Mottled Leghorns

The mottled leghorn is one of my favourite breeds of large fowl, its characteristics are similar to the more popular colours of leghorn but it seems to lack the size of the modern English show or egg laying leghorn, some say it resembles the German "Italianer" more.

Some Key Facts

• the mottled leghorn was first reported as a breed colour in the 1890's, however it became extinct in the early 1900's.
• in the early 1940's Edinburgh university in Scotland, UK, were carrying out egg tests with their flock of leghorns, when a few odd coloured birds began to show during the course of their selective breeding program.
• these birds were passed to the Scottish fancy where they were recognised as "mottled" leghorns, over the years a few dedicated fanciers persevered with them .
• in the mid 1980's JOHN MARTIN of England a renowned leghorn breeder of over sixty years managed to obtain some mottled stock and set about improving the strain
• in the mid1990's Mr martin won a best in show with a superb cockerel.

A pair of mottled leghorns

 A bit small for the breed, but still excellent layers of pure white eggs. Leghorns are now world famous as the foundation of most egg laying strains around the world, although in the UK we do not like white eggs so we crossed the leghorn with other birds to produce a nice brown tinted egg.

One of the hens that founded my stock

The leghorn is a native of Italy and classed as a "Mediterranean" breed , which normally do not go broody, the leghorn in general do not make a really good table bird as the tend to lack the "plumpness" required for a good eating bird.

This is my favourite rooster, he is now 3 years old <2003>and at his best, he tends to lack the mottling effect all over his body but as they are so rare a colour we are very short of a gene pool to experiment with, we did win a third with him at our local show this year, again he could do with a better type and colour.

This is my trio of young mottled leghorns,. the chicks are about 12 to 16 weeks in this photo, the colours are just starting to show. hopefully next spring I can acquire some eggs from Scotland to help improve the blood in our area. The basic type for any leghorn is a racy type body of the Mediterranean type, they should be good egg producers. the name actually derives from the town in Italy called "leghorn", they should be a nicely balanced fowl with an elegant upright style. they are classed as soft feathered, but the feathers should be close or tight fitting to the body. he cockerel should have a large upright comb, but the hen's should fall to one side but not cover her vision. They should have nice even long wattles and bright white ear lobes. They should also have a nice upright tail and the legs should be yellow/orange and fairly long.

There are a few breeders of Mottled Leghorns in the U.K.

Ivan Mears, 2 Pound Hill, Great Brickhill, Bucks, MK17 9AS.

hatching eggs and stock available
www.fertilehatchingeggs.co.uk

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The domestic fowl trust-  http://www.domesticfowltrust.co.uk

contact  Telephone 01386 833083    clive@domesticfowltrust.co.uk  

MY MOTTLED LEGHORN PAGE. is now for your information only, i no longer keep this breed