Light Brown Leghorns - First time owner of this breed

[cburns407]

I have been through so much research with the birds it is crazy. First off I bought them at Tractor Supply and were told they were Blue Leghorns. I tried to find pictures of this breed and contacted a local hatchery to get info from them. Finally after many emails back and fourth, we came to the conclusion that they light brown leghorns. I bought 3 leghorns along with 3 comets. When I bought them and did my research to determine how long before they would start laying, I was very excited to find that from many websites and owners of leghorns that they would start laying months before my comets would. While the comets would be laying around 7-9 months, the leghorns would 5-6 months. Well everyone is almost 6 months now, and my comets are great layers!! I get 3 large/jumbo eggs daily from them. My leghorns on the other hand have given me nothing so far. I have one, who is named chicken little ( smallest of the flock) who just started turning red in her comb while the others have been this way for over a month now. They are in a confined run/coop and are only out when I am there to supervise and keep on eye on them. 2 of my leghorns have been doing the whole crouching motion when you put your hands over their backs as they would to breed. (sorry for my lack of proper terms ) When my comets started doing this is was at the most 2 weeks before they started to lay. I check every crack and crevice possible since they are flighty and have found no eggs hidden anywhere. Like I said, this is my first time owning leghorns as well as comets. I grew up on farm with a few free range misc. hens that were more pets then actually used for egg production ( as they laid all over and the dogs found them before us )

If anyone could give me some advice/information on Light Brown leghorns in general I would appreciate it.
- How long before they should start laying before I should look into replacing them?
- How many eggs a week/bird should I expect?

Thank You All
you have helped me in the past and I was given excellent info and advice

 

[CHICKLOVER69]

I've got two myself. Almost four weeks old. Suppossed to be laying machines. Hope for the best. Time will tell. Know this is no help to you, but would like to know when they do start laying

 

[Michael OShay]

Brown Leghorns are not as prolific at laying as White Leghorns, but they should be laying by now. Typically they will begin laying from 20-24 weeks and give you on average 3 eggs per week per hen (occasionally 4). Possibly they are laying someplace, and you just haven't found the eggs yet. If you do decide to replace BLs at some point, I would purchase more sex links. In addition to your Comets, which is one of many labels under which some hatcheries market their Red Sex Links (red gene rooster x silver gene hen), there is also a Black Sex Link (red gene roo x barred gene hen) that you might want to try. Either of the sex link varieties will outlay the Brown Leghorns, and they are friendlier and calmer birds than the Leghorns. I hope you either find those eggs, or if they are in fact not laying, start getting eggs soon. Good luck.

 

[ChickaNew]

My pretty Cleopatra has just laid her first egg today at 21 week!!! It's a small egg, but I have read that they will get much bigger in time. I hi Can't wait to make two sunny side up for breakfast!

 

[Michael OShay]

My pretty Cleopatra has just laid her first egg today at 21 week!!! It's a small egg, but I have read that they will get much bigger in time. I hi Can't wait to make two sunny side up for breakfast!

Congratulations! It's always so exciting getting that first egg. Enjoy that sunny side up breakfast. ) Good luck in many more eggs to come.

 

[roosterlover897]

they are a little slower to lay but the eggs will get bigger and i would recommend having a light on in the winter for them in order to lay eggs