Leghorns! Tell me what you know

[Iluveggers]

So I’m interested in adding a leghorn or two next year. Please tell me about your birds! Temperament, personality, space needs (how did they do if they were confined to a coop all day), and the number one most important thing…can they handle snow and cold temps? (This would be pullets only).
I am looking for a white egg layer to add a new color to the eggs we sell next year. Everyone I ask about leghorns says they are flighty, have no personality, and try to escape (but no chicken keepers I know have had leghorns). I am thinking they will be friendlier if they are raised as babies as my birds have been described as “the friendliest chickens I’ve ever seen” by neighbors and family. Lol.

 

[All4Eggz]

@The Moonshiner knows quite a bit about leghorns!

I have 2 white leghorn hens at the moment. Very flighty, so we had to clip their wings. They don't really like to be held and they are quite skittish. They are cold and heat hardy in my experience, and they lay an amazing amount of extra large white eggs - my best layers. They really like to free range, so I'm not sure how they'd do cooped up all day. Handling them as chicks would definitely help with temperament.

I love my white leghorns, but I wish I had brown leghorns! Those are just gorgeous!

Good luck

 

[Iluveggers]

@The Moonshiner knows quite a bit about leghorns!

I have 2 white leghorn hens at the moment. Very flighty, so we had to clip their wings. They don't really like to be held and they are quite skittish. They are cold and heat hardy in my experience, and they lay an amazing amount of extra large white eggs - my best layers. They really like to free range, so I'm not sure how they'd do cooped up all day. Handling them as chicks would definitely help with temperament.

I love my white leghorns, but I wish I had brown leghorns! Those are just gorgeous!

Good luck

Thank you! Most of the time they would be able to get out for an hour or two for free-range, but occasionally (especially in winter) if one of us is gone during daylight hours they would have to stay in the run for safety.

ETA The brown ones would be my preference! They are beautiful!

 

[All4Eggz]

Thank you! Most of the time they would be able to get out for an hour or two for free-range, but occasionally (especially in winter) if one of us is gone during daylight hours they would have to stay in the run for safety.

ETA The brown ones would be my preference! They are beautiful!

You're welcome!
If they have a spacious run, then I don't think it'd be a problem. Beware that they are extremely flighty, so if nobody is home, they might fly out of the run and "free range". I've lost a few hens because of that.
So I'd recommend clipping their wings often and getting some kind of netting/wire over your run so they wouldn't be able to fly out.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't have a Leghorn, but I have a California White, which is a Leghorn hybrid.

My Chipotle is standoffish, but not skittish or flighty. She is curious and always the first of the flock to check out anything odd or potentially interesting. She forages in the run continually and is the last of the flock to seek shade when it's hot.

She flies like a helicopter and is the only bird in the flock bright enough to fly back into the pen after she flies out (the others pace around the fence complaining that they can't get back to the flock).

Being so very active I think that she would not tolerate being cooped up well and might easily develop behavioral problems if she didn't have space to get up and down and in and out.

 

[TBlevins]

I have 2 leghorns that I got as chicks. I named them Frick and Frack, because even as wee ones, I knew they were going to make me swear - and that’s as close to swearing as I could figure, lol! Frick is still incorrigible, lol, and prefers to have nothing to do with me, but Frack is becoming my snuggle chicken. She won’t jump in my lap, but will stand next to me, just staring and muttering until I pick her up. As soon as she gets on my lap, she cuddles in and goes right to sleep.

 

[Isadora]

I had a brown leghorn. She was a beautiful bird. I would only call her skittish because I didn't make attempts to handle her, and she was very fast. I named her Sweet Feet. I would be very interested in getting more leghorns. She was a great forager, which is why I have my chickens (pest control and side benefit of eggs).

 

[JewelBirds]

I had 7 white Leghorns previously, now I have an additional 10. They are very good layers, mine lay often. One word of caution: they love to find secret nesting spots if they free range! Mine are used to being able to roam some, so they do get a bit upset if they're not allowed out. But if you don't let yours get used to being able to roam, then they might not throw as much of a fit as some of mine do. A covered run is required if you don't want them to roam, as they are able to fly upwards at least 6 feet (at least mine are able to), so tall fencing won't work for most of them.

As far as personality goes, it is true that they tend to be a bit skittish. But every Leghorn is different, and with time they do learn to trust you, especially if you sit with them for a while each day. I have had ones do a complete 180, starting off very skittish, not wanting to be handled, etc., but after some time of gaining their trust, they would eventually allow me to pet them, hold them, etc. until one day they would come looking for me to be held! Some may never get to that point, but many times it just takes a little patience.

Mine have done okay in the wintertime, I have only ever had one that struggled with frostbite. The others, for some reason, did not. Perhaps because she was the smallest, she wasn't able to cover her comb as good as the others when they went to sleep.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I have standardbred browns and isabellas. They're much larger and calmer than the hatchery browns I had before, but even the hatchery birds weren't crazy like I had expected. They're thrifty, hard-working free rangers and they will roost in the trees if given the chance, so trimming wings is a must. We're down south, but I found them to be quite hardy through our week of unusual snow and temps in the teens last February, which is a good sign. (If they can handle a sudden deep freeze like that, more typical acclimation to cold weather should be no problem.) They were better winter layers than my white egg laying Houdans, but not as good as my Legbars. (No supplemental light.)

I think they get a bad rap as backyard birds and that's too bad. They have a lot to offer.

 

[Iluveggers]

I reeealy want a brown one. Keep posting, you are giving me hope that it would work!