Anti White Leghorn Bias?

[NovaAman]

I loved my girl. She was my absolute favorite. Always first out, always first to greet me, always first at everything. Very curious girl. Laid me a nice egg everyday. Once she started, I got an egg every day. Never missed... My rotten dogs got her... And I miss seeing her in my yard...

 

[ClareScifi]

Very interesting comments, all! I'm so glad there are so many leghorn lovers out there!

My Good Guy half white leghorn doesn't mind being picked up. The adopter wants a roo she can hold, and he's her guy, I think, because he seems to enjoy being picked up and held. I think he's half Easter Egger or Araucana. Someone posted some pics of their white leghorn/Easter Egger crosses, and he looks just like them.

Are Araucanas/Easter Eggers famous for being okay with being picked up/cuddlers?

 

[ClareScifi]

So sorry about your sweet girl, Nova. That would be a nightmare. I do worry about the adopter having dogs. They are enclosed in a run and seem pretty sweet. One is an Australian Shepherd, and the adopter said one night she forgot to let one of her girls into the coop for the night (I hope this doesn't happen to my roo), and her dog alerted her to the fact that the hen was still outside, protecting her. I thought that was a good story. But I have heard dogs can turn mean at any moment and kill chickens. They do seem aware of this, though, so I hope it won't be a problem.

For that matter, a pack of roaming dogs could come through my property when my Good Guy is out free-ranging and get him, and it is probably a bigger risk here than at her house, where the property is encircled by a chain link fence with bricks under it (making it hard for a raccoon or other predator to dig under it)?

 

[jwg423]

I have 3 leghorns they are my largest egg layers! Most of my flock are Easter Eggers and Welsummers. When I sell my eggs I occasionally get asked if I put in a few store bought eggs. People who are not very chicken smart tend to think that white eggs are only from the store. To them only the colored eggs mean fresh eggs.

I think that after having so many of the other egg colors it is attractive to have a white one thrown in the mix once in a while.

 

[ClareScifi]

I think you are right, jvvg! Diversity is cool! Even in eggs!

And we must not forget that white eggs dye very well with true primary coloring at Easter. I must mention this to the prospective adopter who has 4 daughters who might enjoy dying eggs at Easter.

I didn't think of the Easter dying connection until right now. I bought a whole bunch of dye kits on sale last spring after Easter. If my part leghorn girls lay white eggs, I will have a great deal of fun with the preschoolers, dying them!

The brown eggs dye beautiful colors, too, but I am partial to the way the white ones dye. I actually bought white eggs last year to dye, even though I had brown eggs from my beautiful chickens to use. I dyed both types, as an experiment.

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

Quote:
That's exactly what they think! Drives me nuts what people come up with.

 

[chickened]

My Ameraucana X Leghorns all lay a blue egg.
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.

 

[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

Did you know that off the top of you head?

What would be a good cross with a leghorn to make brown egg super layer? Dreaming huh?

No, I couldn't remember ALL of those, LOL! Just about half of them or so. I checked a few websites real quick for the rest of them (there's probably a few rare breeds that I missed).

Hatchery Rhode Island Reds (aka Production Reds and Cherry Eggers) and Red Sexlinks (aka Golden Comets, Cinnamon Queens, Red Stars, ISA Brown, etc) are the best brown egg laying breeds. Any of these crossed with a White Leghorn would make an awesome brown egg layer. A friend of mine has a Rhode Island Red rooster in with White Leghorn hens. I'm tempted to hatch a few of her eggs for my flock and see how well they lay, cause I've never had Leghorns but hear a bunch of great things about their egg laying abilities!

 

[Moochie]

I have a leghorn cross hen. I wish she would start laying again though.

She's a great broody and missed most of her laying days due to raising babies. She and my other firsts are going to be turning 2 this year. I won't eat my firsts (first chickens) because they're too dang special and I love them. She lays (or used to lay) a nice, big, round, white egg every other day. I've always wanted babies from her! Don't know if she has any white leghorn in her though. She has a lemon blue color and grey (slate?) colored legs. She sure is nice though.

I see an abundance of white leghorn hens at an auction here around spring and summer. Most are either spent hens, diseased (not very nice lol), buggy, or are moulting and the owners haven't a clue about hens not laying when they moult. Intresting lol. And I see white leghorn girl chickies sold at Van Dams Hay and Feed during the spring.

 

[ClareScifi]

Ooh, this is great news about Leghorn/RIR crosses producing super brown eggs. The potential adopter has RIRs and this will be of great interest to her! That combined with Good Guy being part Easter Egger, with the green/light blue egg potential. I don't see how she can resist him now. You are all the best, providing me with this great info!!!