Leghorn cock, big comb?

Okay, I have a stupid question. LOL I'm due one as it's been awhile since I've asked one.

Do White Leghorn cocks have a really large flabby comb? I'm having a problem with one pecking eggs and you can see the evidence on it's feathers. I'm supposed to have all girls (aside from the silkies) but I also had several extra birds padded in my order.

He's very dirty. I've been digging a swimming pool area and the chickens all fight me for worms every time I flip off a piece of sod. It's comical really but also a pain trying not to flip dirt on them or hit them with the shovel.

Yes they do! And that looks like a rooster to me. But then I see a rooster behind every bush. Ordering 4 pullets and getting 4 rooster will do that to you......

they typically pad the orders with roos. maybe you can find hima home on freecycle? hen or roo, if it is eating eggs, i confine it and feed it a high protein diet if i want to break the habit. if that doesn't work, it needs a new home.

tf

That definitely looks like a Leghorn roo.

Thank you! I was afraid of that. I don't remember exactly how many extras I had but I want to say five. He is the only one I think with that big fat comb. I started googling the cocks and didn't like what I saw. LOL

I do have other White Leghorns that are well behaved and I think those are hens. I also have some others I think might be White Rocks. I have one Delaware and she is pecking eggs too. Grrr. The white ones seem to be the only trouble makers.

They will teach it to the others, unfortunately. My white
leghorn hen had a huge floppy comb, and I haven't
seen a roo leghorn, yet. Looks roo-ish to me! LOL

Hello!

Well, I'm sad to say, there are three of them. Their combs stand straight up but they are thick and meaty. I have some other whites that are much bigger and I'm still trying to figure out what they are but they have have much smaller combs. I'm thinking White Rocks. The other white is a Delaware and it's behavior is iffy too. Are all white birds pesky? LOL

lock those three up and wait to see if an egg pops out... a dog carrier overnight should do the trick...

sounds like they ought to taste all right...

LOL They are a year old. Think they'd be tough? I'd have to bribe the farmer down the street to do the deed. No way I can. Ick. (go ahead, call me a girl).

well, in that case maybe you should just GIVE them to the farmer. you'll lose less eggs that way. even if they just show up on his porperty one morning, LOL, he wouldn't look a gift in the mouth, eh?

I think my white Delaware, Delphine, is lovely--but to be honest she is rather more clever than the others and I think she might figure out that eggs taste good and corrupt everyone. Not that she has--yet. She is only 7 weeks old:0)

LOL TF! Hmm, gifting chickens...that might be fun!

Catscan, I call my Delaware, Della after my Great Aunt. She'd skin me alive if she was here to know that! On a better note, I named my just turned 4 (today) year old, a variation of her name. That, she would be honored by but not the chicken. ;)

Hi Badseed, I was just reading the difference between Leghorn roos' and hens' combs is that the roos' always stands upright, while the hen's first point should stand up and the rest should fall over. That matches truest's description of her hen's big floppy comb and your roos' upright one. So sorry.....

My Delphine was almost Della too. It can be dangerous naming animals after people. My son named his pet rat "Susan" and when my friend by the same name heard me call it......well you could tell she wasn't flattered. But she should have been; it was a very nice rat.

Thanks. I started looking up pictures and felt the "uh oh" set in. Be wary of free birds! chuckle

Somehow I think having a pet rat named for you, is not the utmost compliment. ;)

Okay, my kids are half laughing/half mad at me. I caught the darn leghorns eating eggs again. I put them out of the coop. I joked they were coyote food (not that we've ever seen one!). Now, I'm worried 2 are hens. One has a bit of a blood trail below her vent suggesting she just laid an egg. Two are much smaller than the one I put in the photo and their combs are not quite as large or erect as the males but they are not really floppy either. All of my birds are one year old, same delivery of one day olds.

I read that you could look at the vent, squish around a bit (trust me, not the first thing I'd do-definitely externally only, and I was very nice about it. LOL). What the heck am I looking for?? I read a post about some ladies (won't mention their names) that squished around some and got a rather unpleasant surprise finding male parts and the thought they'd squished out his insides.

When you are done laughing.....one I think is a female, did have yolk all over her head so may be just as guilty. On a good note, we did get 18 eggs today.

Leghorn is properly spelled 'Ligurno' where they originated. It is a town in Italy with a population of 1700

and in TExas we call it a legg-ern leggern my eggern LOL

I'm running out the door but want to repeat that I barely squished, more like peeking and couldn't tell squat! LOL I was more trying to look in then get anything out. OMG! This just keeps sounding worse. I must be bad at it though because I did not learn a thing!

If I ever left the eggs in the nest for too long, all the chickens would get interested and start pecking at it. Sometiems they would even eat it.....But just a few weeks ago all my chickens were killed by the neighbours dogs :(

Yes, and DEFFINETELY a rooster....looked just like mine :( He was my favourite and very friendly

so sorry fir_shy!

I wouldn't worry about him being tough to eat . Just stick him the crock pot and turn it on . sit him there for 12 hrs on low. He will taste just fine and be very tender too .
set and forget cooking is my kind of cooking. :)
yeah you guys with your fancy smile faces LOL

;-P fancy enough?

Sorry to hear of your loss fir_shy.
TF :P back at cha miss fancy pants. LOL

fire_shy, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. If you were closer, I'd gladly give you some birds! I want to scale down just a bit. We've been very lucky as far as predators go.

Sue, you are so bad! LOL

We have them in a temporary cage today. We've figured out their system. When we go out in the morning, we fill the food, fill the water then set them loose. As soon as all the girls leave the coop, the leghorns run in and attack the eggs. Nasty things! So for today, they have their own covered run and can mate and eat eggs all day, but it will be their own!

I have looked at an array of illustrations for vent sexing
chickens, and what an array of differences there can be!
After they poop, of course we have all seen their little
muscle thing to be sure they are clean, done, whatever,
and the shape of what you see in there tells you
what the sex is. The differences can be very suttle, and can
vary from breed to breed. The thought is as unpleasant as
looking at bat faces- that's what comes to mind. Not
winning any beauty contests there, for sure!
I loved the big eggs I got from Blanca, but she (rest her
soul) would not have won miss congenialty, either!

thanks for the lovely mental pictures.

LOL I've been out in the greenhouse this afternoon and am headed to soccer. See ya kids later.

Yur so welcome! anytime...

I am totally laughing now! I've been letting the chickens run loose every day and our herd mutt runs them in if we have to leave or the hawks are buzzing above. They are all much happier. If I have to leave them locked up during the day, we've been putting the leghorns in their own pen. Those crazy birds do not eat their own eggs. What is up with that??

So today, all of the chickens were out running loose, having a great time, tearing up the gardens and I heard a loud squawking. So I go out to see what is going on. There is that leghorn roo in the coop sitting on top of three brown eggs. He was mad when the hens were coming in to the box to lay. He was hoarding the eggs and laying on them. At first I thought there was a problem because he was laying almost flat then I figured out what was happening.

Since when do roos lay on eggs? I think that bird has some kind of gender issue!

Michelle maybe he's bi ? LOL

MollyD

I think he must have been dropped on his head! He does not crow and he does not lay on eggs....he doesn't eat his own breeds eggs and now he tries to hatch eggs???

Hmmmm one of those born with the wrong gender? Does he try to mate? He sounds like a macho hen to me.

MollyD

how old? could be late maturing, which means he is mor ehen like now, and will be a mess of male hormones later... i had one like that, and gave him away...

They are one year old, almost to the day! I hope he isn't any more messed up than he is already. LOL

How are his tail feathers--I didn't believe that one of my roosters was a he until he sprouted a long sickle feather--well and he was huge and he started looking just like his brother who crowed.

This message was edited Apr 9, 2008 9:42 PM

I'll have to check tomorrow. It's nearly dark here. I believe his are about 6"long and stick straight off his tail. Many of them are molting or missing tail feathers right now. I saw our buff silkie roo try to mate with him not too long ago. I think I have a lot of birds with issues!

I just found this quote on a Univeristy of Illinois extension site:

Can you tell the sex of the chicken from the feathers alone?

Yes, if the breed is feathersexed. The female chicks' primary feathers will be longer than the males. It is difficult to tell the sex of a newly hatched chick if the breed does not have the feathersexed characteristic.

and remember, they mean NEWLY hatched chick. i tried this with the BA/sexlinks/turned out to be BARREDROCK chicks, but they were already 3 days old. doesn't work then...

;-)

Tf does the day they arrive count as newly hatched?

MollyD