A Light Brown Leghorn male

Leghorns

pronounced "leggerns" in the US

 

Leghorns are one of the best known breeds of chicken. They produce the majority of the world's crop of white eggs. The breed originated in Italy, but most of the color varieties were developed in Great Britain, America and Denmark. The birds are found in both single comb and rose comb forms and in many colors, including White, Buff, Silver, Red, Cuckoo, Mottled and Brown among others. The Brown Leghorns are further divided into Dark and Light. When you see a rooster in a painting or an advertisement it is usually a slim-bodied bird with long sickle (tail) feathers and a large single comb: the typical male Leghorn.

Leghorns, especially the White ones, are prodigious egg-layers and broodiness (the desire to hatch eggs) has almost completely been bred out of them. Leghorns are usually hatched out in incubators. A good hen will lay in the vicinity of 300 eggs a year. The light weight of this Mediterranean breed (males reach 6 pounds and females 4 1/2) makes it a poor choice if you are seeking a bird to provide meat for the table, although excess males can be used as fryers.

Leghorn bantams now have their own page.

 

 


Breed clubs:

American Brown Leghorn Club
Don Schrider
13794 Hollowell Church Road
Waynesboro, PA 17268

Dutch Leghorn Club
H. Averdijk
Lijsterstraat 5
7491 ZM Delden
The Netherlands
tel.: 074-3763473
e-mail: sikahert@home.nl

The Leghorn Club
Ian Sissons
Sunbeam Cottage, Rye Road
Guestling, Hastings. TN35 4LL
UK
tel.: 01424 815 186

The Scottish Leghorn Club
C. McCrone
Blairston Mains,
Alloway, Ayr.
Scotland
phone: 01292-42265

The Leghorn Club of Australia
Ken Bergin, Sect'y
PO Box 5
Summer Hill NSW 2130
Australia

 


Leghorn Links:

The Poultry Connection's Leghorn Forum

Palm Beach County Poultry Fanciers Association's Leghorn page

Rockin Rooster Ranch has info on production-type Leghorns

Kintaline Poultry Centre has both Black and White Leghorns

Robert Stephenson has a page up on Mottled Leghorns

Here's an article on Leghorns from the SPPA Bulletin

Little House Poultry Farm's Leghorns

Fertile Leghorn hatching eggs, in the UK

Dutch varieties of the Leghorn -- in Dutch

Leghorns at Devonshire Traditional Breed Centre


My very first rooster, "Desmond," was a White Leghorn
That's an Araucana cockerel and two Light Brahma bantam pullets in the background

Desmond's sisters "Lefty," (A Study in Chicken Wire), and "BadAss"

A "picture-perfect" rooster, in this case a Brown Leghorn from Australia
Photo courtesy of Andy Vardy

A very nice White Leghorn pullet
Champion Mediterranean at Cobleskill, NY, '98, owned by Twin Cedars of Delaware
Photo courtesy of Beth Adams

An Exchequer Leghorn rooster
Photo courtesy of Bonnie Meikle

"Ashley," an Exchequer Leghorn pullet, showing comb development; on the left she is around 4 months old, and on the right around 9 months
Photos courtesy of Ket

My Buff Leghorn cock "Mark I" and 2 of his hens

A Cuckoo Leghorn pullet
Photo courtesy of Pete Akers

"Leo," a White Leghorn cockerel

A top winning White Leghorn in Australia
Photo courtesy of Andy Vardy, Melbourne National 1995

A debeaked Leghorn hen
Dunno why, she doesn't look like a utility bird to me
Photo courtesy of anonymous friends

A light Brown leghorn female

A pair of Dark Brown Leghorns

White and Light Brown Rosecomb Leghorns

Silver Leghorns, 2 cockerels

Two Buff Leghorn roosters
Photos courtesy of Danne J. Honour

Gold Duckwing Leghorn cockerel

A Mottled Leghorn cock from the UK
Photo courtesy of Rupert Stephenson

A Brown Leghorn cock bird

A flock of Exchequer hens
Photo courtesy of Rupert Stephenson

A Brown Leghorn female

A 5-year-old Buff Leghorn hen and a Rosecomb Buff Leghorn male
Photos courtesy of Danne J. Honour

A White Leghorn male
Photo courtesy of Andy Vardy, Melbourne National 1995

Here's a Rosecomb Brown Leghorn male

A pair of Pile leghorns
Photos courtesy of Robert Stephenson

A White Leghorn female
Photo courtesy of Andy Vardy, Melbourne National 1995

Another Exchequer pair
Photos courtesy of Robert Stephenson

A Mottled pair (left) and cockerel
Photos courtesy of Robert Stephenson

10-week-old Mottled leghorns
Photo courtesy of Robert Stephenson

A Brown Leghorn rooster
Photo courtesy of Grant Brereton

A Utility Brown Leghorn cockerel
Photo courtesy of Pam Marshall

A pair of Buff Leghorns from Australia
Photo courtesy of Scott Powell

Grant's flock of Brown Leghorns
Photo courtesy of Grant Brereton

"Karma," a Brown Leghorn hen--her story


White Leghorn chick
Photo courtesy of Gordon D. Rapp

Brown and White Leghorn chicks
Photo courtesy of Shiraz Iskenderian

An Exchequer Leghorn chick
Photo © Sheane & Bonnie Meikle

A Red Leghorn chick
Photo courtesy of Katie Gray

A 3-week-old Silver Leghorn
Photo courtesy of Joyce M. Wallace


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