Psyco Chicks

[wayneh]

we thought we needed to get us some white eggers. At the TSC we found some White Leghorns, humm they sound great. we checked the breed index to check how they would behave, and be nice chicks. the index said Flighty,Calm, Bears confinement well, Noisy, Shy. don't think our chicks read this. the calm, bears confinement well, parts need to be changed. change the Calm to psychotic, and bears confinement well, to escape artist. we thought these chicks would be like the others,2 RIR's and a red sex link. the 2 white girls are a pain compaired to the others. when the RIR's were little, we never covered their brooder, and they never tryed to get out. the psyco chicks are 3 weeks old and have been getting out since we brought them home 2 1/2 weeks ago. we have tried to feed them worms to calm them down. the only thing that did was to teach them to attack my hand. now they are attacking each other. if you leave the lid off for an instant, they are gone. talk about hard to catch, the really psyco one will squat down and leap, propelling herself completely out of the brooder, or to attack my arm or hand. the mildly psyco one will run over and check for a worm, no worm, a quick peck or bite. then off she goes. we have been thinking about when to introduce the little girls to the big girls. we were affraid that the big chicks will hurt the little ones if we put them together too soon. now we are thinking it might be the big chicks that we need to worry about.
anyone else had a this problem with Leghorns? don't think we will have any more. guess they are the wild ones of the chicken clan.

 

[jham86]

While I have no experiance with Leghorns, I have to say I got a good laugh from this

 

[write2caroline]

I have a couple of grown leghorns - Flighty is a good description. They never stay in the run, they always escape, they do lay well.
My white rocks (also layers of white eggs) in comparison are very calm - never hop the fence and sometimes let me hold them.
Caroline

 

[sacrifice]

We had a leghorn once - loved to chase my daughter around the yard and peck at her pant legs (She wore a lot of pants with little flowers on them when she was young).

When it was not doing that, it would stand on our deck and peck at the sliding glass door wanting to come inside. Other than that, it was a calm and nice bird.

 

[silkiechicken]

I've had a good number of them. Best layers ever. Flighty as ever, first to you for treats, first to freak out.

The confinement thing... well, in that respect, if you keep them in a small brooder for longer than anticipated, they don't tend to tear each other apart picking wise. My Sexlinks and production red's would start picking on each other long before they start looking cramped in their brooder. That is probably because the "tear each other to shreds genes" have been bred out of leghorns for commercial battery cage situations. However, I free range them and brood outside... so don't have an escape problem, as there is nowhere to escape to in the first place. They can get to weird place though, like atop a 2nd story building to stand out like a free meal against a brown roof.

They are psycho chicks. Love em.

 

[pdsavage]

should have checkked this breed chart first

Henderson's
Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html#l

 

[AKsmama]

I have a silver Lakenvelder and he is the flightiest of all mine. He's mean and sneaky and sounds off with a crazy alarm call if a leaf falls off a tree. It's the white breeds that seem to be the worst about being flighty, it seems. I've been poo-pooed here for saying that before, but I don't care- it's true. White and mostly white breeds are just weirdos- like calicos are in the cat world.

 

[silkiechicken]

Mediterranean breeds = flighty

 

[N&MSchroeder]

I have a 9 week old leghorn and she is great. She can really fly and the others stand around with their mouths open watching her antics.

She isn't mean, will definitely sit on my lap or shoulder, and has just been a great addition to the coop. I can't wait until she starts laying. They did move out to their coop (with a heat lamp) at 3 weeks, so I didn't have a problem with her escaping the brooder. Now, about my EE . . .