Cream Legbar - Characteristics

Characteristics

The male Cream 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 are quite a noisy breed and are very inquisitive to explore new places. Cream Legbars were developed in the 1930's in Cambridge by crossing Brown Leghorns, Barred Plymouth Rocks and Araucana (for the egg colour). Cream Legbars are a pure breed of poultry, they are autosexing which means you can tell the sex of the chick at day old. They are a rare breed and are covered by the Rare Poultry Society. They were originally called Crested Cream Legbars but this was later change to Cream Legbar. They lay 180+ eggs per year, this is probably due to their leghorn ancestry. The breed standard is as follows: Origin: British

Classification: Light

Egg Colour: Blue, Green or Olive

General Characteristics:

Male

Carriage : Very sprightly and alert, with no suggestion of stiltiness.

Type: Body wedge shaped, wide at the shoulders and narrowing slightly to root of tail. Back long, flat and sloping slightly to the tail. Breast prominent, and breast bone straight. Wings large, carried tightly and well tucked up. Tail moderately full at an angle of 45 degrees from the line of the back.

Head: Fine. Beak stout, point clear of the front of the comb. Eyes prominent. Comb single, perfectly straight and erect, large but not overgrown, deeply and evenly serrated (5 to 7 spikes broad at the base), extending well beyond back of the head and following, without touching, the line of the head, free from ‘thumb marks’ or side spikes. Face smooth. Ear-lobes well developed, pendent, smooth and free from folds, equally matched in size and shape. Wattles long and thin.

Neck: Long and profusely covered with feathers.

Legs and Feet: Legs moderately long. Shanks strong, round and free of feathers. Flat shins objectionable. Toes, four, long, straight and well spread.

Plumage: Of silky texture, free from coarse or excessive feather.

Handling: Firm with abundance of muscle.

Female

The general characteristics are similar to those of the male, allowing for the natural sexual differences, except that the comb may be erect or falling gracefully over either side of the face without obstructing the eyesight, and the tail should be carried closely and not at such a high angle.

Male: Neck hackles cream, sparsely barred. Saddle hackles cream, barred with dark grey, tipped with cream. Back and shoulders cream with dark grey barring, some chestnut permissible. Wings, primaries dark grey, faintly barred, some white permissible; secondaries dark grey more clearly marked; coverts grey barred, tips cream, some chestnut smudges permissible. Breast evenly barred dark grey, well defined outline. Tail evenly barred grey, sickles being paler, some white feather permissible. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut permissible.

Female: Neck hackles cream, softly barred grey. Breast salmon, well defined in outline. Body silver grey, with rather indistinct broad soft barring. Wings, primaries grey-peppered; secondaries very faintly barred; coverts silver grey. Tail silver grey, faintly barred. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut permissible.

In both sexes: Beak yellow. Eyes orange or red. Comb, face, and wattles red. Ear-lobes pure opaque, white or cream, slight pink markings not unduly to handicap an otherwise good male. Legs and feet yellow.

Weights Male 2.70-3.40kg (6-7lb) Female 2-2.70kg (4-6lb)

Serious defects: Male's comb twisted or falling over, Ear-lobes wholly red. Any white in face. Legs other than orange, yellow or light willow. Squirrel tail.

Disqualifications: Side sprigs on comb. Eye pupil other than round and clearly defined. Crooked breast. Wry tail. Any bodily deformity.

Scale of points: Type 30 Colour 20 Head 20 Legs 10 Condition 10 Weight 10