White Leghorn, the forgotten breed

[ShawnWatson]

I started out with white leghorns a few years ago. Since then i've also added a few other breeds. Been around chickens most of my life really. Leghorns tend to slack off in the winter time (for me anyways). They are egg laying machines! I haven't had one go broody either. As they age the eggs keep getting bigger. Sometimes i wonder how such a big egg comes out of a smaller chicken like the white leghorn lol. They tend to be a bit more flighty compared to my other breeds. Culling time they are really only good for chicken soup/chicken noodle. To tell if they are laying or not is very easy. First tale tell sign is the legs(among other ways). If she isn't laying then they tend to be more orange. If she is a good layer then her legs will be very pale. On top of layer pellets i also give some cracked corn, leftovers from dinner/scraps, and crush the eggs shells up for extra calcium. Chickens that lay on a daily basis need the extra calcium for a good strong shell. They tend to like summer alot more than say winter time. I got a leghorn rooster and he's a big wimp lol. Anyways, just felt like sharing.

 

[briecheeze87]

I have 1 WLH Rooster, 3 WLH hens and I love them, they were my first chickens, now I have an all black Jersey giant (mixed with a black australorp) (she is about 20 lbs) and she is a sweetie pie but i love my leghorns, My neighbors hen mated with my WLH and produced 7 weird colored but adorable babies... 1 is black (almost looks like a silver laced wyandotte), 1 grey and red mixed patterned all over, 2 silver wings, 1 who has strawberry blonde tipped white feathers all over (he is the prettyiest out of all the babies) and the three girls are all spotted mostly white but have red/strawberry blonde feathers mixed throughout... I am pretty sure the mama was just a game hen, she was red and brown and nothing fancy.
I think the WLH are so pretty, and so white! & people are always amazed at their giant white eggs!!! (during the summer I pass them out b/c my 3 hens lay sooo much,) and this next yr we will have some small brown eggs from my jersey mix.

 

[buzz1994]

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Here's my Buff Orp x White Leghorn roo baby in his first snow.


And the three misbehaving musketeers

 

[kacklinghen]

 

[Peep-Chicken]

I hatched out a white leghorn bantam in the summer. She's super small, I'll have to get pics

 

[rstarrgl]

So pretty!

 

[buzz1994]

now 14 weeks old from my first ever hatch was wondering when to start feeding layers pellets

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I usually wait until they start laying. You can offer a dish of oyster shell for now and they'll eat what they need.

 

[buzz1994]

Thanks wasent sure