True Cream Legbars are auto-sexing so when you breed a pure CLB male with a pure CLB female the boys will come out palish and the girls will come out stripy brown. They lay blue or turquoise eggs -for more info and piccies see
www.blue-eggs.co.uk also there are links on that site to other auto-sexing breeds such as Welbar etc - just steer away from Old Cotswold Legbars which aren't really what they say on the tin
The auto sexing breeds were brought to the fore between the wars when Prof. Punnett was experimenting for egg producing lines which could be sexed at hatch to save on rearing costs - this was based on the fact that thebarring genes give a head spot hence the names ending in "bar" Brussbar from the Brown Sussex, Cambar from the Campine Dorbar from the Dorking Legbar from the Leghorn Marbar from the Marans Welbar from the Welsummer and so on. These were then bred on for generations till the traits were fixed and they bred true.
From my somewhat slim genetic knowledge sex-linking is when you get a brown/red bird and cross it with a black/white/silver bird and the pullets should predominantely take the males colouring and the cockerels the females. You have to be sure of the genetic purity of the parents for this to work successfully. I think this is how most modern hybrids are produced nowadays.
Topic: identifying day old chicks (Read 3093 times)
