Welsummers originated in the town of Welsum, Holland.
The original color of Welsummers are partridge. Some show breeders have created Silver Duckwing. Geneticists in the UK created Welbars by adding the gene for sexlinked barring. I have recreated the Welbars here in the US and have been expanding the available colors over time.
Color variants of Welsummers
Partridge – The original color imported to the US and UK. Available from Pottstown Poultry in 2026, also from many other breeders and hatcheries. Egg color varies widely by strain/line.
Silver Duckwing – Silver version of partridge. Available from some breeders, but quite rare in the US. Not available from Pottstown Poultry.
Gold Welbar – Created in the UK in the 1940’s. Never successfully imported to the US. Recreated by Pottstown Poultry in the US. Egg color generally darker than most Welsummers. Selected for darkest eggs for more than a decade.
Silver Welbar – Created by Pottstown Poultry. Identical to gold welbars, but gold color replaced by silver.
Isabel Welbar – Newer creation of Pottstown Poultry. These are gold Welbars with the addition of the lavender gene. Because of the outcross to get the lavender gene, the eggs are typically lighter and more speckled than the Gold and Silver Welbars. Available only from Pottstown Poultry in 2026.
Isabel Welsummer – Future creation of Pottstown Poultry. These are partridge Welsummers with the addition of the lavender gene. Available only from Pottstown Poultry, planned for 2027 release.
Reference links to more Welbar information:
Nearly all the info about these birds comes from the UK, where they have been kept in small numbers since they were created there in the 1940’s.
http://jsh.bravesites.com/welbars UK site – Best site I’ve found describing the genetics of Welbars. Pictures are great, but the eggs mine lay are much darker than these.
https://www.rbst.org.uk/welbar Another UK site
http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/18E04A03.pdf This has a lot of great genetic and historical information about all autosexing breeds.
https://greenfirefarms.com/blog/jul-2016-newsletter.html Newsletter from Green Fire Farms about their import of Welbars. They ultimately failed to introduce these, I believe because they did not adequately understand the genetics of autosexing.
Being Welsummers at heart, you would expect them to lay dark colored eggs, and they do. Being autosexing, you would expect them to be 100% sexable at hatch, and they are.
They have existed in the UK since the 1940’s, but were never common. We created these using the same genetic recipe as the original UK Welbars. The process is well documented, but takes at least 4 generations of careful crossing and selection of the resulting chicks.
My experience is only with this line of Welbars, but that and the reports I have gotten from friends who have some of their offspring, gives me reason to recommend these highly as backyard pets. They lay well for a dark egg layer (selecting for high egg production seems to lighten the egg color) and have excellent personalities. In addition, the roosters are large, imposing and fast moving, making them ideal “flock masters” for a group of hens. I have never experienced any aggression towards me, though they will attack any strange roos that they see as competition. I often raise groups of roos together and they get along fine if kept together.