kingdom

Comments

Popular Posts

Murray Grey Cattle

The Murray Grey cattle are a breed of beef cattle from Australia. It was developed in the upper Murray River valley on the New South Wales. The breed was developed in 1905 from an initial chance mating of a black Aberdeen Angus bull and a roan Shorthorn cow during the Federation drought. From these matings the resulting thirteen dun-grey calves were kept as curiosities. And then Peter and Ena Sutherland bred them on the Thologolong property along the Murray River in New South Wales. Murray Grey cattle grew faster and were good converters of feed and produced quality carcases. These are the reasons this animals become very popular after their development. And local farmers became interested soon in these animals and began breeding them. The first large scale commercial farms were established in the 1940s. Today the breed is available in many countries. Both live Murray Grey cattle and embryos have been exported to many countries such as Canada, South America, New Ze...

Sorting Cattle

Sorting cattle is important if you have a large number of animals. For better management you will need to separate the animals into different groups depending on their age, size, gender or condition score. If some cattle of your herd need to be examined by a veterinarian or confined due to injury or illness, then separation may also need to be done. Sorting is also needed for separating the calves that need to be weaned from their mothers. And separating the bulls is also necessary after they have done their duty with breeding cows. Sorting Cattle Sorting cattle is not actually a difficult task. It can be done easily if you understand stockmanship principles that take advantage of bovine psychology and behavior. However, here we are describing more about the ways of sorting cattle. Sorting From a Squeeze Chute In this system you can move your cattle through a working corral into a chute system into the squeeze. In this system you can check and process animals f...

Andalusian Black Cattle Farming

Andalusian Black cattle farming is not too popular, even in it's native area. It is a relatively rare breed which is valued for meat production. But today, the breed is listed as 'endangered', and total number of the breed is very less. The Andalusian Black cattle is a taurine cattle breed, and it was originated in west Andalusia, Spain. It is also known by some other names such as Negra de las Campiñas, Negra Campiñesa and Spanish: Negra Andaluza. The Andalusian Black cattle is actually a beef cattle breed which is raised primarily for meat production purpose. The breed is found in two main areas of west Andalusia (from Cordova to the foothills of the Sierra Morena), and in the provinces of Seville, Cádiz and Huelva. Today, total population of the Andalusian Black cattle breed is very less. And there were about 800 purebred cattle in the year of 2007. Total number of this breed decreased mainly for crossbreeding with other local cattle breeds. Other reason...

Belted Galloway Cattle Farming

Belted Galloway cattle farming is popular, especially in it's native area. It is a beef cattle breed and raised mainly for meat production purpose. The breed is also known by some other names such as Beltie, Oreo Cow and Panda Cow. The Belted Galloway cattle breed was originated from Galloway in the west side of Southern Scotland. It is a heritage breed, and is well adapted to living on the poor upland pastures and wildswept moorlands of the region. Exact origins of the breed are unclear. But it is often surmised that the white belt of the breed may be a result of cross breeding with the Dutch Lakenvelder belted cattle. And the breed is named so mainly because of the belt. An association for the breed named the Belted Galloway Association was formed in 1921 in Scotland. And the name of the association was changed to Belted Galloway Society in the year of 1951. The association keeps and records pedigrees for Belted Galloways and oversees the registration of White and Re...

Cleaning A Cow

Cleaning a cow in the proper way can keep the animal look and feel fresh. Cleaning also help to prevent external parasites. You may also need to clean your cow to show it off at your local county fair or other occasions. And you need to clean your cows more often especially if you have dairy cows. You can integrate a spraying system for cleaning a cow once a day or so. Along with cleaning the body, you should also provide a footbath for better health of the cow's hooves. However, here we are describing more about the process of cleaning a cow. Sprinkler System Add Sprinkler in a Pre-milking Wash Pen You can construct a pre-milking wash pen with sprinklers for cleaning multiple cows. In this system, install sprinklers all along the pen you hold the cows in before milking. Using concrete for the floor will be good. It will help to keep the floor dry quickly and you will not have a constantly muddy area. You should spray sprinklers both up and down to wash the cows th...

Agerolese Cattle Farming

Agerolese cattle farming is not common, even in it's native area. It is a dairy cattle breed which is raised mainly for milk production purpose in it's native area. It is a pretty rare breed and not available outside it's native area. The Agerolese cattle is actually from the area of Agerola, in Campania in southern Italy. It was developed from cross-breeding of indigenous Podolica cattle with Bruna Italiana, Italian Holstein-Friesian and Jersey cattle. The breed is particularly associated with the Sorrento Peninsula and Monti Lattari. The Agerolese cattle is one of the 16 minor Italian cattle breeds of limited diffusion recognized and protected by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali, the Italian ministry of agriculture. There were a total of 200 animals available according to a census completed on 1 January 2002. And the conservation status of the Agerolese cattle breed was reported by the FAO as 'endangered-maintained' in 200...

Ankole-Watusi Cattle Farming

Ankole-Watusi cattle farming is pretty popular, especially in it's native area. It is a multi-purpose breed of domestic cattle which is raised and valued for show, draught, meat and milk production purpose. The Ankole-Watusi cattle is a landrace breed, a type of Sanga cattle and originally native to East Africa. It is also known as Ankole Longhorn, and also sometimes known simply as Ankole or Watusi. Ankole-Watusi cattle is actually an ancient breed, and ancient rock paintings and depictions of these animals have been observed in the Sahara region and in the Egyptian arts and pyramid walls. The Sanga breed has spread to the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and some other parts of Eastern Africa, becoming the base stock of the indigenous African cattle populations. It has most of the usual Zebu characteristics such as the pendulous dewlap and sheath, hump of variable size and the upturned horns. The Ankole-Watusi cattle have played a very important role in the lives of various ...