Post Pics of your Leghorns

[The Moonshiner]

Lavender leghorn chick

 

[Alaskan]

Snazzy!

 

[The Moonshiner]

New leghorn variety pack hatch.
A lavender, a blue, a red, couple buffs and various project color crosses.

 

[Alaskan]

they are looking great!

 

[ackie]

I guess this thread kinda died but I'd love to hear peoples opinions on leghorns. I've read that the white is a better layer than the other colors and was wondering how significant of a difference it is.

 

[Alaskan]

I guess this thread kinda died but I'd love to hear peoples opinions on leghorns. I've read that the white is a better layer than the other colors and was wondering how significant of a difference it is.

Depends on what you are comparing..

Production white, fancy breeder white... Production brown, or fancy breeder dark brown or fancy breeder light brown...

Anyway... nothing beats Production whites... BUT ...

They are bred to lay non-stop until that 1st huge molt about month 18... and at that point they start to have a higher rate of issues. Mostly reproduction issues,but also vent gleet and such.

I switched to breeder/heritage whatever rose comb white and rose comb dark brown (and tried a variety pack as well, but preferred the whites and dark browns).

The breeder versions aren't as impressive in the short term, but are much more impressive in the long haul.

The whites, once grown are calmer, and they mature faster than my dark browns. The dark browns are crazy flighty, and I keep thinking they would be great at free range, but I don't do that very much.

Both my whites and dark browns are long lived, productive over their entire lives, and HEALTHY. They have a great egg to feed ratio.

I have tried the "fancy" chickens... but nothing beats a Leghorn when it comes down to practical.

Every so often one of the hens will manage to hide out, outside of the safety of the coop, and SURVIVE (I have a very high predator load) for a full incubation and then march home with a flock of chicks.

Some old photos:

This hen was a cross between a production white and the other Leghorns.

This hen is a cross between the breeder white and breeder dark brown, after I caught her up and stuck her in a tractor. Since she is 1/2 dark brown and was under a dark brown cock, some of her chicks are split white, and the others are full dark brown.

A breeder dark brown hen with chicks, hers are a mix of parentage.

The fancier newer Leghorn colors that I tried once, laid smaller eggs and weren't as productive.

 

[cmom]

I raise White Leghorns and Dark Brown Leghorns. My White's lay well and my Brown's lay pretty well but the eggs aren't as big. My Rhode Island Whites are my best layers.

 

[ackie]

Depends on what you are comparing..

Production white, fancy breeder white... Production brown, or fancy breeder dark brown or fancy breeder light brown...

I was looking at hatchery birds
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/single_comb_brown_leghorns.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/leghorns.html
those are the two types of browns (I visually prefer single comb)
I dont want the white ones because I free range and theyll find it harder to blend in, but I noticed the blurb for the "pearl-white leghorn" mentioned great egg laying and the browns didnt. but I definitely dont want a production white or anything unhealthy.

 

[ackie]

okay I found more details.

their white is listed as production with large white eggs and in their "best" egg laying category

both browns are medium white and "good"

 

[cmom]

I guess you would call my Leghorns fancy. They are larger than the hatchery Leghorns but do lay well.