Terry Beebe looks at how you tell the sex of a chick and explores the curious and slightly confusing world of auto-sexing and sex-linked birds, and looks at a familiar bird with this useful characteristic – the Cream Legbar.
See also:
https://homefarmer.co.uk/common-poultry-problems/
https://homefarmer.co.uk/how-to-make-a-chicken-coop/
https://homefarmer.co.uk/know-your-hybrid-chickens/
The term ‘auto-sexing’ describes when pure-bred, day-old chicks can be sexed by various identifiable differences in their appearance – usually the colouring of the down – as soon as they have hatched. Given the percentage of likely cockerels hatched each year, and the non-existent market for them, this is a highly desirable characteristic which enables chicks to be raised (and sold) as guaranteed pullets, thus ensuring buyers get what they expect, while keeping rearing and food costs down for breeders.
Cream Legbar hen
There are several pure-bred birds that will auto-sex, but the characterful Cream Legbar is probably the best-known example. In addition, any offspring of auto-sexing birds will also breed true and remain auto-sexing right down the line from one generation to the next.
Sex-linked birds can also be sexed as day-old chicks due to the differing appearances of males and females, and this particular feature of certain breeds is used extensively on commercial farms. Unlike auto-sexing, sex-linkage is when two different breeds of pure-bred birds are crossed; as an example, the Bovan Nera, also known as the Black Rock, is a sex-linked cross from a Rhode Island Red crossed with a Barred Plymouth Rock. However, in the case of such crosses, unlike with auto-sexing breeds, the offspring will not breed true down the line. The only way to achieve consistent sex-linked chicks will be to have both breeds available for breeding purposes; otherwise, the future offspring will simply be hybrids.
Welbar cockeral
The following breeds are described as auto-sexing: Amrock, Ancobar, Barnebar, Bielefelder Kennhuhn, Brockbar, Brussbar, Buffbar, Cambar, Cobar, Cream Legbar, Dorbar, Gold Legbar, Hambar, Niederrheiner, Norske Jaerhon, Oklabar, Polbar, Rhodebar, Welbar, Whealbar and Wybar. Many of these breeds may be unfamiliar, and some are quite difficult to source, with three exceptions – the Cream Legbar, Rhodebar and Welbar, which are the most numerous from this list.
Sexing Cream Legbar chicks
Young Cream Legbar chicks can be sexed simply by the characteristic colour of their down shortly after hatching (once they have dried out and fluffed up). The ‘barring’ pattern is sex-linked, i.e. males have two chromosomes for barring, and females only have one. Day-old chicks have a light patch on the top of their head. When the barring is combined with brown colouring, the light spot on the head of the female is small and well defined, and there is a clearly defined dark stripe down the back. The stripe down the back of male chick is much fainter, and there is a light patch that covers most of the head. In addition, the down of the male chick is also much paler.
Cream Legbar chicks – the male on the left and the female on the right. Photo Chris Graham
Examples of sex-linked chickens
* A Rhode Island male crossed with a Barred Rock hen will produce a Black sex-link. Both sexes will hatch out black, but the male will have a white dot on its head, and will eventually feather out with the familiar Barred Rock pattern, along with a few red feathers.
* A New Hampshire male crossed with a White Rock hen will produce a Golden Comet (buff/red), with white male chicks and red females.
* A New Hampshire male crossed with a Silver Laced Wyandotte hen will produce a Cinnamon Queen (buff/red), with white male chicks and red females.
* Both a Rhode Island Red male crossed with a Rhode Island White hen, and a Rhode Island Red male crossed with a White Leghorn will produce a Red sex-link. In these examples, males will hatch out white and, depending on the exact cross, feather out to either pure white or with some black feathering. Females will hatch out either buff or red, again dependent on the cross, and will feather out in one of three ways: buff with white or tinted undercolour (such as Golden Comet, Rhode Island Red x Rhode Island White); red with white or tinted undercolour (Cinnamon Queen); red with red undercolour (Delaware × Production Red) – in this particular colour pattern it is almost impossible to distinguish the daughters’ colour from the father’s colour.
The Different sex-links
* A Black sex-link is a breed cross using a Rhode Island Red male and a Barred Plymouth Rock female.
* A Gold sex-link is a breed cross using a Rhode Island Red male and a Rhode Island White female.
* A Red sex-link is a breed cross using a Rhode Island Red male and a Light Sussex female.
* A Brown sex-link is a breed cross using a Rhode Island Red male and a silver factor White Rock female.
A red sex link: these chicks (the female on the left and the male on the right) are the offspring of a Rhode Island Red crossed with a Light Sussex
Put simply, much of the basis of this can be traced back to hens such as the Light Sussex and other less familiar white/silver hens which carry the ‘silver gene’, although an in-depth article on the subject could fill several copies of Home Farmer! It is perhaps easier just to ‘know’ that these crosses do consistently produce distinctive colourings that enable keepers to recognise male and female chicks from very soon after hatching.
The Cream Legbar
The Cream Legbar is an old breed, and is now rather rare in its true pure-breed form. It has little to do with the commercial birds currently being used to produce the multicoloured eggs that are now very popular in the supermarkets.
Crossing birds with a blue-egg gene to other breeds in the hope of producing multicoloured-egg laying hens will definitely not create a Legbar, and nor will trying to repeat the original development by crossing modern Leghorns and Barred Rocks with a few Araucanas. Unfortunately, there are few true strains these days, and there has been a notable increase in birds (believed to be Legbars) being sold by novices, when in reality they are not true to the breed, and often come without any decent breeding history behind them.
Although undeniably a good thing, and of great benefit to the broader poultry-keeping community, the recent increase in the popularity of keeping a few hens in the garden has not really helped to further the cause of pure-breeds, which does little to improve residual bloodlines – the one single factor that can have a real bearing on the quality and quantity of birds, and their ability to meet the correct standard required for each individual breed.
History of the Cream Legbar
Originally called the Crested Cream Legbar, the Cream Legbar originated as a result of genetics breeding experiments by Professor Punnet and his associate Michael Pease, and was created from a cross between Brown Leghorns and Barred Rocks with a bit of Araucana blood in them – something which still reveals itself via the crest and the blue eggs they lay, although they tend to be a little lighter than those of pure Araucanas, and can occasionally be more of an olive colour. In addition to the Cream Legbar there are also Gold and Silver Legbars.
Cream Legbar
The Cream Legbar was developed in the 1930s, but the number of breeders producing true pure-breed birds has declined dramatically, so getting the real thing can be difficult, although many an unscrupulous dealer might tell you otherwise! There are, however, still excellent examples of the breed available if you persevere.
Cream Legbar cockeral
The breed standard
The Cream Legbar is a firm and muscular bird with an alert and perky carriage. It has a wedge-shaped body, which is broad at the shoulders, tapering off to the rear. It has a long, flat back, a prominent breast with a straight keel, and large wings carried close to the body. The tail is held at forty-five degrees from the line of the back and is moderately furnished. The head is fine with a strong beak and a large single comb, which is straight and erect, with five to seven even spikes with broad bases. The face is smooth, with well-developed pendant ear lobes, long and thin wattles, and a long and well-feathered neck. It has strong, clean and round shanks, with four evenly spaced toes. The beak, legs and feet are all yellow, and face, comb and wattles are all red, with white or cream ear lobes.
A slightly older male Cream Legbar chick. The markings are still recognisable.
Male birds have cream, slightly barred neck hackles and cream barred saddle hackles with dark grey tipped with cream. The back and shoulders are cream and barred dark grey. The wings have dark-grey barred primaries and secondaries, and grey-barred coverts with cream tips. The breast is barred dark grey, as is the tail, but with paler sickles, and some white is permitted. The crest is cream and grey.
Female birds have cream neck hackles with soft-grey barring, a salmon-coloured breast, and a silver-grey body with broad indistinct barring. As for the wings, the primaries are peppered grey, the secondaries are lightly barred, and the coverts are silver-grey, as is the tail, with light barring.
Sadly, I have it on good authority that several larger poultry centres have sold birds that are not in fact Cream Legbars. There are also many inexperienced breeders who have innocently bought eggs from sellers whose stocks of supposed Cream Legbars are dubious, and the resulting disappointment has often been considerable. In addition, there are also various commercial coloured-egg layers that are certainly not Cream Legbars, but rather cross-breeds that have been created solely for the production of eggs, with no real concern for the true standard of the breed, so long as they produce unusual-coloured eggs. If you do want to acquire Cream Legbars (or any other auto-sexing breed), contact the Auto-sexing Breeds Association (details below).
The future
I sincerely hope that future breeders in the United Kingdom will opt to produce hardy birds that will lay at least 180 good blue eggs a year, with at least 75% hatchability, and that will be of a good type. This, however, will require selection, and that is simply not being done sufficiently at present. Breeding any pure-breed chicken is always a real challenge, but one worth taking up, as the future preservation of these unique breeds is critical to the well-being of the poultry world, and it really is up to keepers at every level to make sure they always do it to the best of their ability – otherwise, the future of our passion is put in jeopardy.
BREED CLUB INFORMATION
With regards to standards, you might wish to contact the secretary of the newly reformed Auto-sexing Breeds Association. You can email Philippe Wilson at asbreeds@gmail.com, or telephone 07777 688519.
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