| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Chez |
Anyone know anyone who keeps Gold Legbars?I'm looking for some hatching eggs or growers and they seem to be pretty thin on the ground. |
| pookie |
Wernlas. 
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| Chez |
Do they? |
| Chez |
OOOOOOOH! Yes. They do.
I might need to go in a week or two. Say, the weekend of the Dolanog meet ...? |
| pookie |
they do! |
| Chez |
I wonder if they post eggs? I will give them a ring and ask them ... |
| pookie |
I did not encourage her,I did not encourage her,I did not encourage her, 
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| Chez |
Oh, go have a baby! 
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| pookie |
I would if I could 
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| bodger |
I've had a quick scan on legbars and I've come across bluebars, creambars and goldbars and I'm sure that there must be more variations. Anyone fancy shedding a bit of light ? |
| Chez |
Right. Not sure what those are that you mentioned - they aren't any breed that I've heard of.
The -bar suffix is because the originating breed is crossed with a breed that carries a barring gene, usually Barred Rock. This produces a breed that has sex-linked colouring at day old. They were originally bred towards the beginning of the second world war by a chap in Cambridge, presumably as part of the drive for food efficiency and not wasting feed on cockerels until they were a few weeks old and feather-sexable. The most common one around atm is the cream legbar. Leghorn crossed with barred rock, with a bit of auracana thrown in for the blue eggs. Gold legbars don't have the blue gene but are still sexable at hatching. Then you get welbars - welsummer crossed; rhodebars - rhode island red; I am working on barnebars - barnevelder cross; I think Otleylad has cambars - campine cross. This is a very interesting site. It takes four generations to create a line that will breed true. You cross your originating breed cockerel on to a barred rock hen, select cockerels for type and then breed them to originating-breed hens, selecting for type all the time. You get to eat a *lot* of chicken
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| bodger |
So they aren't really a fixed breed then ? |
| Chez |
Yes, they are. They are recognised by the who-ever-it-is - British Standards Society? and have breed societies. But they are composed of other breeds, as are many 'standard' breeds from the last 150 years. If you select right, then they breed true.
Essentially they are the leghorn/barnevelder/campine/welsummer etc but with a barring gene added from that first cross. Punnett, who created them, wanted them classified as a strain of leghorn/welsummer etc. rather than their own pure breed, though - which would have made more sense, IMO. Here's the recipe: 
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| Ixy |
Yes they definately do breed true - they are called 'autosexing' breeds - not the same as 'sex-linked' which would be your RIR X LS
there's a whole host of 'bar' breeds: http://www.autosexing.co.uk/ |
| Ixy |
oh sorry chez that's the link you posted - incidentally when the people who made that site lived in the UK they had gold legbars - I met them and they were verrrry tempting! (the legbars not the people!). Not sure what happened to the legbars when they emigrated? |
| Chez |
I don't know. Zoe still runs the associated forum and is very knowledgeable - as are a lot of the people who post there. I have put dibs on an off-heat trio from Wernlas that I am going to collect when I come up for the midwinter 'do' at Dolanog.
The good thing about them is that you can breed a pb cock to hens from the 'parent' breed any time you want to put new blood in there. The hens will breed true and so will their progeny, although you will need to discard the first generation cockerels. As you can probably tell, I have become quite nerdy about the whole thing
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| Ixy |
Trust me, if you could 'bar' ixworths, I would've done it
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| Chez |
They're dominant, aren't they? |
| Ixy |
Yes, very. Everything you cross with an ixworth pretty much comes out looking like an ixworth
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| Chez |
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