White Leghorn, the forgotten breed

Quote:
I believe they represent what the Original leghorns were good at, Laying Large white eggs and lots of them. I believe they are the closest thing to the original breed standar before there were any breed standard or chickes were shown..

You think so? Gee, it's hard to imagine hatcheries and commercial farms being the best source of chickens!
tongue.png
I know Leghorns were developed for egg-laying purposes, but I still think breeder birds are better than commercial strains because breeder WL's don't usually have as many health problems as commercial WL's.

It all depends on what you want them for. Breeder leghorns will mature much later, and will never lay as many eggs, nor as large, nor as cheaply as commercial birds. That's not all bad, but, if you want lots of eggs quickly, you can never beat the commercial birds. Not everyone wants or needs showbirds. If the showbirds were better birds all around, the large egg farmers would use them for production. Hatcheries are the best source for egg production birds if you want to make money selling eating eggs. Or just have some layers in the yard and don't care about breeding or showing. I'm sure you would agree a gamefowl ought to be game, yes? Well, a leghorn ought to lay lots of big eggs cheaply, and mature fast. That's the purpose of the breed, and, for some breeds, the hatcheries produce great birds, NOT show birds, but birds bred for a purpose. I personally like my show type leghorns, but, they would never compete with commercial whites in an egg laying contest.
 
Quote:
You think so? Gee, it's hard to imagine hatcheries and commercial farms being the best source of chickens!
tongue.png
I know Leghorns were developed for egg-laying purposes, but I still think breeder birds are better than commercial strains because breeder WL's don't usually have as many health problems as commercial WL's.

It all depends on what you want them for. Breeder leghorns will mature much later, and will never lay as many eggs, nor as large, nor as cheaply as commercial birds. That's not all bad, but, if you want lots of eggs quickly, you can never beat the commercial birds. Not everyone wants or needs showbirds. If the showbirds were better birds all around, the large egg farmers would use them for production. Hatcheries are the best source for egg production birds if you want to make money selling eating eggs. Or just have some layers in the yard and don't care about breeding or showing. I'm sure you would agree a gamefowl ought to be game, yes? Well, a leghorn ought to lay lots of big eggs cheaply, and mature fast. That's the purpose of the breed, and, for some breeds, the hatcheries produce great birds, NOT show birds, but birds bred for a purpose. I personally like my show type leghorns, but, they would never compete with commercial whites in an egg laying contest.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Purpose over pomp, when it comes to Leghorns
wink.png
I'm just a guy who likes breeder birds in general 'cause of their usual hardiness.
 
My thoughts exactly.

A breeder bird could be junk if it's not bred for hardiness. I don't think you can say that breeder birds are hardier than hatchery birds.

Or vice-versa.

Breeder birds have the potential to excel at....- exhibition, at producing a meaty "dual purpose", at exhibiting certain set traits, like gameness, or broodiness, that hatchery birds will often be lacking in.

The hatchery bird wins in egg production, growth rate, egg size, and economics of production. The hardiness thing really could go either way, totally depends on how they are being selected.
 
Quote:
thumbsup.gif
Do you have pics of them?

Well, here's a shot of TJ the roo sharing a Tether Cabbage. One of his Josies is right there with him.
41679_tjsharingcabbage.jpg


Here, the Josie is jumping up to get her own shred o' cabbage.
41679_josiejumping4cabbage.jpg


And here is TJ himself. Hard to believe that handsome fella originally hatched upside down from a grocery store egg almost a year ago.
41679_tj.jpg
 
i had a leghorn he strangled himself in a food dish
sad.png

my pooor KAYEFFCEE he was a good boy just not to bright
sad.png

i also have two hens havent stopped laying since they started great layers GREAT!!1
 
Last edited:
May I join in. I hatched five white leghorns this past July. Of the 5 four were roosters. We rehomed 3 roosters and kept the remaining roo and only pullet. Snow White, my pullet, now 20 week old, had started laying on Thanksgiving day. However she has not been consistent. 7 days of good eggs, they started small and got bigger, but 4 days there were soft shelled eggs. The remaining days, no eggs. I'm hoping she will improve as time progresses.

Here she is at the gate wanting to come out.

97463_sunday_lights_018.jpg


Here she is with Foghorn free ranging
97463_snow_white.jpg
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom