What color eggs do Cream Legbars lay?

**Blue** eggs — ranging from a clear sky blue to a blue-green depending on the line. The blue comes from the dominant oocyan gene inherited from Araucana-type ancestors; breeders select toward the clearer, less green blue.

Are Cream Legbars good for showing?

They are not APA-recognized, so there is no APA class for them in the US; they are exhibited as an Ornamental / project breed and judged against the Cream Legbar Club and Poultry Club of Great Britain standards — on autosexing barring, a tidy crest, single comb, light wedge-shaped body, and correct cream (not gold) color.

How hard are Cream Legbars to hatch?

No harder than any chicken — **99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch**. There are no breed-specific incubation quirks; the bonus is that you can sex the chicks by down pattern at hatch.

What is autosexing, and how do you sex Cream Legbar chicks?

Autosexing means day-old chicks show different down patterns by sex, and — unlike a one-off sex-link cross — the trait breeds true every generation. Cream Legbar pullets have a dark, sharp head-to-tail stripe and clear 'chipmunk' markings; cockerels are paler and blurrier with a pale head spot.

Do all Cream Legbars have a crest?

Yes — the crest is a defining breed trait (they are often called Crested Cream Legbars). Select for a neat crest on a single comb; a bird with no crest is off-type.

Can you make olive eggers with a Cream Legbar?

Yes. Because the Cream Legbar is a reliable blue-egg layer, it is a favorite olive-egger parent. Cross a Cream Legbar over a dark-brown layer such as a Marans and the F1 pullets lay olive eggs.

Cream Legbar: The Autosexing Blue-Egg Breed

Verified September 2026Blue eggs

The short version

The Cream Legbar lays blue (to blue-green) eggs, produces autosexing chicks whose sex you can read from their down pattern the day they hatch, and carries a small crest. It is a British breed developed at Cambridge and standardised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain in 1958 — it is not APA-recognized, so in the US it is a project/other-registry breed and is exhibited as an Ornamental. Recognized colors are Cream and Gold.

APA class: Ornamental

Egg color: Blue

Broodiness: Rarely broody

Varieties: 2

Egg-color genetics

The Cream Legbar carries the dominant blue-egg (oocyan) gene, inherited from the Araucana-type blue-egg stock used in its development. That gene deposits biliverdin through the full thickness of the shell, so a good Cream Legbar egg is blue right through rather than surface-tinted. Because the blue base can pick up a brown overlay, some birds lay a blue-green rather than a pure sky blue; breeders select toward the clearer blue. As a strong blue layer that breeds the blue gene reliably, the Cream Legbar is one of the most popular blue-egg and olive-egger parent breeds — cross a Cream Legbar cock over a dark-brown layer such as a Marans and the F1 pullets lay olive.

Why the Cream Legbar is not APA-recognized

The Cream Legbar is a British breed. It was created at Cambridge University by R.C. Punnett and Michael Pease from Leghorn, Barred Rock, and blue-egg Araucana-type stock, and the Poultry Club of Great Britain gave it a written standard in 1958. It has never been admitted to the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection, so in the United States it functions as a project/other-registry breed rather than a recognized show breed.

For a breeder that means two things: there is no APA class to enter it in, and the reference standard US breeders work to is the Cream Legbar Club's standard together with the Poultry Club of Great Britain standard. Serious US breeders are working toward eventual APA acceptance, but until then buy from breeders who select to those club standards for autosexing accuracy, crest, and cream color.

Breeding notes

Autosexing is the headline breeder advantage: unlike a one-generation sex-link cross, the Cream Legbar's day-old down pattern breeds true generation after generation. Female chicks show a dark, well-defined dorsal (head-to-tail) stripe and a distinct 'chipmunk' pattern; male chicks are paler, blurrier, and carry a light spot on the head. Sexing at hatch lets breeders make cockerel/pullet decisions on day one instead of feeding out unknowns for weeks.
The crest is a defining trait — select for a neat, tidy crest carried on a single comb, and avoid birds with no crest or with a crest so large it obscures vision.
Select hard for blue-egg depth. Egg color is heritable, so trap-nesting and hatching only from your bluest, least-green layers pulls the flock toward a clearer, more uniform blue over generations.
Understand 'cream' vs 'gold': cream is a recessive dilution of gold, so it only shows when a bird carries two copies. Cream × Cream breeds true; introducing gold blood reappears as gold-toned birds in later generations. Keep cream and gold lines separate to hold color, and cull cockerels showing heavy gold/chestnut in the hackle when breeding for cream.

Showing notes

Because the Cream Legbar is not APA-recognized, there is no APA large-fowl standard to be judged against in the US; birds are shown as an Ornamental / project breed, and many US breeders exhibit and evaluate against the Cream Legbar Club's working standard and the Poultry Club of Great Britain standard instead.
Judges and club evaluators want the breed's signature package: clear autosexing barring, a tidy crest, a single comb, a wedge-shaped light body, and — critically — correct cream (not gold) ground color in the cream variety, since color drift toward gold is the most common fault.
A missing crest, a muddy or green egg, or heavy gold in a bird entered as cream are all giveaways of off-type or crossbred stock.

Hatching & incubation

No special incubation requirements — treat Cream Legbar eggs like any standard chicken egg: 99.5–100°F forced-air, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch.
The payoff comes at hatch, not in the incubator: check the down pattern of dry chicks to sex them before they leave the hatcher.

Recognized varieties

Cream (crested)Gold (crested)

Frequently asked questions

What color eggs do Cream Legbars lay?: Blue eggs — ranging from a clear sky blue to a blue-green depending on the line. The blue comes from the dominant oocyan gene inherited from Araucana-type ancestors; breeders select toward the clearer, less green blue.
Are Cream Legbars good for showing?: They are not APA-recognized, so there is no APA class for them in the US; they are exhibited as an Ornamental / project breed and judged against the Cream Legbar Club and Poultry Club of Great Britain standards — on autosexing barring, a tidy crest, single comb, light wedge-shaped body, and correct cream (not gold) color.
How hard are Cream Legbars to hatch?: No harder than any chicken — 99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch. There are no breed-specific incubation quirks; the bonus is that you can sex the chicks by down pattern at hatch.
What is autosexing, and how do you sex Cream Legbar chicks?: Autosexing means day-old chicks show different down patterns by sex, and — unlike a one-off sex-link cross — the trait breeds true every generation. Cream Legbar pullets have a dark, sharp head-to-tail stripe and clear 'chipmunk' markings; cockerels are paler and blurrier with a pale head spot.
Do all Cream Legbars have a crest?: Yes — the crest is a defining breed trait (they are often called Crested Cream Legbars). Select for a neat crest on a single comb; a bird with no crest is off-type.
Can you make olive eggers with a Cream Legbar?: Yes. Because the Cream Legbar is a reliable blue-egg layer, it is a favorite olive-egger parent. Cross a Cream Legbar over a dark-brown layer such as a Marans and the F1 pullets lay olive eggs.

Sources

Legbar Breed Overview (history, autosexing, blue egg, cream color) — Cream Legbar Club (Breed club)
Autosexing: Cream Legbar (origin, egg color, crest, colours) — The Poultry Club of Great Britain (Official / government)
Cream Legbar (breed profile, sexing by down, egg color) — Cackle Hatchery (Hatchery)

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