Key Characteristics

A good utility breed, the Welbar lays a reasonable number of eggs and the cocks are big enough to make for an acceptable table bird.
Welbar bantams were made by John Buck of Bristol. They are still very rare but have the potential, because of the dark brown eggs, to become popular with bantam keepers more interested in eggs than showing. There has been a modest increase in the number of people keeping them recently, and those known are generally of excellent quality. Welbar bantams seem all to be of the correct light form, with two barring genes. However rather too many large Welbar males seen at shows apparently only have one barring gene, and look like Crele males in other breed,-pretty, but no good for auto-sexing.

History

• The Welbar was developed by H. Humphreys of Eastwrey, Devon in the 1940’s.
• The breeding programme used the Welsummer and the Barred Plymouth Rock and initially there were problems in fixing the plumage and the size and shape of the birds.
• Both gold and silver varieties were developed and it was the silver variety that was described in the standard.

Appearance

• The Welbar is an active, upright breed.
• The wings should be neatly tucked in and the full tail should be held high.
• The Welbar is similar in appearance to other autosexing breeds with the cocks having the characteristic ‘crele’ plumage pattern.
• The hens look like barred Welsummers.

Uses

A good utility breed, the Welbar lays a reasonable number of eggs. Welbar cocks are big enough to make for an acceptable table bird.

Did you know?

The Welbar is an auto-sexing breed. It is easy to tell whether a chick is male or female at 1 day old. Males are yellow and females have dark stripes. This allows breeders to not waste efforts raising excess males.

Breed Societies

Rare Poultry Society