Mixing Leghorns

[RiverOtter]

I think it was that you never know what was used to bring in a color??

I think we poultry lovers are a step ahead of the game because we know that a good outcross and breeding back is just how it's done.

Moonshiner, if you ever get set up to sell eggs, I'd love some. NPIP isn't hard, I actually am, because my kids are in 4H and did a meat bird pen every year. And if I ever get a chance to build the coop system I want, I'm going to be setting up my blue wheatens and my "halfsie birds (the buff in front, blue behind) and trying to get them to proper Leghorn type.
Silvers and blue silvers pop up in my flock also (You can see my silver cockerel behind the halfsie pullet) and that's another one I'd like to do as well. But for several years now ... I've moved 4 times and gotten divorced and it's been all I could do to keep any! One day though!!
And I'm dying to get my hands on any Leghorn at all with the Lavender gene.

Lazy Gardener, that's a shame about your roo. I hope you get one more good, rooster-carrying egg out of him!
The fear of that is why I'm sort of obsessy about keeping too many roosters. Well, that and I just like them. I'm pretty lucky in that my roosters aren't hard-core crowers and once past "puberty" (everyone kicks up a fuss when the pullets get old enough to lay) almost never fight

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm not too upset about loosing his genetics. He's just been a wonderful roo for the last 4 years, and I don't want to do the deed. He's been with me and not given me any grief. I have at least 6 of his daughters, and some real pretty eggs coming from them. So, there should be some one in that group that will be a keeper. I'll slide a cockerel into the flock who can be a second in command to Goliath (the Buck Eye) IMO, back yard flocks is where it's at for preserving genetic diversity, and also for improving poultry resistance to disease. There may come a day when USPS shipment of hatchery chicks across state lines is no longer allowed. If and when that day comes, it will be the back yard flock keepers, and the diversity contained within those flocks that will preserve the vast gene pools of poultry.

 

[sevenfatcows]

I posted quite a few on this thread.
Think I joined in on page 155.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/post-pics-of-your-leghorns.258532/page-155

You surely do have some pretty birds. I am glad I hopped over there to look. In answer to the original poster's question, I have Brown Leghorns penned with Silver Laced Wyandottes and a Cream Legbar rooster. I would say the Wyandottes are the rulers in that pen. Off topic, but the Cream Legbar crossed over with the Brown Leghorn or the Wyandottes produces pretty wild type chicks that can be sexed as soon as they dry out. I have Exchequer Leghorns, a rooster and three hens, penned with Sussex, Cream Legbar and Bluebar hens, along with one White Leghorn-they all get along pretty well, but the Exchequer girls get kind of snippy toward the other hens from time to time. Each pen opens on to a large free range area, so confinement is not close at all. For me, there has never been an issue of Leghorn aggression; it's not something I even think about.

 

[Peeps61]

I have one white leghorn and 3 light brown leghorns in my flock. The white leghorn gets along well with most of her flockmates, but the light brown leghorns tend to be pushy, especially when it comes to food, roosting space or using nesting boxes. They also prefer not to be locked in the coop at night, but rather to roost in the rafters of the barn. So, while leghorns, in my experience, do better with mixed flocks. The brown leghorns are very independent!

 

[Naser]

I would refrain from getting temperamental bullying breeds, such as the ISA brown

Agree, I have white and brown leghorns and ISA browns, That is my experience