White Leghorn, the forgotten breed

[sandesnow]

I was very surprised to see a white egg this past Saturday. I checked them over and discovered only the one of the three is laying, and that makes her 22 weeks old. She skipped Sunday, laid Monday and Tuesday. It is so exciting going in and finding a white egg!

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Woohoo congrats on the new egg

 

[Treegod]

I have two white leghorns called Guinevere and Gwendolin (we did have a Gwyneth, but she died - they cut the beaks brutally here, and she couldn't eat properly. Never again). They are nice layers and I get two nice white eggs most days. One of which I left to develop, so now I have a chick of mixed ancestry.

 

[rfreedlund]

I was surprised when one of my White Leghorns decided she wanted to sit. I kept kicking her out of the nest but I would find her back on it later. I have had a number of my Australorps and my Austra-Whites (white leghorn - black australorp cross) go broody on me and all have either hatched successfully or adopted chicks, but my leghorn was surprising me so when I got the chicks I was waiting for to give to my Austra-White broody I took the fertile eggs under her that she had been sitting on for about a week and a half and decided to give them to my persistent leghorn to see if she could finish the job. She hatched three of them a week and a half later. Today was the first day I let them out into general population. She is my smallest leghorn and she gets picked on a bit, but she has been doing a good job rearing her chicks, something the breed is not known for.




The chicks are mutts with a half blue orpington father and most likely black australorp mothers, but as always marvels me, mama doesn't care they weren't her eggs. She just wants to be a mama.

 

[yellowchicks]

My one Leghorn named Yellow always flies onto my extended arm to eat treats out of my palm. She will also fly onto our visitors' extended arms to eat treats but with some hesitation. This little trick always amuse the kids, they want to do selfie videos while feeding the chickens. The downside is that during the summer when I am wearing short sleeves, my forearm has scratches from her claws because she sometimes refused to get off me, just wanting more treats. All four of our Leghorns would follow us around the yard, squat to be pet. They are really funny.

 

[Treegod]

I have this White Leghorn cross, but not sure of its gender.
It's 12 weeks old.
I've been reading here that since they have big combs, comb size isn't always reliable. Would the wattles be that big on a pullet? And the tail, there's a slight pointy-curvy going on, does that mean anything at this stage?

 

[Schicks15]

We have 2 girls-we love them, however ours are a bit flighty and do not like to be touched/picked up.

 

[generaldsherman]

Is it common for pullets to have a big comb at a young age?

 

[junebuggena]

Is it common for pullets to have a big comb at a young age?

Pullets can have have large combs. More importantly than size is comb color. Pullets do not start to pink up and turn red in the comb until they are about 14 weeks old. A bright red comb before 10 weeks old means cockerel.

 

[junebuggena]

I have this White Leghorn cross, but not sure of its gender.
It's 12 weeks old.
I've been reading here that since they have big combs, comb size isn't always reliable. Would the wattles be that big on a pullet? And the tail, there's a slight pointy-curvy going on, does that mean anything at this stage?

With a comb that red, it's probably a cockerel.