I've only recently gotten into White Leghorns. Was going to coach a 4-H Poultry Judging team and since that game is played with commercial birds I started casting about for some White Leghorns for the kids to practice with. I got these second hand but I think they originally came from Mt. Healthy. They are stone reliable layers. When they stop everyone else stopped a week before! They always look dirty because those gals like their dust baths! I have a nice White Leghorn rooster I'll breed them with come January. Try as I might I could not get a decent picture of him. My wife named him Cicero because she likes his crow.
This is my one Brown Leghorn. He's a youngster hatched only this year, but if he makes it through to next fall I'll use him over some EE hens to clean up their egg color and hopefully boost production somewhat. I've got him in with the pullets until I can move out some of the older birds in the rooster pen so he won't get beaten up too badly when I move him in.
Some of the White Leghorns I hatched with eggs originating from Pampered Pullet. The speckled birds are not pure so I won't be breeding from those, but the all white ones are developing nicely.
And these are the cockerels from that same hatch. Making pretty fair sized birds for Leghorns. They're in a pen with some mixed EE cockerels and a few White Midget turkeys.
I've also got some commercial birds originating from Ideal but could not get a decent photo of them.
My plan is not to hatch from any birds that have not completed at least one full laying cycle. I'm looking for not only production, but survivability and the Florida rainy season seems to be hard on these birds bred for high-intensity confinement operations. My grandmother used to keep a large flock of White Leghorns many years ago and that's what I'm trying to get back to. High producing birds with good survivability for Florida outdoors conditions.
