RC brown leghorn vs. pearl white leghorn

[dadsdeercamp]

I have a hard time keeping white birds too many eagles hawks and around here so how does the Rc brown compare at egg laying?

 

[Kelsie2290]

With ones from McMurray (single and RC) I find browns about 5-6 week vs 6-7 week for whites. They are good layers but a step down from the whites and the red sex links. Compared to whites their eggs are smaller, they don't lay as consistently, they molt more. They also are as bad or worse at trying to hide nests and they are overly flighty even for a leghorn.

 

[dadsdeercamp]

I have an order of two dozen white eggs a day starting 6/1/2014 and want to do it with as little cost as possible. suggestions please. i've never had white egg layers

 

[Kelsie2290]

Commercial White Leghorns are bred for efficiency, but it will depend on what you expect your hens to do. If you are going to keep them locked up and feed them, the WL hands down. If you are going to expect them to do a lot of their own foraging, it would depend on the conditions and how much forage is available and how many birds you actually expect to lose. You maybe better off getting more WL for instance and expecting to lose 20% than other breeds that don't lay as well since you will probably have losses with them also. Also, where can you get birds, do you have to ship them, can you get them locally, what breeds are available? For other decent white egg layers, I also like Ancona (some eggs are more tinted though) and Minorca, but they just don't lay as well as the Leghorns. You could try getting two or more breeds and comparing how they do the first year also.

 

[dadsdeercamp]

I have traded this order to the person I was getting the leghorns from for some birds each spring as long as the order is in effect. She has some nicebig cornish I am getting 25 chicks and five pullets in april.