Leghorn Reviews

I was going to start with 6 leghorns and 6 Rhode Island Reds but the store was out of the Reds.  I was going to add them later, but now I'm waiting till next year for the Reds.  My leghorns are very friendly, will let me pet them, but don't like to be picked up.  Since there is a fox in the area, I prefer a chicken that can fly on top of the coop for protection.  What's funny is every now and then, one flies out by flying off the perch.  Once out, they seem to want to get right back in, but cannot fly over the fence without the help of a perch.

good layers

Friendly, take care of themselves fairly well, egg laying machine.  What more could one want in an animal kept for eggs and/or enjoyment?  I love my 2 white leghorns as they are currently 2.25 years old, outlaying everything in the flock during the winter months (or summer), and since they were our first hatched chickens we spent lots of time with them making them very tame.  Currently they're laying Jumbo sized 2.5-3.5 oz. eggs.  Yes you read that correctly my little 4 lb chickens are laying 3+ oz. eggs on a routine basis.  

I bought three Ideal 236 / California White Leghorns from Ideal Poultry August 2010.  I found my first egg when they were 23 weeks old! They are a bit nervous, but easy to keep and handle once you get a hold of them.  They are good flyers and can get out of my 6' fence, so wings MUST be clipped if you do not have a top to your run/pen. They seem pretty smart.  We'll see how egg production goes now that they have started laying.

n/a

Ordered California spotted and received White leghorns. They are canabalistic and blow up when I walk by there coop

We bought one in a mixed bag of pullets. She was bullied, pecked and not very heat tolerant. She was the first to lay and laid very, very well. But I found her dead on the coop floor on the first super hot day. At that time, she had no signs of being bullied....all of those came when she was younger. 

Nothing as of yet just started.

We love our California Whites.  Ours are named Happy and Friendly because they are such people-loving birds.  Friendly flies up on to my shoulder every day for attention.  We almost didn't get this breed because of bad reviews online about their horrible temperament.  I'm glad we got some anyway, because they are amongst my favorite breed within my flock!

Great Egg layers, We have 10 counting our rooster, They are the Jack Russell of the chicken family at least on our farm, we never know what they are going to do next.

Pretty birds but flighty

I like to be able to handle my birds.  I'd break out in a sweat each time I needed to catch mine up.  I look for chickens to be pets so this wasn't the breed for me.  If I didn't care about that I'd have ranked them higher.

Have two white leghorns. Good birds, very good layers. But they are very flighty and nervous. Still, one leghorn won Best in Show for my age class. :)

I have 7 White Leghorns. They're great layers and have no issues. They are flighty, but it is easily fixed by clipping their wings.

i want chickens but i live in el centro but i live wehere they dont allow chickens

They are real producers. Replace them every 2-3 years and you'll have lots of feed efficient egg layers that will supply you with eggs year round even without additional lighting! I buy a new batch every year, keep them for one, maybe two winters, then stew them. Great flavor despite being mostly bones. 

My leghorns is terrified of everything. She's unsocial with the other chickens too. She is thirty weeks and has not yet layed. She is a pet and is pretty, but our experiance with her has not been good. If your looking for a pet go with something like a sex linked breed, a cochin, or a silkie. Her feathers also get dirty whenever it rains.

This is a hen. It was quick to start laying. 

I recieved a White Leghorn chick that was sold to me as an "Ameraucana" at the pet store. I nearly took her back when I figured out what happened, and read some of the reviews. Thank goodness I didn't. She is one of my favorite hens, and over the past few months she is the only one that has kept laying after I moved the flock to a new coop. She is sweet and friendly, lets my son drag her around (see profile pic), and falls asleep on your lap.

I love my Leghorn hens! They lay the biggest, nicest eggs, and I get eggs every day. They fare wellI in our harsh winter weather, and never stopped giving eggs.  I've been told they give approx. 300 eggs per year - but I think I will get more than that. I have no negative reviews for these hens at all. They get along with new arrivals to the flock, and enjoy people. They're perfect!

I own two white leghorns and in my area (Montana) it can get quite cold. In my first year of owning chickens these guys are not only the most stubborn, but they are the least cold hearty. During the summer they seemed quite content, but the coldest day we have had here (this year) was -12F. Not only did they insist on exiting the coup but they refused to go back in that night. I had to carry them to the coup and felt bad about their puffed up feathers and shivering. They are quite young still but they seemed to have learned that no matter the weather they can go home at the end of the day lol. They seem to lead my pack of birds and be on the top of the pecking order. And they make wonderful white eggs, quite large in size as well. Overall I like them (they are a part of my family after all!) a lot but wouldn't buy them again as I live in a very cold climate. 

i have 3 leghorns, 1 roo (raised from chick), and 2 ex-battery leghorn hens. those hens are very docile, friendly and gentle, not flighty at all, even my roo, friendly and gentle. each one of them likes to be picked up. my roo has the mightiest crow. my hens are about 1 and a half year old, but still lays like crazy and never been broody since i got them. 1 egg every 24 hours (1 year below) and 1 egg every 36 hours (a year old and up). i get consistently extra large eggs with only 125 grams of feed per hen per day and a total of 7.5 kilos of layer feed per month, so a 50 kilo feed bag lasts up to 6 and half months.

Ours was really friendly.  She made a good pet chicken.  For egg laying ability, Leghorn is hard to beat.  Our Our Leghorn, Joey, didn't eat near as much as our Buff Orpington or Barred Rock.  I have heard some strains are not as friendly and kind of skittish, but that was not our experience.  However, we only kept one. 

 

Our leghorn laid 2.0 oz eggs 6 to 7 times a week.  She started laying at 19 weeks old.

I have two pullets and they are very flght but when i pick them up the are little sweetearts

We've had several and their chicks (hatched by other hens).  It's a mixed bag with personalities.  I've had 2 that were friendly, that is, as long as you didn't try to pick them up.  I found that once I had them, they settled down and seemed to enjoy being made over.  They were also very cheeky, coming to the back door for food if they thought they didn't get their share!  I have also had some, mostly roos, that were so flighty and skittish they ended up in the stew pot.  I have two young ones that are skitty  if you try to hold them, but they like being around me.  They lay well, and, hopefully, will settle down a bit when they get a little older.  They also are VERY NOISY , they "talk" all the time.

All in all, a good breed for eggs, but not pets.

I have a White Leghorn rooster who attacks anyone who dares to go into the backyard. We raised him from the egg, and he was a good little boy...until we got hens. Then his protective instinct came in....

I raised White Leghorns for quite a few years. They tend to be quite flightly, not a super friendly bird. However, they are great foragers and free-range very well. Not to mention their outstanding laying ability!

Leghorns are in my memory the primary small farm egg laying chicken. We had a hundred leghorns, and a few dozen bantams for hatching eggs, and a scattered few assorted other breeds just for fun. There was no waste when I was young and it was an event when we would get new chickens and butcher and freeze all the chickens that were two or more years old. Boil up the big tub of water, and get ready to pluck away. The Leghorns laid eggs in every sort of weather. We never knew what store bought chicken was and those two year old hens sure did make great fried chicken!

Great chicken, is still laying in the middle of the winter, very smart, is the lead chicken breed in the pack. Very noisy if disturbed when trying to lay an egg though, I thought that something was trying to attack her with the amount of noise, it was just the kids getting eggs from the hen house, she was letting them know that she wasnt done yet.........lol

 We have raised white leghorns, single-comb brown leghorns, California Whites (3/4 leghorn, 1/4 barred rock), and various crossbred offspring from leghorns.

 

Leghorns have the best egg production of all, coming into lay at 18-22 weeks (free range), and quickly moving away from pullet-sized eggs to producing large and x-lge white eggs. It was unusual for a hen to skip laying more than a few days a month. Shells have weaker membranes than those of brown egg layers, and hens can deplete calcium stores and start with the occassional thin-shelled egg. They don't go broody. They might fly up into trees to roost in summer if given a chance. Their ability to get up high can allow them to get into everything and make a mess. Molts are usually fast with a quick return to production.

 

Carcass quality is poor. This is a thinly muscled bird who pours all of its energy into eggs, but the spent hen is still ok as a stew bird. Young roosters make for rather scrawny pieces of fried chicken. Cockerels are not the best choice for meat production, as their feed efficiency is much poorer than traditional meat breeds.

 

Legs are thin with dainty toes. California Whites, with their additional Plymouth Rock genetics, can be sturdier and did better foraging than purebred leghorns.

 

Brown leghorns and California Whites were not as crazy as the whites, were quieter, and had better longevity.

 

First generation crossbreds produced by my leghorn hens are always nutty. They tend to be wild, off-the-chart hysterical. This seems to get diluted after a couple generations.

 

All of the purebreds have been flighty and very easily frightened. This can cause eggs to get cracked when a panicked hen explodes from a nest. Their hyper response to everything can upset the other birds  that would otherwise be calm.

 

Not my first choice for a homestead bird, but if you want white eggs, they are hard to beat.

overall a good chicken and if they keep themselves clean very pretty. but they can be prone to pick on the younger ones since they tend to be lower in the pecking order

I started off with two wonderful leghorns. They are amazingly sweet, beautiful, cuddly animals. They are curious and get into a lot of trouble (which is why I now have only one. RIP Flash). Now a year old, getting an egg everyday from my leghorn. Wish I had a few more!

Miracle got her name because I had to chase down my cat Oopsy and pry her out of his jaws when she was just a few days old.  I kept her in my bedroom for a few days to heal up a leg wound and she's been my special little hen-pet ever since.  Very bright and curious, she flies up on my shoulder or lap when I'm out side.  A beautiful bird with a proud upright tail, she lays an egg every day although it is on the small side. 

Our Brown leghorn was a lovely hen to look at, prolific with her egg laying (nearly every day) and sounded like a fishmonger's wife.  Our neighbor thought we had a rooster.  She was also nearly impossible to catch.  If I was in a rural setting, however, I would get another one in a NY minute.

These are beautiful, great chickens. The first chicken I ever got was a leghorn in 2010, at a feed store,and she is now an amazing hen named Lily. When she was a chick, she got badly injured/ almost eaten by a hawk that managed to get into the coop, but she was extremely tough and lived.  

She's currently a happy, gorgeous hen with an attitude, and she's my best friend :) she's very funny... if you feed her the same leftovers (ex. pasta) for a few days, on the third day she'll start eating the pasta, freeze, spit it across the lawn and wipe her beak all over the ground....

Leghorns are also very intelligent and independent;They're great egg layers that do not go broody- Lily lays a huge white egg every day, even in the winter

I have had no problem with free ranging Lily, not sure about other Leghorns but Lily does not try to fly even though I do not clip her wings, she is also very clean and pretty quiet (and vain- often grooms self)

overall, great chickens, I would recommend getting a few! They will brighten your lives :D

                                                                     I've had a leghorn before, a male (Junior). He wasn't the best but he was I guess okay. The females were great. I am happy I had my leghorn boys, and girls. I still have some, but wish I had more.

I have 6 white leghorns and love them, they lay eggs year round though they did slow down a bit in the winter but we put a heat lamp in the coop to keep them warm and we still had a few eggs everyday. When I go to the coop they have to be right there watching everything I do. My favorite hens May and June will sit on my back when I collect eggs. They do tend to be a bit bossy with my Reds and Astrolorps but generally they do really well with eachother.

Leghorns will almost provide an egg a day, though they are very flighty unless handled when chicks

Hi, I have been serching for 6 brown leghorn female chicks in Canada and I havent found any that ship to my area. Every site I go on it has a order limit of ten or something or doesnt ship to Canada at all. My problem with the order limit is that the district we lives in only alows 6 chicks (FEMALE ONLY). Anyway could someone please help me I need to order before spring ends!!!!!

 

Thanks: TheLegman

I have 3 White Leghorns and they are just as sweet as the rest of my flock.  They aren't flighty like I thought they would be. 

I love these chickens. The only way they could get better is if there was a strain that laid brown eggs. If you like a pretty, small, very spunky bird, that lays L-XL white eggs and don't mind the stereotypical standoffish attitude, these birds are for you. I'd like to get more this spring.

I am the biggest fan of leghorns in the world! I think the are the best chickens! They lay wonderful eggs that are big and white. I raised my leghorns since birth and I have taken care of them ever since. I can walk over to them and pet them or pick them up with no problem. I can't wait till we get 7 more this spring! 

These birds tend to run anytime we get near them but they lay great!

Perfect for anyone who wants mellow birds that lay lots..lots..and LOTs of eggs. They come in a variety of colors--not just the commercial 'white' and are over all a good sturdy bird.

I love the leghorn, small bird, doesn't eat much or take up to much room. They lay a very nice big white egg.

The Leghorn is a good bird to have if you want a lot of eggs but the Leghorn can be easily startled and once they are startled it can be annoying and it is hard to calm them down and the bird is shy but other than that the bird is a good Bird to keep

 

my leghorn is awsome she follows me around,she also lays a huge egg that dosn't fit in any egg cartons she also lays almost ever day.

i have a leghorn, and although it has a reputition to be not the nicest bird, i think mine is very docile, one of the reasons maybe being that i got her at 2-3 weeks. she was a week or two older than the other chicks, and i think from that point on she took on the role as a mother and a leader. even though she's pecked me a few times, thats about as far as it went. oh, and they're awesome egg layers!

I raise hens for egg production, not pets... these girls are TOPS at that.  They exceed 300/yr comfortably, and continue to lay saleable eggs for about two years. I still have four of my first six, all are still laying (huge, ugly) eggs. Their food consumption is about half what the RIR's & BO's eat. Friendly is NOT one of their traits.  

 

Although they have 4 square feet per bird plus 1.5 s.f. of perch and one nest for each three birds in the coops, (night space only) and hundreds of acres to range - they still pick on each other regularly.  Eggs generally are large to XL; every Jumbo so far is followed within hours by a cannibalized hen.  Start of lay means many hours watching them to protect them from each other - because they won't even run away when being eaten alive.  

 

However, they have shown themselves to be quite predator-wary; we have many hawks, foxes and coyotes, and I haven't lost one to a predator yet.

 

 

My little Light Brown Leghorn is 17 days old now and she has always been completely wild.  Now with the freedom to move around a 12 x 12 converted horse stall, she's even wilder than ever!  Pretty bird though,  she is standing twice as tall as the Buff Brahmas of the same age!

 

I am looking forward to her being a great layer though, here's hoping we'll find out later this summer!

 

I think we'll just have to call her Speedy!  Here she is at 2 days old.

 

 

 

Speedy at 2 weeks old

 

The Light Brown leghorns are thought to be the origins of all Leghorns.  These light bodied birds are excellent foragers.  The feed to egg rate is excellent.  My pullet is a reliable layer of large white eggs 5 to 6, sometimes even 7 days a week.  Rather flighty, prefers not to be handled, but not aggressive.  With a draft proof coop you can keep these large combed/wattled birds in colder climates.  A wide flat roost is also a must.

 

The rooster sports a long iridescent tail.  His colors are just stunning in the sunshine.  A loud, frequent crower.  Not a bird for city life.  My cockerel will start crowing at 4am some days.

I bought 3 brown leghorns.  They were 16 weeks and now 17 and a half and they are skiddish and go crazy when I go into their cope and run area but all my others run up to me and are affectionate.  Actually I have one that thinks she is a cat.  But my leghorns annoy me with the way they act.  I spend time with them and they hate it.  But maybe they will lay a lot of eggs.  I have 2 hens and a roo.  They are beautiful though.

Great personality and very friendly, Daisy is the leader of my 4-hen flock. She is a slender, dainty white bird with beautiful feathers. Her tail is the biggest of my other breeds. She is always first to greet me when I come outside to see them, or to give them treats. Contrary to most of what I have heard about Leghorns, she is the friendliest of my girls and is pretty good about being caught and held. Her favorite treat is yogurt!

I am new to chickens, and have 4 leghorns, and 3 red chickens that I got when they were all day or so old chicks.  The leghorns have really blossomed into football size birds in 7 weeks.  They are funny to watch, come to the pen sides to eat treats and are usually the first to come out of the coup when I walk near it and call for them.  Great birds, and can't wait to start getting the large white eggs I am "promised" by this breed.

My Leghorns are just 7 week old chicks right now. Hoping to get eggs soon

We got our chicks from the Oregon state fair for free from their hatching demo. They have been amazing, I've had an egg every day since they started laying in January. Ours are friendly, and as we let them free range during the day, my Husband finds it very amusing that they all follow me around as I do chores.

My white leghorn is the best rooster I have. He warns everyone of danger and is great with the hens.

I like a breed that is not just a great layer but is kind of a pet as well. Leghorns in my experience are kind of stand offish, very flighty and can be loud. I always keep a few in my flock for their egg production and some of the Browns and Silvers are actually quite beautiful.

 

P.S. One of the friendliest birds I ever owned was a White Leghorn roo that I rescued from another family member who purchased him as one of those dyed Easter chicks back in 1975. He was dyed green so of course he was named booger. Booger was hand raised in my bedroom until he was old enough to put on the lot with the other birds. He was by far the most intelligent chicken that I ever owned. I could walk out on the patio, sit down and slap my leg and he would fly over the fence run up to me, hop

up on my knee and go to sleep in the sun. Booger...I really miss you buddy! RIP