My white leghorn is laying brown eggs????

[WichitaKSClucks]

My white leghorn from Estes Hatchery started laying yesterday and she's laying brown eggs both yesterday and today. Something tells me she's not what we ordered. Attached are a picture of her and her egg. Help!!!! What is she????

 

[season1223]

Yep...she's too bulky to manage flying up to a roost.  You might fix her up a roost she can manage like a hay bale or similar soft spot that is broad and not too high.  Sleeping on a hard surface can start putting pressure areas on her breast and cause damage there.   If your nest boxes are high it could be why she's laying on the ground also.  A nest box on the floor with some copious amounts of hay in it might entice her to lay in a nest. 

Like the others have posted, she'll last longer if she has restricted feed and has to exercise more, but she will not live as long as your other hens and you'll need to watch for signs of lameness, breathing issues that indicate ascites or cardiac insufficiency and that would be a good time to kill her, then utilize her for her intended purpose...meat.  No need to let her suffer before she finally dies by hoping she'll recover, as she simply won't. 

Thanks! I did put a pet carrier with no door in the coop for her...filled it with wood chips and i filled her "dirt bathing hole" with wood chips too but she still insists on laying down on the ground! I just got some more wood to make some boxes on the ground for her and my duck too because the duck sleeps with her! They cuddle! The 2 of them r inseparable! Both females too! It's funny! Chick Pea was inside for almost a month when she got eaten up by flies/maggots! The whole time her and the duck would talk to each other thru the walls! Shes completely healed up from that incident (which i hope nobody ever has to go thru)! I love that bird sooo much! I would fall in love with the "meat bird" of my flock! Lol! Shes a tough one tho and at least she will be loved her whole life...no matter how short it is!

 

[season1223]

After waiting anxiously for weeks for my "leghorns" (henceforth to be referred to as The DeeDum....they earned the names Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and since they are nearly identical and we can't tell them apart, we collectively refer to both of them as one until- The DeeDum) to start laying, I went out to the coop this morning and discovered this oddly dark egg- none of my other girls have ever laid eggs of that shade- we have two EE's, two Black Stars, one RI Red, one Japanese Fantail Bantam, one Frizzle Bantam, and The DeeDum. We thought we would know for sure when they started laying, as leghorns lay white eggs, right? Now I am wondering if they are perhaps White Rocks! Getting a close look at their earlobes will have to wait until they head back inside for the evening. Can my other hens suddenly have such a dramatic change in the color of their eggshells? I have had my original crew of the EE's, RI Red, and Black Star for two years now- it's obvious who lays the blue/green and who lays the mini eggs

Wow! What a beautiful assortment of colors!

 

[season1223]

This is a pic of my Chick Pea! I got her from a friend when she was a baby along with another one like her and a duck (all about the same age)! He had bought them and decided he didn't want em which is how my flock began! He didn't know what gender or breed they were! I know shes a hen now and im thinking she might be a white rock too since she looks just like JocelynMc25's...am I right? She just started laying eggs and hers r brown eggs too!

This is a pic of one of her eggs (the biggest of the 5 eggs shes laid so far)!

 

[Beekissed]

This is a pic of my Chick Pea! I got her from a friend when she was a baby along with another one like her and a duck (all about the same age)! He had bought them and decided he didn't want em which is how my flock began! He didn't know what gender or breed they were! I know shes a hen now and im thinking she might be a white rock too since she looks just like JocelynMc25's...am I right? She just started laying eggs and hers r brown eggs too!

That's not a White Rock, that's a Cornish White Rock Cross hen...a meat bird. More commonly written as "CX". Has WR genes back in her breeding but most decidedly NOT a WR.

 

[season1223]

There's truth in both of these statements. Because of their fantastic growth rates, Cornish cross are typically ready for butchering at about 8 weeks. If left unbutchered, they usually begin suffering severe health problems at a very early age due to their abnormal growth rates. However, sometimes these health issues can be delayed for a while with a restricted diet (don't leave food out for them all the time) and a situation where they are forced to get some exercise (such as some free ranging) for their food. Even with that, 3 years is very old for a Cornish cross to live. In 50 years of raising chickens, I've never personally known of one to reach its 2nd birthday.

Thanks for all the info everyone! She does free range and gets a great deal of exercise but shes greedy with snacks too and sometimes seems to be too heavy for her legs! She is laying eggs everyday now tho! Shes my favorite chicken cuz she runs to me everytime she sees me outside and she will peck at the front door if i don't come out soon enuf for her! She eats out of my hand and lets me hold her! Her BFF is a female duck who watches over her as if she is her baby! I hope she exceeds the usual life span! Is her weight the reason she doesn't fly? She sleeps on the ground!

 

[season1223]

I thought i would give an update in this thread too since i was talking to different ppl in this one! I did build chick pea (my CX) & Quackers (my lady duck) a box on the ground for sleeping/laying! They started going in it the first night & yesterday i put an egg shaped white rock in it & today chick pea laid an egg in it! It is a little bit off the ground with a ramp! I think quackers tried to lay her egg in it last night but it landed on the ramp and rolled down because i found it this morning at the bottom of the ramp (still intact)! I could tell they spent most of the night in it tho because it had a lot of poop in there this morning! I have it filled with poplar chips tho so it was easy clean-up! Ill have to post a pic on this thread of it! Chick pea is laying eggs everyday now and almost half of them r gigantic eggs...they dwarf the duck eggs! Shes still getting plenty of exercise too and doing well! I have limited her snacks to 2 small pieces of tomato a day and she gets the leftover seeds when the others r done eating the tomatoes! I also make her run to get her 2 pieces! I also kinda separated the eating area and sleeping area in the coop so shes distracted from eating the whole time shes in the coop! Plus she spends 90% of daylight hrs out of the coop free ranging! So far so good!

 

[enola]

White Rock

 

[Chicken Girl1]

As enola said that is a White Plymouth Rock,

 

[Michael OShay]

I agree with the other posters; both the brown eggs and the red earlobes are indicative of White Plymouth Rocks (Leghorns have white earlobes).