Mixing Leghorns

[RiverOtter]

Yes!! Surprised the heck out of me, but I guess they don't read the books. Keep a Leghorn hen around until she's 2 or 3 and she'll start stealing nests! And the scrawny things have hatched out as many as 18 chicks at once for me

Now, they're poor mothers. They're about a step up from guineas. While nothing will touch a chick (engraven forever in my memory is an angry Leghorn riding huge Karma Cat across the yard, both of them screaming), they'll lose one in the tall grass, another in the water, 2 in the garden ...
You need to put her in a rabbit hutch - either a short one where she can't quite stand up without brushing her comb on the top (or she'll accidentally trample chicks while cage pacing) or get one of those lovely old-style hutches with the box and run for them.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

That sounds great that they’ll go broody! So they make good mothers as long as they’re confined with the chicks?

 

[RiverOtter]

Mostly. I had one that was too flighty to tolerate being confined. after she trampled a couple regardless, I let her out, she took off and never thought about those chicks again. (A month later she vanished back into the rafters ... rinse, repeat)

Unlike proper broody breeds, you cannot move the nest or disturb it too much. Generally, my hens hatched their own chicks and no one else's. No one else could ever get to where they hid them, and I did lose a few hens who thought they'd found the perfect place outdoors.
This has it's downsides, but on the other hand, I know that Chicklet is the daughter of Renegade, who was the daughter of Speck, one of my original leghorns who had one black feather. Roosters I guess at, but in some weird, genetic, probably paternal twist, the whole line throws blues. I now also have Pretty Boy and the imaginatively named Chicklet's Hen (they're identical "Is that Chicklet or Chicklet's hen??" ) to carry on the tradition, and I've no doubt that Chicklet's Hen will go broody in a year or 2. When I get the chance to add some new blood to the flock, it will definitely be more Leghorns!!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Mostly. I had one that was too flighty to tolerate being confined. after she trampled a couple regardless, I let her out, she took off and never thought about those chicks again. (A month later she vanished back into the rafters ... rinse, repeat)

Unlike proper broody breeds, you cannot move the nest or disturb it too much. Generally, my hens hatched their own chicks and no one else's.

What do you mean by this? You can’t put other eggs under her?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Some people recommend chickens that lay "colorful" eggs, but I've noticed that once broken out all eggs are the same color. I have looked high and low and I have never seen a recipe that called for incorporating broken egg shells of any color into the dish. As for leghorns hatching chicks I would be very interested in seeing a closeup of a leghorn hen brooding a clutch of chicks.

As a general rule production leghorns will lay 2 eggs for every one egg laid by most other breeds.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

As for leghorns hatching chicks I would be very interested in seeing a closeup of a leghorn hen brooding a clutch of chicks.

X2

 

[The Moonshiner]

X3
Just a couple months ago I had my first in hundreds and hundreds of leghorns go broody.
I decided to set up a few breeder pens in my garage to hatch over the winter. I penned the females for 3 weeks and increased the amount of light. After the 3rd week I added the roosters and had the lighting up to 15 hours a day.
I still wanted to give it another week or so to start collecting eggs so wasn't real quick on getting all the eggs out.
I had one start acting seriously broody with 3 eggs. I let her go and she ended up with 6 eggs. She sat for 11 or 12 days but even in the garage temps where getting down to mid 30s and outside temps where headed below 0° and I knew the eggs wouldn't be able to be kept warm enough so I put them in the incubator and hatched 4.
I would still be surprised to hear of leghorns going bloody and hatching chicks. I believe mine that went bloody was because she is a mille fleur leghorn and its the blood of whatever breed was used to introduce the MF pattern that made her go broody. That plus I think it had something to do with the sudden increase of lighting.
When I first got the MF a couple generations back from this hen they all laid creme eggs so there was still a fair amount of another breed in them.
I have had several act broody for a few days if they found a pile of eggs in the same nest. They all gave up on the idea after two or three days though.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I have had several act broody for a few days if they found a pile of eggs in the same nest. They all gave up on the idea after two or three days though.

What if you put day old chicks under the broody leghorn hens before they gave up, do you think they’d care for the chicks?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

@Fricasee come chat with us. We’re talking about broody leghorns.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

OP... I have one leghorn in a completely mixed flock. I have small chickens, and large chickens and my leghorn is about mid way in the pecking order. So I don't think color, body shape or anything really matters. She does like to hang out with my silver spangled hamburg, but I think its because they're close in body shape. The hamburg out-ranks Foghorn... but she's been known to float between any smaller grouping in the flock.