Why White Leghorn Chickens Are the Best Backyard Chicken Breed

Once Upon a Tiny Farm
by Once Upon a Tiny Farm

I'm talking about why I think the White Leghorn chicken is the very best chicken to get. It's perfect if you have a small space in your backyard and you only have a small space for a coop and run in your backyard. The following are my reasons why I think White Leghorns are the absolute best chickens to get for a small space.


White Leghorn chicken

1. They're small 

Compared to the other heritage birds that I have, White Leghorn chickens are small. The other birds that I have, like my Buff Orpington and my Ameraucanas, are larger.


Barred Rock chickens are huge. The Barred Rock hen is actually bigger than my rooster, and the rooster is older than the Barred Rock. That's how big that is. So the Barred Rock is a dual-purpose bird. 

Backyard chicken breeds

2. They're bred for egg production 

The White Leghorn chicken has been bred for commercial egg production. So if this is your first year or first time getting chickens, you're likely getting them for the eggs.


Now, all these other dual-purpose breeds, that means that they could also be meat birds. You could save them for meat and eggs. The White Leghorn is such a small bird. It's not meant for the dual-purpose kind of thing. It's more meant for laying lots of eggs.


If you go to the store and buy a dozen white eggs, they probably get eggs from White Leghorns, lots of White Leghorns from commercially owned flocks. 


So if that's what you're after, you should go for the White Leghorn. If I could do everything all over again, I'd probably start with the White Leghorn.


The first chickens I got were Rhode Island Reds, which were incredible. They are incredible chickens, but Rhode Island Reds are also a dual-purpose breed. They could be for meat and eggs. You could retire them after two or three years when the egg-laying starts to go down. 


I still have two of my original Rhode Island Reds, and I have them in a chicken tractor just doing their job. They've been retired from egg laying, and they just till my garden rows for me, so I still have a good use for them. 

White Leghorn chicks

3. They're calm

The White Leghorns I have are two years old this year, and last year they were the first chickens to start laying after the winter solstice when we got very little sunlight. We're now starting to get a lot more sunlight hours as we move toward spring.


They lay almost every day like clockwork, and they're calm. I've read that some people watched other videos where they say not to get white leghorns, like they're too loud or whiny, like maybe like a yappy dog. I haven't found that to be the case.


I find them to be very quiet, with a calm, docile temperament. It depends on the environment that you put them in. They might be a little bit louder if they're a little bit uncomfortable. 

Backyard chickens

4. They don't mind small spaces

From what I've seen, they don't mind being in a confined space. So if you can't free range your birds, or if you don't plan to free range your birds in your backyard, and you just want to have a very small coop and run, the White Leghorns are going to be the best option. 

The best backyard chicken breeds

5. They don't eat as much as other breeds

White Leghorns are much smaller than other birds. That also means they don't require eating as much feed as the larger dual-purpose laying birds do. So that's another benefit to having the White Leghorn; you could save some money on feed because they don't eat that much. 

Chicken run

6. They don't need to free range

I recently added a chicken tunnel and found that the White Leghorns don't even care for the tunnel. They actually like it when the other chickens go out into the chicken tunnels, and they just stay in the run. They're happy in this space. They don't care that it's not the biggest space in the world. 


They don't care about free ranging. They're not even known for their free ranging. So they don't care too much about free ranging. I gave them the ability to do that in the week or two since I've had this chicken tunnel. I've only seen them once go down there when I first set it up.


For the rest of the time, they like to hang out where I just set up a compost bin. I think they like the compost area just as another perch for them to fly up off the ground and relax up there. They kind of treat it like a playground. I think that's really cool. 


So remember to check out White Leghorns if you've never owned chickens before, you want chickens for the eggs, and you don't care about meat. They are the perfect chicken. You'll get a good two to three years, maybe more of egg production from White Leghorns.


You won't have to feed them as much as the larger birds, and you're going to be very happy. They're not high maintenance at all. They don't mind being in a small space. 


I really think there are a lot of new chicken owners this year because I just went today with my kids to Tractor Supply and I was talking to some of the employees there, and they said already they'd had four shipments of chickens and ducks.


Each time as soon as they got all the chickens in, they were sold out fast. There are a lot of people that want to take control of their local food supply right in their backyard. I commend you if you're trying to do that. 


Why White Leghorn chickens are the best backyard chicken breed

Good luck to you, new chicken tenders. I recommend the White Leghorns as an excellent option for a first-time chicken tender.


Are you starting out with chickens? See my backyard chickens 101 guide for more info or share your experiences in the comments below.

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