Chickens and other poultry members come in all sizes, shapes, colors and personalities. Nearly 400 recognized breeds and varieties of poultry exist, including large-fowl and bantam chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and guinea fowl. Using our illustration above and a few selected hints, can you guess which breed we have depicted here?
Find out the answer below!
Hints
- This breed lays a beautiful blue egg.
- It’s a popular auto-sexing breed (in which the sex of newly-hatched chicks can be determined from the color and markings of the down).
- Murray McMurray Hatchery describes this breed as such: “Hens sport a small crest and are silver gray with a salmon-colored breast. Roosters are cream with long saddle and hackle feathers, and dark gray barring on the breast and tail.”
- You would get a “leg” up raising this small, rare breed of poultry.
Read more: Get the egg color you want with these chicken breeds!
Mystery Breed Answer
The mystery breed depicted above is the Cream Legbar, a popular English breed created by crossing Barred Plymouth Rocks and Brown Leghorns with Araucanas. The Cream Legbar can easily be sexed at hatching because males appear much paler in color than females. It was bred this way.
The Cream Legbar is not recognized by the American Poultry Association. It has, however, been recognized by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. The Cream Legbar Club is working to gain the breed’s U.S. acceptance. Because of her Araucana genetics, a hen will lay blue and sometimes olive-hued eggs.
This proflic layer averages nearly 175 eggs each year and does go broody.
To purchase the Cream Legbar, please visit Murray McMurray Hatchery online. Murray McMurray Hatchery provides the highest quality poultry and auxiliary products to its customers, and has been a trusted, knowledgeable industry resource for more than 100 years. Whether you are an experienced or novice enthusiast, Murray McMurray is sure you will enjoy its wide selection of breeds and supplies to assist you with raising your flock!
This mystery chicken breed feature originally appeared in the March/April 2023 issue of Chickens magazine.
