Crested Cream Legbars

[alicefelldown]

Are Crested Cream Legbars only available in the UK?

The Cream Legbar is an autosexing breed, meaning it can be sexed from day old by the colour of the chicks down (see pic below) - This breed was developed in the 1930's by crosses of Brown Leghorns/Barred Plymouth Rocks, and Araucana. They are a recognised pure breed and lay a medium sized light blue egg, a hardy bird suitable for free ranging and laying around 180 eggs a year. Due to the Leghorn ancestry they can be flighty, but are otherwise friendly - A good choice for anyone wanting blue eggs, with the major benefits of autosexing for future breeding and flock expansion...

 

[canada-goose]

I've never heard of any here. So the answer is I doubt they are in the USA yet.

 

[OSUman]

I dont think they are but i think someone is working on making them tho.

 

[ghulst]

Araucana's wern't around in the 30's

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
Warning, this will be long derail, but, no, Araucanas have been around for centuries...

Araucanas, as we know them to be a cross between two South American breeds: the Collonca (a naturally blue-egg laying, rumpless, clean-faced chicken) and the Quetro (a pinkish-brown egg layer that is tailed and has ear-tufts) have existed naturally since at least the 16th century - both the Portuguese explorer Magellen (1480-1521) and the Spanish Captain Cabot (first Eurpoean settlements at Uruguay and Argentina)(1474 - 1557) mention "poultry that laid blue eggs". Other tales from the Dutch pirates in the 17th century tell of "chickens with earrings, which laid blue and green eggs".

Modern breeding of Araucanas can be traced to Dr. Ruben Bustos, a poultry expert in Chile in the early 1900s. The story goes that as a young man in the Chilean army, he encountered the Araucana Indians in remote areas and observed their unique types of chickens during the 1880’s. He returned later and obtained some of the Quetros and Collonocas stock. Crossing these two breeds, over many years he developed tufted, rumpless birds that laid blue eggs, the first Araucanas. He published his findings in Chilean papers, describing "blue egg layers; small single combed; red eyed; clean legged; all the birds were rumpless with earrings." He called them “Collonca de Arêtes” meaning “Collonca with earrings”.

We then have Professor Salvador Castello, a Spanish poultry expert, and headmaster of the royal official school of poultry industry in Spain, who traveled to Chile around the time that Bustos had been published, and returned to Spain with photographs and other evidence - which he presented at the first World Poultry Congress of the World Poultry Science Association (WPSA) in The Hague, the Netherlands in September 1921. This is when Araucanas were given the Latin name Gallus Inauris (auris translates to 'ear')

Now for North America (and the story would be quite different if this was Europe) - As far as we know; The first description of the Araucana to be published in the United States was by John Robinson in the Poultry Journal of 1923, another article featuring rumpless and tufted Bantam Araucana pictures can be found in the book "Popular Breeds of Domestic Poultry", published by the Poultry Journal Publishing Company, Dayton, Ohio, 1924 ".

Later, in 1925, Mr. Keller of the PrattExperimental Farm in Pennsylvania wrote about his small flock the first Araucanas imported to the USA. The earliest imports were mostly of selected rumpless and tufted varieties.

In April 1927 the National Geographic published an article "The races of domestic fowl" as well as pictures of paintings under the title "Fowl of the old and new world". One of the paintings depicted tufted, rumpless Araucana just as first described by Professor Salvador Castello Carreras in his 1921 paper.

In September 1948 the National Geographic published another article, "Easter egg chicken". In this article they mention that the Araucana was first imported to the United State and bred successfully by Mr. Ward Brower Jr. According to the story, his correspondence with the Department of agriculture indicated that not a single living Araucana existed in the US; two breeders were known to have owned them, but their birds had all died. He then decided to import them directly from Chile. In the autumn of 1930, he received 3 sad looking chickens more dead than alive. He described them as a rooster with obvious Dominican blood, a hen with RIR, and the other with RIR and Barred Plymouth Rock. One was rumpless and all had the feather "whisker" trade mark of the Araucana.

Were the two unnamed breeders in the National Geographic story the same as the above from the Poultry Journal? The book "Popular Breeds of Domestic Poultry seems to support the theory that at least one of them might be.

The (ABA) American Bantam Association was the first poultry organization in North America to recognize our Araucana in 1965. In those days the Araucana was recognized by different categories: Rumpless-Tufted, Rumpless-Clean-Faced, Tailed-Tufted in the following varieties Black, White, Black Breasted Red “Wild Type as in OEG”, Silver, Blue and Buff.

Prior to 1976, there were breeders specializing and developing both the tufted rumpless type of “Araucana” and the bearded muffed and tailed type (and everything in between), but efforts were made by a few dedicated breeders to standardize their own preferred varieties of “Araucanas”, and each sought adoption of their own version of a Standard for an “Araucana” breed.

Responding to such breeding efforts with the “Araucana”, and the very widespread contention, and in order to attempt to define just what was an “Araucana” (as it was being developed in the USA), the APA in 1974, under the direction of Pres. John Freeman, entered the fray. For the 1975 APA Convention in Pomona, CA, the Araucana breeders were invited to present their case, and a “Qualifying Meet” was set up. They were represented by a group called “Action for Araucanas”, and this group presented FOUR different proposed Standards to the APA, but not one could be accepted because none of the “Standards” conformed to even ONE of the types present there to be “qualified”, which birds also were all different. The Judges then followed the only guide they had, Mr. Robinson’s 1924 description. The APA Standards Revision Committee was then directed to proceed to develop a Standard for “Araucanas”.

After the adoption of the APA “Araucana” Standard in 1976, those breeders who had been carefully breeding and improving the bearded muffed types of “Araucanas”, were ruled “out” for exhibition as no longer “Araucanas”. Nevertheless those bearded types were continuing to be shown, as “Araucanas” – sometimes as “American Araucanas”.

Two years later in 1976, the APA accepted the description recommended by the Standard Revision Committee, which required “Araucanas” to be tufted and rumpless, similar to Dr. Bustos’ developed strain of “Collonca de Arêtes”, thereafter formally disqualifying all birds formerly shown as “Araucanas” which were bearded, muffed, and tailed. (These obviously became what we know as Ameraucanas - but that's best saved for another thread.)

Sources:
http://araucanabreeder.freeservers.com/photo4.html
http://www.ameraucana.org/history.html
http://www.araucanas.co.uk/history.html
http://www.countrysmallholding.co.uk/features-poultry-blue-eggs,-chilean-roots?--211996
http://www.araucana.net/araucana_history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucana_chicken
http://members.shaw.ca/Araucana/EArauHistory.htm
http://www.skyblueegg.com/
http://www.araucanasonline.com/page5.html

 

[herechickchick]

I do believe that they are only available in the UK and possibly Continental Europe.

 

[V Comb]

Sorry that this is soo old but, we have them in Aus. We have Cream and Gold.

 

[camalianus]

There are beautiful birds. Greenfirefarms is going to import them pretty soon from Europe.

 

[Davlyn]

new this yr to BYC.. A R there any Legbars in the USA yet ?? I am interested in them.

 

[devin0]

I'm thinking that I seen them on a Canadian hatchery website. But it could've been a UK hatchery for all I know.