Breeding Buff Leghorns

[ArieBLB]

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Thank you all, I am glad to be with friends here. I am not very well in English so I use sometimes the wrong words. It is not intended to hurt people, but by the wrong choice of word to me, that would have happened by mistake. Apologies if that would happen. I like being allowed to have contact with all these chicken breeders and fanciers. Especially with those who breed the Buff Leghorns because the breed Buff Leghorns really appeals to me.
Thank you Dan, I am real happy with your help and support and the information I have received from you. Also from Keith Bjelland, he is also a great person and breeder who helped me with information.

I look accurate to the animals. That's because I have a very small space to keep my animals. That implies that I asked to make choices. It is important to keep out animals that can produce errors.
Therefore I make the choice not to use certain animals to breed. That makes me a breeder who wants to know as much as possible of the breed and its properties. Information is so important at a young age to estimate how a chick will grow. At the age of 6 weeks should I select and cull. That is why I am so Critical and look so severe the animals.

So it is not intended to hurt people but my strong opinions have arisen out of necessity to strictly look at what is good and what is not... Greetings Arie

 

[danhonour]

I may have said this before but,it bears repeating. If the earlobe appears yellowish,it is genetically a white lobe and I would not worry much about it.Much depends on the diet.I do not know for sure why I do not have a problem with yellow lobes,mine are white.I can make a few good guesses and it has to do with yellow corn and soybean.I never feed scratch grain or cracked corn.I feel as they get some of it in the grower and starter crumbles.My choice of grain is oats,wheat,bird seed, sun flower ,or rice .Since most of these are hard to get or expensive,oats are about the only one they get with any regularity.I like to soak the oats overnight in water and let them swell up moist,but they are also good sprouted.I feed lots of green food (clover,grass,alfalfa,weeds) and grit. Soil types or sun/shade may have an effect on lobes.My point is do not worry too much,just see what works best for you while maintaining health and production. It is more important to watch the earlobe,shape and size as it lends much beauty to the head section.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

I'm guilty with the yellow lobes, I do feed a lot of scratch.

Their legs sure are yellow looking though!

 

[DaveK]

Dan with the way you feed your poultry you should also pick out a waterfowl breed. It's amazing how similarly we are feeding. I cannot remember the last time I bought corn. I know there's corn in the grower pellet I feed all year 'round (crumbled up for babies) but it's not a huge part of their ration at any stage of their lives and is the only corn they get. Oats is my grain of choice because of the nutritional profile as well as the fiber which I feel is absolutely needed for geese. Black oil sunflower provides essential fatty acids, oils and energy. Not cheap but way better and way, way healthier results than corn. The same folks who complain of poor results every spring but end their discourse with "I may have overdone the scratch trying to keep them warm during the bitter cold winter' are just repeating past mistakes and not paying attention. Birch Run, I am NOT thinking of you as lobe color notwithstanding you have healthy birds that are breeding for you.

I can have older adult poultry show less interest in the oats than in wheat, milo or the sunflower but whatever can be got into them is all good.

 

[danhonour]

I think you can feed scratch sparingly as a late day feeding when the temperature is zero or lower farenheit.Leghorns are a bit less prone to getting over fat than dual purpose or meat breeds,due to their activeness.However I find the birds that are individually caged can get fat with the limited exercise they get,so I make sure they get small feed dishes.To boost your fertility place a shovel full of grass and sod into each pen twice a week,also light is important so wash and clean the glass windows when collecting hatching eggs. Oats are very high in fiber and that helps digestion and feathers are made up of fiber,so they might not eat as much feathers when fed soaked oats.Dry oats are rough and they are not fond of dry oats,(crimped,or rolled are good).I feed crumbles in the morning and other things (including greens) later in the day.That way they fill up on a balanced ration instead of other things that are really suppliments to the balanced ration.The chicks grow better this way and the hens lay better this way.Results are much better than when the reverse is tried.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Thankyou everyone! I plan on sitting down one day and reading through this whole thread. I got two eggs from the pullets today, but they are a light creamy color? Almost the color of my silkies eggs? Arent leghorn eggs supposed to be white?

 

[danhonour]

It seems as if you can have white earlobes and brown eggs or red earlobes and white eggs,and many combinations inbetween.The egg color inheritance is very complex as a number of genes control them.Once you get a strain laying white eggs,you can keep it laying white,as the tinted egg genes have been bred out.It takes a few generations of selection to get and set.Birds that lay tinted eggs will recombine and a percentage will come white,then breed white to white. By only setting white eggs to hatch from you can set the trait.This is an area where having a fair sized flock,you can bred egg shell traits in or out rather quickly.There are a number of reasons for tinted eggs,the Buff Cochin or Buff Rock ancestry blood used for buff color genes,outcrossing lines,sometimes very close inbreeding.Many times as a bird lays the eggs become whiter making selection harder.

 

[silkieluver_07]

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Very interesting Dan! Will you be showing at the Delmarva show in March?

 

[Birch Run Farm]

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Mine don't lay white eggs, same as what you describe. Must be brown egg breed in their back ground somewhere?

 

[danhonour]

I know that Fred Zillich of Mo,has mixed in Buff Plymouth Rock,it is done to increase body size,for new blood,and for improving buff color.This is nothing newThe Kays used Buff Cochin back in 1890.I know that Partridge Plymouth Rock was used in at least one line of Dark Brown Leghorns. I myself have added a bit of Red Duckwing Phoenix for tail genes and multiple feathering and Pheonix lay a very light tinted egg.I know that White Phoenix has been used in White Leghorns many times.Most of the time breeders keep quite about such things because the "pure"mentality of the general public.It is a breeding tool to be used carefully by those who can handle and control it until it does what it was intended to do. It is nothing more than working in genes and setting a combination of genes wanted. Breeds are man-made and manipulated.Sometimes a line loses a gene or traits and the only way to get it back is, to again introduce the genes by crossing it back in. Egg shell color is on my list,but not that high up on the list,maybe somewhere about half way.Lets face it,if I have an outstanding bird that lays a tinted egg,she stays,if I have a poor bird that lays white eggs she goes.I can do this because it varies in my stock.If all birds layed tinted eggs except this one poor bird,I might want to keep her to add another line with that one trait. Not all breeders pay attention to production traits,I try to do so,but even on production, egg shell color is not as high as egg size,egg shell quality,number of eggs,fertility and hatch rate. Now after saying all this (background understanding)my egg basket has only a percentage of tinted light cream colored eggs in an otherwise white basketful.