Leghorns vs. Your Favorite White Egg Laying Breed?

[av8torcrj]

I have about 20 pearl white leghorns from McMurray and 20 ideal 236 in a mixed flock that are about two years old. Honestly, I can't tell the breeds apart. Collectively they've been super layers, generally large to extra large eggs. Personality wise, I think flighty and uninterested in human contact is the rule with this group. Most totally spaz out and jump off the nest if you try and reach under them. If they think I've got food they will come up but are easily spooked. Most seem to be good foragers but a few just spend the day lazily in the coop it seems. While outside if the leghorn rooster singnals trouble they explode into a white cloud of fear and run to the coop. That rooster BTW is the meanest bird towards humans I've ever owned. They in no way have the personality or demeanor of my Easter eggers and are far from endearing but I'd say their productivity is hard to beat therefore they will stay. That being said, red stars from McMurray are arriving this week for a trial. If their productivity in any way rivals the leghorn I will cut back on the breed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Most of what has been said is great information and advice.
I just want to correct a couple things. While all the Mediterranean breeds that are in the APA SOP lay white eggs, two other lesser known Med breeds, the Penedesenca and Empordanesa from Catalonia lay extremely dark brown eggs - even though they have white earlobes.
Also, I find that the more birds avoid human contact and the less one tries to make roosters a pet, the less human aggressive they are. I've had partridge rocks and similar roosters attack me but after well over 100 Penedesenca roosters, I've never been attacked by one of them. They do their job and I do mine. We have little contact unless I pull one off the roost at night to inspect its condition. My interaction with roosters is that I don't have any. When moving around my flocks, I move slowly and not directly toward any. I think if I had more physical contact with any of the birds, the roosters might see me as a threat.
The American and English class roosters I had didn't seem to want to avoid human contact and thereby had a greater tendency to be human aggressive.

 

[GingersHuman]

I have 2 white leghorns and love them! One I got as a year old hen, she was a little skittish, but follows me around now (no touching though!). The other I got as an 18 week old pullet, she loves to follow, be petted and sometimes asks to be picked up. Go figure. They are among my best layers though!

 

[av8torcrj]

This particular rooster lived in harmony in a bachelor pad with his hatch mates, an EE and a black amerucana for the better part of a year while I was away from the farm. The caretaker began to report that he couldn't enter the coop without being flogged by the leghorn. This individual is totally indifferent about poultry and I'm certain made no attempts at any contact other than what was necessary for routine care. When I arrived back at the farm and separated the boys into the appropriate breeding flocks, I was promptly stalked by the leghorn like a wild cougar in search of prey and he drew blood on two occasions. The EE and amerucana haven't show the least interest or concern about my presence.
Rather than order another set of leghorns from the hatchery I wanted to attempt to breed some of my own. The roo is the only leghorn rooster on the farm and though I hesitate to breed his temperament into a new generation I'm going to give it a try. Fact is he's dangerous. I'm always concerned when I bend over to open the door to the outside run that he might attack and put an eye out. I realize he's following instinct and protecting his flock but this propensity will ultimately limit his tenure here.

 

[dheltzel]

Most of what has been said is great information and advice.
I just want to correct a couple things. While all the Mediterranean breeds that are in the APA SOP lay white eggs, two other lesser known Med breeds, the Penedesenca and Empordanesa from Catalonia lay extremely dark brown eggs - even though they have white earlobes.
Also, I find that the more birds avoid human contact and the less one tries to make roosters a pet, the less human aggressive they are. I've had partridge rocks and similar roosters attack me but after well over 100 Penedesenca roosters, I've never been attacked by one of them. They do their job and I do mine. We have little contact unless I pull one off the roost at night to inspect its condition. My interaction with roosters is that I don't have any. When moving around my flocks, I move slowly and not directly toward any. I think if I had more physical contact with any of the birds, the roosters might see me as a threat.
The American and English class roosters I had didn't seem to want to avoid human contact and thereby had a greater tendency to be human aggressive.

I was going to point out the dark egg Mediterranean breeds also, but I should have figured you'd get that sorted out.
My experience with aggressive roos is quite different. But then my experiences with broody breeds seems abnormal too. We all give anecdotal evidence regarding aggression, but in truth there are individual variations that are not well understood. My most people aggressive breed (by far) are my Cream Legbars. Even there, it's a small percentage that turn mean (and they get removed from the breeding flock immediately) and most are completely ambivalent towards me unless I have something edible to offer. Once I was treating for lice in a large pen of Rhodebars with 2 massive cock birds that had been hand tamed as chicks. The kids that raised them taught them to sit on their shoulders like parrots. These guys should have turned aggressive, and when I started catching and caging all their pullets, one by one, I was watching their reaction. They were obviously upset by what was going on, but never once tried to stop me. I was impressed by their gentleness. They are an American-derived English breed and the Legbars are Leghorn-derived.

As for white egg layers, I have had Barred Hollands and California Greys. They look the same, but are much different. Firstly, the California Greys could lay circles around the Hollands. The CG's are essentially barred leghorns, and they act like them, very flighty, especially when adolescents, but they do calm down once they reach POL (I find that all breeds do). The Hollands act more like Barred Rocks, very much dual-purpose, but they seem to have lost much of their famed attributes, so I switched to the CG's for white eggs in a barred bird (I use them to make black sexlinks).

 

[Aw-Ee Chicken]

Thank you for sharing your experience! Do you have only leghorns, or leghorns mixed with other breeds?
I'm back and forth and back and forth...I like the idea of a white chicken that lays white eggs. Just looking for some fun variety of colors in both my flock and my egg basket. Then I read something that makes me go welllllll....maybe not. But then I'm like, why not!!? And then, wellllll...... LOL.

I have Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, Australorps, Rhode Island mixes, and Turkens mixed with my Leghorns. They seem do to fine together.
All the different varieties do make the flock colorful. Especially the egg basket! Do whatever seems to fill your liking.

 

[mcstewartchick]

I love Leghorns and have white, light brown single comb (my all-time favorite chicken breed), and I have some silvers coming. I'm breeding the light browns now and have more coming from a breeder. Good quality SOP light browns are tough to locate. Anyway, like Chicken Canoe said, the Mediterranean breeds are all white egg layers and I believe there are a couple others, like I think Silkies lay white eggs. Anyway, yes Leghorns are certainly wary but they're very fit and predator resistant as a result. They're outstanding birds and all lay well. You can't go wrong with Leghorns IMO. Just wanted to throw my two cents in there.

Your two cents are appreciated! Looks like a white Leghorn will join my flock tomorrow afternoon if they arrive at the feed store on schedule. And likely a barred Holland on Saturday. Looking forward to some white eggs this summer!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I was going to point out the dark egg Mediterranean breeds also, but I should have figured you'd get that sorted out.
My experience with aggressive roos is quite different. But then my experiences with broody breeds seems abnormal too. We all give anecdotal evidence regarding aggression, but in truth there are individual variations that are not well understood. My most people aggressive breed (by far) are my Cream Legbars. Even there, it's a small percentage that turn mean (and they get removed from the breeding flock immediately) and most are completely ambivalent towards me unless I have something edible to offer. Once I was treating for lice in a large pen of Rhodebars with 2 massive cock birds that had been hand tamed as chicks. The kids that raised them taught them to sit on their shoulders like parrots. These guys should have turned aggressive, and when I started catching and caging all their pullets, one by one, I was watching their reaction. They were obviously upset by what was going on, but never once tried to stop me. I was impressed by their gentleness. They are an American-derived English breed and the Legbars are Leghorn-derived.

As for white egg layers, I have had Barred Hollands and California Greys. They look the same, but are much different. Firstly, the California Greys could lay circles around the Hollands. The CG's are essentially barred leghorns, and they act like them, very flighty, especially when adolescents, but they do calm down once they reach POL (I find that all breeds do). The Hollands act more like Barred Rocks, very much dual-purpose, but they seem to have lost much of their famed attributes, so I switched to the CG's for white eggs in a barred bird (I use them to make black sexlinks).

Very well said. I agree that we (myself especially) tend to spout off anecdotal evidence as gospel.

I've had over 30 breeds of chickens but only about 10 breeds of roosters and most of my rooster experience has been with Penedesencas.

 

[mcstewartchick]

I was going to point out the dark egg Mediterranean breeds also, but I should have figured you'd get that sorted out.
My experience with aggressive roos is quite different. But then my experiences with broody breeds seems abnormal too. We all give anecdotal evidence regarding aggression, but in truth there are individual variations that are not well understood. My most people aggressive breed (by far) are my Cream Legbars. Even there, it's a small percentage that turn mean (and they get removed from the breeding flock immediately) and most are completely ambivalent towards me unless I have something edible to offer. Once I was treating for lice in a large pen of Rhodebars with 2 massive cock birds that had been hand tamed as chicks. The kids that raised them taught them to sit on their shoulders like parrots. These guys should have turned aggressive, and when I started catching and caging all their pullets, one by one, I was watching their reaction. They were obviously upset by what was going on, but never once tried to stop me. I was impressed by their gentleness. They are an American-derived English breed and the Legbars are Leghorn-derived.

As for white egg layers, I have had Barred Hollands and California Greys. They look the same, but are much different. Firstly, the California Greys could lay circles around the Hollands. The CG's are essentially barred leghorns, and they act like them, very flighty, especially when adolescents, but they do calm down once they reach POL (I find that all breeds do). The Hollands act more like Barred Rocks, very much dual-purpose, but they seem to have lost much of their famed attributes, so I switched to the CG's for white eggs in a barred bird (I use them to make black sexlinks).

Totally unrelated to your comment here, but I checked out the link to your Welbars. They're beautiful!

 

[dheltzel]

Totally unrelated to your comment here, but I checked out the link to your Welbars. They're beautiful!

Thank you. I am pretty happy with them. They still need a few traits stabilized by crossing back to Welsummers a few more times, but they turned out much better (especially egg color) than I expected.