Poultry farmers tend to breed breeds that have many advantages and few disadvantages. One of these is the breed of chickens that we are considering. Legbars are the pride and decoration of every household. These birds are friendly, resistant to various diseases and highly productive. And they are unique in that they carry an unusual egg color. So, the topic of our article is the bar: a description of the breed of chickens, features of the content, habits and other useful information will be presented to your attention further.
A bit of history
These hens appeared in the 1930s in England. In those days, scientists Pease and Pennett were engaged in breeding a breed that would be characterized by high egg production.
The first experiments did not give good results, but the breeders did not despair and continued to work. As a result, they got a new hybrid, which was re-crossed with one of the parents. They called the new breed of chickens legbars.
Colors
Painstaking work allowed breeding chickens of several colors. Breeders managed to get cream, silver and gold species. The most common breed of chickens is cream legbar, in the breeding of which Araucans participated. It was from them that the bird adopted the gene that stains the eggs in blue. The crest on the back of the head remained from the aracuns.
Roosters usually have a creamy beige color with brown stripes. In chickens, the feather has a darker shade, with dim bands. This feature is associated with a recessive gene, which weakens the golden color to straw.
Breed description
So what is this breed? Legbury chickens are meat-egg varieties. The birds have excellent egg production and excellent meat. The rooster reaches a weight of 3.5 kilograms, and hens - 3 kilograms. However, when grown in Russia, these chickens rarely weigh more than 2.5 kilograms. This is due to the climate.
The chicken begins to hike at the age of 5 months, so the breed is classified as mid-season.
Externally, the representatives of the breed of legbar chickens are as follows:
- The head is average, proportional.
- The crest is saturated red, straight. It has six teeth. In laying hens, the ridge can be lowered sideways.
- There is a crest on the back of the head. It is formed of long feathers thrown back. Because of this crest, the breed is often called crested.
- Earrings are long, rounded in shape.
- Earlobes are white, oval.
- The neck is long, the plumage on it is good.
- The back is long, flat, tapering towards the tail.
- The chest is round, wide.
- The wings are large, tight to the body.
According to the description, the breed of chicken legbara has a medium-sized tail located at an angle of 45 degrees. Legs are medium yellow. Fingers are even, long.
A distinctive feature of the breed is its friendly, balanced character.
Breed marriage
The English breed of chickens legbar has a standard of color, physical development. There are also disadvantages in identifying which chickens are rejected.
If the bird has red earlobes, a curved tail, a curved or littered crest at the rooster, then such individuals are not used for breeding.
Productivity
Reviews about the breed of legbar hens indicate its high productivity. Under good conditions, the bird begins to lay eggs at the age of 5 months. For a year, a laying hen can lay about 210 eggs weighing 60 grams. The color of the shell may be blue or light green. Egg production lasts two years, then productivity decreases.
Eggs have good fertility - about 90%, that is, when laying 100 eggs for incubation, you can get 90 chickens (subject to proper incubation and good equipment).
The breed, as already mentioned, is considered meat-and-egg. The live weight of the bird is about three kilograms. The meat, judging by the reviews, is of excellent quality, tasty, slightly different from meat of other breeds.
Pros and cons
Legbars have their advantages and disadvantages. The latter include the termination of oviposition in the cold season. To prevent this from happening, and the bird continued to lay eggs, a heated chicken coop is being built for it.
Poultry farmers include the calm, balanced nature of roosters and hens. They get along well with other breeds. Legbars are well suited for cultivation in Russia, as they have excellent health. Another advantage is the unusual color of the eggshell.
Chicken Content
Now about the conditions of detention. Legbar - the breed of chickens is quite unpretentious. However, before you start it, you should equip a good walk. The bird is very mobile and needs walks in the fresh air. This helps strengthen immunity.
When arranging a walk, one should take into account the good development of the wings - the bird flies well. So that the chickens could not fly away, you need to think about installing a closed top of the paddock (net). One chicken needs at least 0.5 square meters. m of territory. During the walk, you do not need to feed the bird, it will be enough for it that it finds on the ground.
In winter, in order not to decrease egg production, the chicken coop is recommended to be heated. Sawdust, straw, dry leaves are laid on the floor. The room should have good ventilation, but without drafts.
In order for the laying hens to please with good, tasty eggs, it is necessary to take care of the proper diet. Usually, chickens are given at least two types of crops, sunflower meal, fish meal, mineral feed, root crops, fresh grass.
Breeding Features
The bird has its own characteristics of breeding. Reviews about the cream breed of legbar chickens prove that roosters perfectly protect laying hens. However, the incubation instinct in the latter is poorly developed, therefore, to obtain offspring, eggs are laid in an incubator or laid under other hens.
For breeding choose medium-sized eggs, without damage to the shell. During incubation, it is necessary to carefully monitor the temperature regime, humidity level. Subject to all the rules, broods are quite large - at least 89%. Chickens, judging by the reviews, are very viable. At the age of 24, it is already easy to distinguish them by gender. The roosters have light fluff, there is a spot on the head.
Feed the chickens with corn grits or millet. Gradually, green grass, vegetables, mineral fertilizers are introduced into the diet. You can feed chickens with mixed feed.
Growing chicks
Immunity in chickens is good, but with the right content, they increase their survival rate and reduce the risk of disease. To do this, it is necessary to provide them with a range, the right diet and optimal temperature.
By nature, a cream crested breed of legbar chickens is very active. Representatives need to provide enough space for walking. From the first days, chickens need a large brooder.
Legbars are thermophilic rocks. Throughout the year, they need to provide a temperature of at least +10 degrees. To do this, the chicken coop is insulated, if necessary, heaters are installed. If the temperature drops below +10 ° C, then the laying hens will stop laying eggs, and at -10 ° C they may freeze and die.
Feeding
According to the description, the breed of hens legbar belongs to aristocrats. This bird will not eat what other breeds eat. For her, the most preferred is a special, blue compound feed, which is offered in special stores. But ordinary mixers, compound feed, crusher they do not like.
When compiling a diet, the high activity of the bird should be taken into account. To make her feel comfortable, she can not be overfed.
As the poultry farmers say, if the diet is too high in calories, then the layers will quickly gobble up, their egg production will decrease, and the taste of meat will deteriorate.
To increase egg production, special feeding products are added to the laying hens, which can be purchased at veterinary pharmacies (usually vitamins are added to the water so that vitamin deficiency does not occur and egg production increases).
Typically, experienced farmers include the following in the diet:
- Roots. It is useful for chickens to eat boiled potatoes, peeling from the table.
- Baking yeast.
- Meat and bone meal or fish meal.
- Cake.
The bird should always have a separate feeder with mineral feed. It may be chalk, shell. Another container should have gravel.
To get rid of parasites, the bird bathes in sand, wood ash. They should always be freely available.
Breed diseases
Although the breed is considered one of the most resistant to various diseases, there are situations when the bird begins to hurt. Most often this is due to poor care, improper feeding, maintenance.
Legbars most often suffer from the following ailments:
- Marek's disease. This is a viral disease transmitted by airborne droplets. The source of infection can be water, feathers of birds, feed, dust. The causative agent in the external environment lives up to a year. The first signs of an illness are weakness, anxiety of a bird. Her crest pales, her gait changes. If help is not provided in a timely manner, laying hens begin to refuse food, lose weight. Then they have paralysis. The virus causes changes in internal organs, leading to death. As a rule, this disease is not treated, so the bird is vaccinated from Marek. This is the only way to protect the economy from the virus.
- Coccidiosis Under poor conditions, the bird can get coccidiosis. Simple bacteria cause this infection. They enter the body with dirty water, through food. In case of damage to laying hens, it is recommended to slaughter them for meat, since treatment does not give positive results. However, in order not to catch the whole population, it is necessary to change the water in time, feed the animals only with high-quality feeds, and carry out preventive measures. It comes down to soldering poultry with special preparations sold at the veterinary pharmacy. Clinically, coccidiosis is manifested by ruffled feathers, refusal to feed, feces brown.
- Avitaminosis. In violation of the diet, chickens can get vitamin deficiency. To prevent this, the bird should be given vitamins. These may be special drugs sold at a veterinary pharmacy, such as Pentavit. You can breed one dragee of the human “Undevita” in a liter of water and give chickens (solution for 10 birds). Vitamins are usually given once a week. It is especially important to make up for the lack of vitamins in the winter season. During this period, fish oil is introduced into the diet. If vitamin deficiency occurs, chickens are treated with vitamin therapy for ten days. The first sign of vitamin deficiency is the fall of the bird to its feet, while interest in food remains.
Other pathologies in legbars are found in isolated cases.
Similar breeds
The breed closest to the bar is Araucan. Its representatives were used to breed Legbar. In the process of selection, a gene was obtained from the aracuna of the laying hen, in which the eggs are painted in unusual shades - blue and greenish. However, the analogue is inferior in productivity: egg production - only 150 eggs per year.
Another analogue is a striped plymouth rock. Roosters and laying hens weigh almost as much as legbaras, but their egg production is lower - only 180 eggs per year.
Legbar chickens are very popular among poultry farmers. They are valued for their high productivity and unusual egg color. When properly maintained, chickens will delight all year with delicious, beautiful eggs that will not leave anyone indifferent.
However, the bar is not the only breed that can carry beautiful eggs. Unusual shades delight the Aracuna. But it is precisely the barbs that have a higher egg production, they have better immunity. Because of this, the breed is so loved by farmers in Europe and Russia.