STEEPLE DUCKS

POULTRY

Gold Legbar

Young Welbar cock

Welbar x Cream Legbar chicks:

Chicks from a cross of two autosexing pure breeds are also autosexing. There are 3 females and one male in the photo. The male is the creamier one top left of photo. The females are browner and more strongly marked. The female at the top right of the photo is a little indistinct and in selecting breeders for pure stock would be best avoided.

Rhodebar cockerel

Welbar x Cream Legbar hen lays an olive green egg.

Cream Legbar hen

Autosexing breeds of poultry

I have Rhodebar poultry and a mix of hens that lay a variety of coloured eggs including cream legbar (sky blue), welbar x cream legbar (green), welsummer (chocolate brown), vorwerk and gold legbar (white), light sussex (tinted).

For hatching eggs of Rhodebar/Rhode Island Red or autosexing Rhodebar x Cream Legbar x Welbar = Crossbars please get in touch, or for beautiful Cochins, Brahmas and Red Sussex please see my sisters website www.wfpoultry.co.uk.

I have Gold Legbar, Cream Legbar and Rhodebar hens. These are all pure breeds that are autosexing - the sexes can be identified by colour at day old.

The Gold Legbar was developed from the Brown Leghorn and Plymouth Rock and lay a white egg.

The Cream Legbar was developed from these also but has the addition of Araucana to give a blue egg layer (and a crest).

The Rhodebar is developed from the Golden Brussbar (from Brown Sussex) and Rhode Island Red and lays a tinted brown egg.

I also have some Welbar crossed with Cream Legbar hens. A Welbar based on the Welsummer lays a chocolate brown egg. The cross lays an olive-green egg. I now also have Crossbars that are a cross of pure breed legbars that also give autosexing chicks see below. Females are more strongly coloured and marked, the males are creamer. Males have a double dose of barring (from the Plymouth Rock) and as can be seen from the Welbar cock photo are rather handsome. Females have only a single dose giving only have a hint of barring that can be seen in the Rhodebar compared with a Rhode Island Red photo above.

The Cotswold Legbar (photo above) is not a pure breed but a hybrid and is not autosexing they come in a wide variety of colours.

Rhodebar pullet chick

Rhodebar x (Welbar x Cream Legbar) cockerel

Rhodebar x (Welbar x Cream Legbar) pullet

and with 2 blue genes

BlueRed Leghorn pullet

Rhodebar & utility Rhode Island Red (RIR) poultry

The Rhodebar is a critically rare autosexing breed of poultry based on the RIR. The cockerels have 2 barring genes and the hens only 1, females  do not have a corresponding gene due to a sex linked shortened chromosome.

I have a 09 hatch cock from a Rhodebar cockerel and a utility RIR hen. The parent cockerel was from Wernlas and the hen from John Leach's flock of utility RIR at Lansdowne, Bath. He is penned off with 5 Rhodebar hens and 2 utility RIR hens from Shaw's trap tested flock. They are laying glossy, strong shelled, deeply tinted eggs.

As the cockerel carries one barring gene the pullet offspring from any of the hens in this pen will be pure breed, averaging out at 50% Rhodebar & 50% RIR.

It is intended to select and outcross as necessary, to maintain a vigorous utility flock, giving pure breed Rhodebars & Rhode Island Reds that lay plenty of good quality eggs. So if you are interested in hatching eggs to give utility birds of either breed do get in touch.