Wheaten Marans originated in western France in the town of Marans and are best known for their dark brown colored eggs. They are  fast growers, dual meat and egg birds and stand confinement well. All our Marans are of the French standard, they all have feathered legs. As with all Marans, egg color can lighten occasionally during their laying season and then return to dark again after a period of rest. We hatch only the darkest eggs laid. The dark egg gene is believed to be carried by the roosters.

This beautiful breed is calm, quiet and gentle. We continually strive to improve our line of Marans by always using honorable breeding practices and following the French Standard, enhancing the most desirable characteristics and encouraging depth of egg color.

Wheaten Marans are so gentle and sociable. They are a heavy breed and cold-hardy. These rare beauties are among our most favorite birds...Wheaten Marans hens are equally as stunning as the roosters. These are wonderful quality birds.

Our beautiful Cream Legbars are of the Greenfire Farm bloodline. The Cream Legbar is an auto-sexing breed. This means you can tell the sex of the chick at hatch. Male chicks had a white spot behind their heads and female chicks had well-defined “chipmunk” stripes in the down on their backs. These are powerful visual cues that make sexing chicks a simple task. Auto-sexing was a result crossing a Campine rooster with a barred Plymouth Rock hen. This new breed of chicken, dubbed the Cambar, was shown for the first time at the 1930 World’s Poultry Congress at the Crystal Palace in London. The Cambar was the first auto-sexing breed of chicken created specifically for that purpose. It was nothing less than revolutionary.

You should not confuse auto-sexing with sex-linked. Sex-linked are chicks that are first generation crosses defining the sex and this trait will not continue to their offspring. Auto-sexing is having defining traits as a chick that will continue to their offspring. This auto-sexing feature will happen with Cream Legbars for generations no matter if the pair is related or un-related.

The ability to distinguish the sex of the chicks at hatch will enable you to cull roosters at hatch. No more having to feed them until you can figure out who’s male or female. This decreases your cost while increasing your egg production.
One other neat feature of the Cream Legbar is the sky blue or green olive tint eggs. The egg color makes them quite distinguishable when gathering.

The Cream Legbar is a medium sized bird with the roosters weighing approximately 5 lbs and the hens approximately 4 lbs. They are known for their active foraging and ability to survive in a free-range environment. The roosters are vigilant and protective of the hens, and the hens efficiently go about the business of cleaning every seed and insect from the fields and pastures they prefer. The hens are rarely broody and produce a large number of eggs.  This breed has the social skills to accommodate the complexities of  life in a large flock.  They are usually more calm than their distant ancestor the leghorn and are well-suited for the small homestead and life outdoors.

The Welsummer Chicken is a Dutch breed named after the village of Welsum in Holland, developed in the 1900's. It was first imported into this country in 1928 for its large brown egg. The Welsummer is a large, upright, active bird with a broad back, full breast, large full tail and a single comb with a docile and friendly personality. They are intelligent birds and one of the best free range foraging breeds. The famed Kelloggs Rooster was a Welsummer Rooster.  The Welsummer Roosters are glorious with their beautiful shades of red and black. They are a fast growing bird and a very rare breed here in the United States.   The Welsummer was admitted to the American Standard of Perfection in 1991.

Welsummers can be sexed upon hatching. The females have dark, clearly defined lines around their eyes, and extending beyond the eyes, while the same line on males is not as defined and is a little lighter. Females also have a clearly defined dark triangle on the tops of their heads, while the males triangle is a little fuzzy in appearance and not as defined. You could look at it this way, the females know how to put their makeup on a lot better than the males.

Our Welsummer Chickens are of the Channing Grisham bloodline. Mr. Grisham lived in Anderson, Al. where he had his hatchery, Anderson Creek Hatchery.

Lavender Orpingtons

The Orpington is a breed of chicken named after Orpington, England, which was made famous in part by this breed. Belonging to the English class of chickens, it was bred to be an excellent layer with good meat quality.

Their large size and soft appearance together with their rich color and gentle contours make them very attractive, and as such its popularity has grown as a show bird rather than a utility breed. They go broody very often, and make great mothers. Although rather heavy, they are able to fly small distances but rarely do, so they work well as backyard birds. Due to their build they do well in very cold climates.

The original Black Orpington was bred by William Cook in 1886 by crossing Minorcas, Langshans, and Plymouth Rocks to create a new hybrid bird. Cook selected a black bird that would exhibit well by hiding the dirt and soot of London. When the breed was shown in Madison Square Gardens in 1895, its popularity soared. Cook also gave this name to a breed of duck with a similar purpose, but known simply as the Buff Duck in North America.

The Lavenders are a rare color of the breed. Similar to the Blue but with a true “purple” color of the breed. Unlike the Blue where you can get black, white with splashes, and variations of the blue colored birds, the Lavenders breed true, which means all of the birds will be a Lavender color. These are very calm and gentle birds. The hens will go broody.