Leghorn Chicken

     The Leghorn is a breed of Chickens that originated in Tuscany, in central Italy. They were initially called “Italians”, but by 1865 the breed was known as “Leghorn”, the traditional Anglicization of “Livorno”. Livorno is the city from which Leghorns were exported to North America for the first time.  In Germany, Leghorns are called “Italieners”, and the standards are very similar there and are very close to the original birds that came from Italy with the exception of a few features. 

     Leghorns have white earlobes, bright-yellow legs, and large combs and wattles. The breed comes comes in two varieties; the single-combed and the less common rose-combed. A lot of color-varieties are also recognized for the Leghorn which include; black, blue, brown, buff, cuckoo, mottled, partridge and white. Also, the chicks are easy to rear; feather up quickly and are fast growers.

     Leghorn hens are prolific layers of relatively large white eggs (around 280 eggs or more per year), but they rarely go broody. The white color-variety surpasses any other Leghorn hen in its laying abilities. That led to a market advantage, and hence many strains have been developed from the white Leghorn to produce plenty of white eggs throughout the year.  A bantam version is also available for this breed.