Whitestar versus purebred Leghorn

[valeriebutterley]

What is a Whitestar, please anybody?
I cannot find out anywhere, the Leghorn bit is obvious. Everybody says hybrid, but crossed with what?
Another confusion, when I got my replacement flock in July, I ordered three utility leghorns, white and lovely but that how they came - utility.
I would say that they were anything but utility, just seen one of them in the beautiful classic pose with tail not "sail tail" but at an angle.
Mystery hens with oomph and elegance, dirty at the moment but sweet and fun, and tame, not too flighty.

 

[chrismahon]

Chuck would have answered all your questions Valerie as he bred utility white leghorns. We had Goldstars laying brown eggs so the origins I can't imagine?

 

[valeriebutterley]

Hi Chris,
As you can tell - like most of us I suppose, I'm fascinated by hens and their ancestry.
With the bantam eggs I bought from the Godalming water park very early last year, all hybrid eggs, from top birds of their breed, all bantams and all running together, you can work out parentage quite easily if it is a hybrid, and a first class one at that. With these little darlings I have done so.
But when a hen looks like just one of its parents, no sign of the other either in trait or looks it is a mystery I want to know the answer to.
Know of any good books with with good photography and no genetics?

 

[chrismahon]

Nothing in any of my books about Whitestars Valerie. The white Leghorn is mentioned in many though and the Leghorn Club web site may have pictures. Haven't a clue what the White Leghorn was crossed with to get Whitestars, but I suspect the origins have got somewhat lost in time. The addition may be just a ¼ combination of many breeds?

 

[dinosaw]

I have it on good authority that they are 100% White Leghorn Valerie. They have been selectively inbred to produce a smaller less feathered and more prolific laying bird, quite how that makes them a hybrid I have never quite fathomed, perhaps it is because they don't conform to the Leghorn club standards in some detail. I crossbred them with a Faverolle cock last year with very good results producing a heavier deeper feathered bird who I hear have been fantastic layers this year and are a lot more Faverolle in their temperament.