White chickens vs Normal chickens

[RedJungleFowl]

Oh i see well like when they get dirty can u just wash them so their feather can be come clean and white again or will it stay like that forever.

 

[yinepu]

when we lost a lot of birds the whites were the first to be killed.. during a full moon they can really stand out which made them the first to be found by the foxes

 

[yinepu]

I love white chickens however...I find they are prone to cannibalism since any bleeding attracts them when noticed against the contrast of white feathers.

not quite true

production layers are more prone to cannibalism.. and since a lot of the popular commercial production layers happen to be white (white leghorns, ideal 236)... you see them cannibalizing more than other breeds.
The fact is though that ALL birds which have been bred for extremely high egg production are more prone to cannibalism.. sure if your birds have good food and plenty of room you may never have any vent picking.. but should them become overcrowded or need more protein you'll see an increase in vent picking and cannibalism in general

 

[RedJungleFowl]

when we lost a lot of birds the whites were the first to be killed.. during a full moon they can really stand out which made them the first to be found by the foxes

Oh i see so it doesn't matter if u have like a flight breed like a leghorn,Oeg,American.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
nope.. when the birds are asleep at night and roosting the ones that the predators can find and get to the easiest are the first to be killed

even an emu which weighs over 100 pounds is vulnerable when it's sleeping

 

[thomasboyle]

I have white leghorns, rhode island reds and americanas. They spend the days out in a fenced in pasture, and the nights inside the coop. I have lost birds to predators, but never once has it been a white leghorn. My theory is they are a little more skittish than the other breeds, and this makes them the first to run in an emergency. Unfortunately the RIR and Americanas have born the brunt of the attacks. Of course, it could also be that leghorns are smaller birds, and the predator goes for the biggest meal!

 

[yinepu]

I have white leghorns, rhode island reds and americanas. They spend the days out in a fenced in pasture, and the nights inside the coop. I have lost birds to predators, but never once has it been a white leghorn. My theory is they are a little more skittish than the other breeds, and this makes them the first to run in an emergency. Unfortunately the RIR and Americanas have born the brunt of the attacks. Of course, it could also be that leghorns are smaller birds, and the predator goes for the biggest meal!

more than likely.. either that or your leghorns are a bit faster

what I was referring to was free range birds .. out in the moonlight.. with everything else being equal.. white birds stand out like a beacon telling the predators their exact location. Where the darker birds have better camo and get overlooked a bit more

 

[RedJungleFowl]

Oh i see can a fox really kill a emu when its sleepy.

 

[yinepu]

Oh i see can a fox really kill a emu when its sleepy.

if it gets them around the neck it can (ripping the jugular vein). One of mine was attacked while he was sleeping by two dogs.. had he run off to the far end of the pasture he would have been dead.. but he was smart enough to come up to the house where I heard the dogs.. they had gotten him in the neck but missed the jugular and had also tore up one of his thighs (the worst of the wounds). I honestly didn't think he would make it through the night.. but yeah.. a well placed bite would have taken him out very easily even though he was about 5 feet tall at the time and weighed close to 100 pounds. While he was asleep he was as vulnerable as a duck would have been.

 

[animals1981]

a fox wouldnt dare attack an adult they are not suicidal i saw a pitbull kill one, an emus kick can do some serious damage but some dogs are too strong. I am not sure about coyotes, they should be fine around but who knows. Domestic animals are always diff from the wild ones. In the wild only the strongest ones survive but in farms we breed the ones we like with the mild manners. So some might not fight they might get scared. I don't think it will get scared of a fox though. To a medium large dog a fox is just like a cat.