Experienced UK Breeder Emma Middleton on Cream Legbar Genetics and Misinformation

The second in our series of conversations about Cream Legbars, the increasingly popular blue egg laying chicken.  This is a really illuminating conversation with the experienced British Cream Legbar breeder Emma Middleton. Emma knows more than anyone I’ve been able to find about the origins of the breed and more importantly the genetics behind the various traits that make this such a challenging and, as Emma says, “uniquely frustrating” bird to breed. Emma’s been able to answer questions I’ve had about Cream Legbars for a long time including exactly where the cream gene came from.  She clears up, too, some major misinformation circulating in Australia about how to properly select for and breed this variety including what colour chick down is correct: Over eight generations, Emma created Cream Legbars from scratch using the exact breeds that the variety’s creators, geneticists Reginald Punnett and Michael Pease did at Cambridge University in the early 1930s. She’s also crossed pure Cream Legbars back to Brown Leghorns to improve the bloodline. Emma explains in detail how to tell whether you actually have a Cream Legbar, as distinct from a Gold Legbar. Not to mention the confusion that silver can cause. Other topics include: Where Emma sourced her genetic information about Cream Legbars The problems in trying to fix faults in Cream Legbars by bringing in other people’s lines How many generations it took to get back to cream after outcrossing to Brown Leghorns The test mating process How long she’s found you can run a closed flock without encountering inbreeding depression Her experience with small egg size in Cream Legbars The lack of a fixed genetic base in most lines of Cream Legbars in its home country of the UK How many birds Emma typically bred per generation How she created cream, gold and silver Legbars from scratch using other breeds The exact steps she took in each generation How to tell a Cream Legbar from a Gold and a Silver, based on both chick down and adult feathering The significance of gold smudges in the wing triangle as a telltale sign of a bird that is not cream The role of autosomal red in Cream Legbars, male (chestnut) and female (salmon breast) Crest size Yellow leg colour