Tell Me About.....LEGHORNS!

[lauriej57]

I always have at least one or two leghorns in my flock. They definitely get friendlier once they start laying. I would take leghorns anyday over sexlinks, but I have 2 crabby patty sexlinks, that my broody hatched out last summer. If they are on the nest laying, don't even try to reach in and check for eggs. They have drawn blood on my hand and I learned my lesson. I can reach under any of my other hens, and they just kind of scooch over and let me me check, including my leghorns.

 

[weeders n feeders]

Quote:
Boy I must be beginning to rival dirt in age. My "back in the day" is when a good pen and paper was the thing to have and slide rules where the thing instead of $100+ calculators.

now about the leghorns- we have 2 each brown leghorns and production reds and 1 golden comet. The reds and comet consistently lay an egg a day with the comets being at least a large right from the start and now most times extra large with regular jumbos(almost 3 oz). The legs I'm not sure whether the just don't lay every day or I just cannot find them. Right now all chickens are in prison in their run instead of free ranging until they lay their eggs because once again I haven't gotten eggs from the legs for a week and yesterday I found out why again. Yup a whole nest full of eggs. They even enticed one of the reds to join em one day. I have found eggs on the shade cloth above their run 10 feet above ground, in my outside sink, under bushes, in boxes, and their latest outside the the fenced property line. If you want them contained think HIGH or roofed. Not sure what high means but it is at least greater than 15 feet. Other than their determination not to use the nest boxes and slight difficulty in keeping them from flying over fences I really don't see much difference between them and the others. They were slower to accept the comet( she's about 2 months younger than the rest) and are occasionally a little bossier and don't care for being handled much but aren't any noisier or skittish.

 

[wayne hulgan]

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We have 2 white leghorns, love the way they lay. They are a little crazy and can fly like, well birds. Caught one on the top of the fence yesterday. 6 ft. chain link all around the run and there she was setting right on the top. She stayed there lookiing at all the interesting places outside the fence until I ran her down. that was the first time that has happened. we have seen them on the roof of the coop and hanging on the nest boxes. They are not very friendly like the other girls. (2 RIR's and one Golden Comet.) We can touch them if you got treats, and if you do, they will squak. When they lay, everyone in the area knows it. The one we call Snowwhite will stand in the coop door after laying and cackle loud enough for the whole world to hear. If you can deal with them, they lay very well and have good size eggs.

 

[tball]

i had a bunch of leghorn roos (packing peanuts) shiped with my prodution reds. i did not like them AT ALL, very flighty and bossy

 

[rancher hicks]

I would get "Heritage browns" from Don Schrider if I could. If I wanted leghorns. The original leghorns were a dual purpose bird. They are good layers of white eggs. They are hyper birds, I would give them lots of space. I don't think they do well in confinement. You may have to have covered runs or clip wing feathers to keep them contained in the yard.

Roosters are big crowers, a lot. How or where can I get an emoticon of a rooster crowing? That would be so cool to send e-mails and when it's opened the recipient hears a rooster crow.

I'm just full of ideas,

Rancher

 

[shanshan51]

Our leghorn rooster reminds me of an airhead. He is a nut case. But he gets the job done ALOT. He is also VERY loud and ALL THE TIME. But we love him and his name is Foggy.

 

[heatherkh]

We got 4 leghorn hens (approx 1-2 years old) from our neighbor. Flighty as hell, but they've calmed down a ton now that they know I bring food and treats. I generally don't try to catch/hold them (as I can and do quite easily with my mellow Australorps). They do lay like the dickens tho - lots and lots of VERY LARGE eggs.

 

[debs_flock]

I have one brown leghorn pullet in my mixed flock. I didn't particularily want a white egg chicken, but I did like the look of the BL, so she was added to the mix of chicks. No one has started to lay as of yet (18 weeks old in a couple of days), but she looks like she will be first. Her comb is growing and reddening rapidly. She is quite friendly and comes right up to the wire for treats along with the others. I have seen her fly easily to the top of the 6 ft high run, but the run is fully roofed, so not a problem.

Her name is Priscilla, the name of Foghorn Leghorn's girlfriend (yes, I'm THAT old).

All in all, I would get another, she's a beautiful bird and friendly if socialized.

Deb

 

[Patricia Jane]

I have one Lt Brown Leghorn. Beautiful coloring but she is skittish if you move too quickly. She comes to me when I have treats and hangs around my feet but doesn't like to be held. I also have 4-7 wk old chicks that I have in a seperate pen in the big girls run and she trys to get to them through the fence. I am a little nervous about her aggression towards the babies when I decide to intergrate them. When I first got her I had her wing clipped....did no good, she could still get over the fence so I put up shade cloth to keep her in. She is a great egg layer and loves to sing the egg song.

 

[new2chickens2011]

Quote:
Not necessarily, just like the look of the leghorns.


Thank you everyone!! Always such great info here