The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[Miami Leghorn]

Yeah that's a good idea to announce what numbers are dwindling.. if anybody out there can help the cause that will be a great strategy.

 

[ChicKat]

Yesterday, the thought ricocheted in my head that it's almost like we got to pay a virtual visit to the Moonshiner, and have a mini-reunion. Spring, hatching plans, stuff like that.

Have a friend who owns their own business and is dealing with the ups & downs of this trying time and ends with always saying 'at least I have my job'. Looking forward to the day when we do get back to normal -- and

It also occurs to me that we as chicken owners have had an eye on bio-security -- so even if we were just 20 miles away - would we visit the Moonshiner other than virtually. Technically as flock owners, we shouldn't let other flock owners around our chickens. We hardly ever adhere to that (although I know some people who bring chickens to the end of their driveway when they sell them and won't allow other chicken owners on their property because of things like -- well you know the contagious chicken diseases as well as I or better.)

It's good to see people stopping by your thread Moonshiner, and good to see what folks are doing.

Apologies for those project birds not laying -- glad that you have a trio. So frustrating when they don't lay --- Hopefully it will start up again any day now. The ones here are doing pretty well -- So I'll ask them to send mental telepathy messages to their kin in MO to start performing. Did I spoil them on Purina Flock Raiser?

 

[RiverOtter]

Just curious. Isabellas are getting to be a forgotten variety now days. I've not been seeing hardly anyone selling anything Isabella.

Seems like that happens to any variety when the price doesn't come down in a couple of years. I'd love a chicken that lays golden eggs as much as anyone, but when, years later, I'm still seeing hatching eggs at $50 a dozen, plus shipping, especially on a breed with a rep for being a bit delicate, I start thinking about getting some nice, hardy, production type brown leghorns, some self-blue Games, and working on them myself.
If for no other reason than that I'm sure that, in hopes of getting those prices, people aren't really working on them so much as pumping them out - so I'm sure they ARE delicate.
But if I see the price going down, I know that people are working on them, they're getting strong and well established, I'll be able to find different bloodlines, etc.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Virtual visit.
Ha. Boy are times changing. Could we go back to the ol days and just have you'll come over for a barn raising?
I need a chicken barn.

 

[ChicKat]

that would be great. Ill bring hot dish and lemonade.

Now a days, when a friend has a birthday, I will bake a tiny little cake for them, and then i will eat their cake for them and tell them how good it was.

 

[Tbird84]

One of my 1yr old Isabellas went broody. Darn thing keeps running the muscovy off her nest and stealing it! This is the hussy I speak of...after I made her get out. She was pissed. Lol.

 

[ChicKat]

Is she trying to hatch duck eggs, or are her eggs there too? Love the pictures.

Question for the Moonshiner: What is the ideal comb size for leghorn? I have heard that the hens think the bigger the better. Seems with Lions, regarding their mane -- also the bigger the better. Guess it is a sign of virility and vigor in animals. Personally I think huge combs are kind of u-g-l-y. (Sorry all you big combed roosters out there).
Miami Leghorns told me about Privett's having blue Leghorns, may have mentioned it in this thread too when we were talking that color a bit upthread.
Is this guy an example of the desirable type for Leghorn?

I have to revisit my birds -- they are far heftier than this and although my guy has a big comb --- proportionally It seems to be less than this example cockbird -- or maybe the body is just bigger. Seems like the books show a larger bird with a bigger boday and more rounded frount. This guy seems to have a straight front.
Circles me back to think maybe my birds aren't leghorns after all. ??
That being said, these Privett birds do seem to have coloring from Andalusian blue.
Maybe a little OT but I could watch this animation 50 times:

 

[Amer]

Is she trying to hatch duck eggs, or are her eggs there too? Love the pictures.

Question for the Moonshiner: What is the ideal comb size for leghorn? I have heard that the hens think the bigger the better. Seems with Lions, regarding their mane -- also the bigger the better. Guess it is a sign of virility and vigor in animals. Personally I think huge combs are kind of u-g-l-y. (Sorry all you big combed roosters out there).
Miami Leghorns told me about Privett's having blue Leghorns, may have mentioned it in this thread too when we were talking that color a bit upthread.
Is this guy an example of the desirable type for Leghorn?
View attachment 2121737
I have to revisit my birds -- they are far heftier than this and although my guy has a big comb --- proportionally It seems to be less than this example cockbird -- or maybe the body is just bigger. Seems like the books show a larger bird with a bigger boday and more rounded frount. This guy seems to have a straight front.
Circles me back to think maybe my birds aren't leghorns after all. ??
That being said, these Privett birds do seem to have coloring from Andalusian blue.
Maybe a little OT but I could watch this animation 50 times:

The standard calls for a “medium-sized” comb, meaning bigger is not better. In other countries people may breed Leghorns that way, but American Leghorns are some of the most proportionate chickens there are, and not extreme.
I wouldn’t say those blue Leghorns are the ideal type, but it’s an interesting find. The birds need more body and back and the classic Leghorn sweep to the tail which is very smooth. These guys are very top-heavy almost.
Another thing about that bird... Leghorns aren’t supposed to be skinny, they are supposed to be proportionate. The standard calls for a round, full breast, something your birds have and that one does not.

 

[ChicKat]

These guys are very top-heavy almost.
Another thing about that bird... Leghorns aren’t supposed to be skinny, they are supposed to be proportionate. The standard calls for a round, full breast,

Good insight. Moonshiner's birds are more proportionate--and it takes a good eye and experience to identify the 'flaws' in birds. Also a real awareness of the type. That said, hatchery birds aren't as heavily culled and selected as breeder birds, so they probably would be considered more of a starting point to get some certain genetics, rather than where to end up.
Thanks for the insight. Glad to hear articulated what is 'off' about that cockerel in the photo.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

Could those birds at Privett be in translation or quite possibly ,I was thinking those pictures have'nt been updated yet?

The thought of blue leghorns is very enticing​