Calling all brown leghorn lovers :) Are Brown Leghorns good egg layers?

[KNelly]

Mine turned 29w today and laid her first egg yesterday. I can't seem to find much info or any at all on her breed so I'm not sure what to expect from her. Just curious how often other brown leghorns lay?

 

[chicksurreal]

I have a couple of Brown Leghorns, and I love them! I can't tell you my experiences with their egg laying yet because they're only 14 weeks old right now. I'm glad to know when yours started to lay.

 

[donrae]

Several years ago I bred some hatchery brown Leghorns into my mixed breed flock to boost egg production. I crossed them mainly with Easter eggers and barred Rocks. The EE/Leghorn crosses gave me hens that laid huge pale blue or green eggs every day for months.....they took breaks in the winter but were still giving me 4+ eggs a week at 5 years old. Had to be the Leghorn blood...plain EE don't lay that much or that big an egg IME.

If you're okay with a white egg, I love the brown Leghorns. I personally don't care for white birds, so they were the way to go for me. I did notice they were a touch flightier than my dual purpose birds, but as my flock was free ranged at the time it didn't matter. I never lost one to a predator. Never had one go broody. The roosters were decent guys, good with the hens. The hens don't eat much for how large the egg is. Plus, they're just so perky looking!

 

[lazy gardener]

I have 3 Rose Comb Brown Leghorns. (from Murray McMurray.) They were the last ones of this spring's pullets to start laying. I put supplemental light in the coop about a month or more ago, and they have recently started laying again. They lay a small to medium egg. These birds are flighty, but I think they are beautiful, and am willing to overlook their small eggs and their flighty nature. I think the white eggs add a lot of variety to the egg basket. I would say they are average layers. I'm hoping that by the time they get their genes mixed into my varied gene pool, the flighty tendency will mellow a bit after a few generations.

Donrae: My experience has varied from yours re: EE. My gals lay huge eggs! Had one that laid faithfully all of last winter, while the other 2 quit. One never returned to lay.