OK which is it.

[meowoui]

I got the three leghorns, little girls I thought that they were a big chicken guess that is just the cartoon.
Can anyone tell me which is it for the weather climate, one place on here I read can tolerate all weather type
then another place no the leghorns can not tolerate all weather type. This is one reason I got the leghorn
for the toleration of all weather types.

Karen

 

[GitaBooks]

Leghorns come from Italy, where it is hot and dry. However, I find almost all chickens (besides maybe game birds) are pretty hardy in even really cold winters. The problem is, probably half my chickens get frostbite in the winter. Leghorns have huge combs, and all my girls get frostbite. However, after getting it their first year, they don't get it as bad the second year. So in truth, they are hardy, they stand up to zero degree weather, they just need some shade in the summer and frostbite preventative in the winter.

 

[QueenMisha]

Yes, Leghorns are a small breed, about 4 pounds at maturity. This is because they are bred for laying - laying breeds will be smaller, because they will spend less energy on making meat and more on making eggs.

Although they do fine in heat, Leghorns are not very tolerant of cold. Their lack of cold tolerance has nothing to do with feathering - it's because their combs are very large. The Leghorn's bodies will, in fact, stay quite warm, but their large combs are prone to frostbite in cold weather. There are strains of Rose-Combed Leghorn (the comb is smaller), but most are single-combed, so I'm going to assume yours are.

It should also be noted that weather-tolerance depends on the age of the bird. Adults can tolerate cold weather fine, even if those with large combs will be at risk to frostbite, but very young birds do not handle cold, regardless of comb type. Until 6-8 weeks they should not be left in any kind of wintery conditions, basically anything below 50 F.

Sometimes, even in cold weather, the combs will not become frostbitten. Make sure to have adequate ventilation in your coop - studies show that there are significantly fewer cases of frostbite when the air is cold, but not damp. When the cold air becomes damp (usually as a result of inadequate ventilation), the incidence of frostbite went up drastically.

If your hens do show signs of frostbite during the winter, and your coop already has good ventilation, the best choice is to dub. It's a permanent and easy solution. Dubbing is the surgical removal of the comb and wattles; it's done on fighting cocks, some exhibition fowl, and yes, to prevent or treat frostbite in cold climates. It can and should be done at home, provided the matter is researched carefully and the proper tools acquired.

 

[meowoui]

Thank you both for the info. The girls are approx. 5 months old, I do know about putting Vaseline on their combs I did that to one of
my older hens the first yr. she was here. Their coop is pretty well vented. If it gets really cold below 35 or so we turn on a heater for
them. The coop stayed warm last winter and the winter before, the very first winter is the one that we turned on the heat for them.

Karen

 

[Michael OShay]

X2 on GitaBooks and QueenMisha's posts. In really cold climates, Leghorns are not the best choices. As previously stated by the other two posters, their large combs and wattles are very prone to serious frostbite in very cold weather. Also, while they have a reputation (deservedly so) as being excellent layers, their egg production will really drop off during those stretches of short and very cold winter days. In my personal experience, under those kind of winter conditions, Black and Red Sex Links will outlay the Leghorns.

 

[donrae]

If you consider below 35 to be "really cold", Leghorns will be fine for you. For much of the country, that's balmy during the winter. Save yourself the electricity and fire risk and don't heat your coop. Birds are fine well below zero as long as they're dry and out of the wind.

 

[steve102]

This spring I picked what I was told to be red sex link chicks from TSC. They turned into white leghorns, funny how that happened. But anyway I live in the Rockys Mountains at an elevation of 10,000 feet. In July the nights hit 30 deg. They have no heaters and are doing great.

 

[QueenMisha]

If you consider below 35 to be "really cold", Leghorns will be fine for you. For much of the country, that's balmy during the winter. Save yourself the electricity and fire risk and don't heat your coop. Birds are fine well below zero as long as they're dry and out of the wind.

x2. It gets into the 20s around here on the worst days, and I've never had a case of frosbite, even back when I had a rooster who's comb was as big as his head.

 

[QueenMisha]

This spring I picked what I was told to be red sex link chicks from TSC. They turned into white leghorns, funny how that happened. But anyway I live in the Rockys Mountains at an elevation of 10,000 feet. In July the nights hit 30 deg. They have no heaters and are doing great.

TSC is notorious for this kind of stuff. They frequently mislabel breeds and sell straight run chicks as pullets, not to mention the horrible care their chicks receive. I wouldn't buy birds from them if they had the last chickens on earth.

 

[GitaBooks]

x2. It gets into the 20s around here on the worst days, and I've never had a case of frosbite, even back when I had a rooster who's comb was as big as his head.

It is over one hundred some days in the summer and below zero some of the days during the winter, and everywhere inbetween. It isn't only hard on my poor chickens, but its also hard on poor me! Lol.

I've never lost a bird to the weather, but I did lose some hens to being weakened from the cold.