Legbar
 | |
| Conservation status | RBST (UK): at risk[1] |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Use | eggs |
| Traits | |
| Weight | Male: 3.4 kg |
| Female: 2.7 kg | |
| Egg color |
Cream Legbar: blue or green Legbar: white or cream |
| Comb type | single |
| Classification | |
| PCGB | rare soft feather: light[2] |
|
Chicken Gallus gallus domesticus | |
The Legbar is a British breed of auto-sexing chicken. It was created in the early twentieth century by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute of Cambridge University.[3] It was created by cross-breeding Barred Rock with Brown Leghorns in order to transfer the barring gene to the Leghorn.[3] In the Cream Legbar some Araucana blood is reflected in the crest and the blue or olive eggs that they lay.
History
The Legbar was the second auto-sexing chicken breed created by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute in Cambridge, after the Cambar.[3][4]
Characteristics
The Legbar has three colour varieties, Gold, Silver and Cream. The Cream Legbar has a crest and lays blue, olive or green eggs.[5] It is considered a rare breed by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, and falls under the Rare Poultry Society.[6]
Male Legbar chicks have a pale dot on their head and have little or no eye barring. The female Cream Legbar chicks, the hens, have a dark brown or black stripe on their head which continues down the body with clear eye barring.
They lay 180+ eggs per year, probably due to their Leghorn ancestry.
References
- ↑ Native Poultry Breeds at Risk. Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Accessed August 2014.
- ↑ Breed Classification. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Accessed August 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 F.A.E. Crew (1967). Reginald Crundall Punnett. 1875-1967. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 13: 309-326. (subscription required)
- ↑ Francis H.A. Marshall, Edward Thomas Halnan (1946 [1920]). Physiology of farm animals, fourth edition. Cambridge: The University Press. p. 270–71.
- ↑ Victoria Roberts (2008). British poultry standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 9781405156424. p. 53.
- ↑ The Breeds We Cover. The Rare Poultry Society. Accessed August 2014.