La Fleche Lakenvelder and Leghorn

La Fleche is a wonderful breed for fried chicken. The meat is filled with flavor and is tender and fine grained. In europe they have won taste tests and have been favorites of french and italian chefs for decades. This chicken has remarkable white meat and comes from France. The breed is average layers and has a V shaped comb. Because of the unusual comb it has earned the nickname devil bird. La Fleches date back to the 15th century. These are active fowl and good foragers. They have beautiful black feathers and the breed is very fertile. My roosters weighed about seven pounds and the hens around six. Expect about 160 eggs per year. Next I will discuss the lakenvelder breed of chickens. Although it carries a dutch name experts believe the breed originates in Germany. Its a very striking bird contrasting from black to white. The lakenvelders will range far and wide preferring green plans and insects. Often our neighbors lakenvelders would show up at our farm a quarter mile away. If you free range them and live in a southern state their upkeep will cost you next to nothing. Lakenvelder roosters do love to chase small children but will rarely spur one in the legs. So if you have small children I would pick a different breed. Their laying ability is close to leghorns and they often like to hide their nests in weeds. The hens are non broody and lay medium to large size eggs. The breed dates back to the 1700’s. Leghorns is a breed that just about everyone recognizes. Probably about sixty percent of all chickens on earth are leghorns. They are popular because of their eggs and because they end up in chicken soup. They surpass all breed in egg production under ideal circumstances like in commercial poultry houses where the temperature and humidity is controlled. The birds are extremely easy to pick feathers off if your butchering them after they quit laying. Its extremely rare for them to go broody. They are nervous and if a stranger goes in the hen house some hens quit laying for a week. Breed will rarely lay eggs in cold hen houses. There are many beautiful varieties of leghorns. They seem to do well at poultry shows. Hawks consider this breed their favorite so you better keep an eye on them if you let them eat grass a few hours before dark. As the leghorns get older many will give you jumbo sized eggs. Also it doesnt cost you much laying mash to produce a dozen eggs. Leghorns are flighty so your pens must have a roof to avoid escapes or you can cut their flight feathers on one wing. Dont crowd the leghorn chicks or they will peck holes in each other. Light breed roosters are very agile breeders so fertility is usually good. One light breed rooster can cover many hens and keep them fertile.