Anti White Leghorn Bias?

[SunnyCalifornia]

You know the Brown Leghorns are beautiful..... Somebody brought one to one of our chicken meet ups. Gorgeous bird, and I would assume it has similar laying qualities to the white Leghorn, but a bit less "common".

 

[DMRippy]

Brown eggs are more expensive 1) They are not as efficient with feed as leghorns 2) don't lay as well as leghorns 3) Don't lay as big as the Leghorns.

Now I have not seen any of that in my little leghorn flock, but they just started laying... then stopped

well 2 stopped anyway. They eat like pigs... I think... we will see about that. Now that I will have the same feeders in the other pens I can see who eats more... Leghorns or Marans

A lot of people don't want white birds because of predators.... Most people want brown eggs from the farm and if you have white eggs they feel like they are not farm fresh.

 

[Cowgirl71]

Quote:
Silver Spangled Hamburgs lay white eggs.

Egg color genes...
white x blue = light blue
white x green = 50% light blue, 50% brown
white x brown = brown
brown x blue = green
brown x green = 50% brown, 50% green

As you can see, the white egg color gene is very recessive.

A rooster who is half White Leghorn and half Easter Egger will likely have one white egg gene and one blue egg gene, though it's hard to know for sure exactly what gene his Easter Egger parent passed to him. But assuming he has one white and one blue... If you cross him with brown egg breed hens, such as Rhode Island Reds, you can expect that half of the pullets would lay brown eggs and half would lay green eggs. If you cross him to white egg breeds, such as Silver Spangled Hamburgs and Leghorns, you can expect that half of the pullets would lay white eggs and half of the pullets would lay light blue eggs.

 

[nurse_turtle]

My Dad's entire flock consists of white and brown leghorns. He has large white eggs coming out his ears! I think some folks avoid breeds with tall single combs due to frost bite in winter. A lot of folks want eye-candy chickens that will lay eggs. I think the white and brown leghorns are beautiful. The large white Roo is strikingly handsome.

 

[ClareScifi]

I just Googled the brown leghorn, and it is beautiful! Thanks for the tip!

The adopters have a hen they asked me to identify, and I wasn't able to do so. But she looked like the Brown Leghorn, body-wise, but her head was opalescent. Any idea what breed she might be? Guesses?

Interesting about the benefits of leghorns over brown egg-layers. My half leghorns seem to suffer from "Piggy Disorder" too. They just love to eat!

Clare

 

[LiLRedCV]

I have two White Leghorns in my flock. Used to have 3 but a dog we used to have killed one (dog had to go to a new home as a result). I don't really care one way or the other myself. I had one WL in my starter flock of 13 and then the following year bought two of everything the feed store had in stock - it included two more WL's.

However, I must say that the brown eggs are easier to clean up than the white eggs if they get a bit dirtier - or at least they make it appear they do! I keep all the stained eggs for myself and sell the rest and I almost always get to keep the white eggs as a result.

 

[ClareScifi]

Thanks for the genetics info!

The potential adopter has 2 silver-spangled hamburgs, I believe, so she must not mine white eggs. That is great to know! I think she'll love the idea of possibly getting green or light blue eggs from the chickens my roo would father with her hens!

I think the eye-candy theory is probably true, and probably the frostbite one, too. I'm glad you think leghorns are beautiful, too, nurse!

 

[ClareScifi]

Interesting about egg staining. I had never considered that.

 

[Cowgirl71]

Quote:
Ancona
Andalusian
Appenzeller Spitzhauben
California Grey (aka Production Black)
California White (hybrid)
Campine
Catalana
Crevecoeur
Cubalaya
Dorking
Fayoumi
Hamburg
Holland
Houdan
Jaerhon
La Fleche
Lakenvelder
Leghorn
Minorca
Polish
Redcap
Sicilian Buttercup
Sultan
Sumatra
White Faced Black Spanish

 

[annageckos]

I am not 'anti white leghorn', but I do prefer chickens that are not white. I do like brown leghorns, they are pretty birds. I don't have chickens now, but did years ago, but have never owned a leghorn. One other thing that keeps me from wanting any is that I hear they are flighty birds. I would also rather have colored eggs, just because I think they look nice. Maybe one or two white egg layers too. But mostly different colors.