Are these of breeds to add to an existing flock?

Are these good breeds to add to an existing flock? Are they good layers?


Are the aggressive? I don't need a breed too aggressive because I already have Rhode Island reds, buff rocks and a leghorn(not sure what breed my white one is)



Below is what I have already



What does it mean when t says "straight run" as opposed to "pulley"? I know pullet is female.

emilyschartz21 said:

Are these good breeds to add to an existing flock? Are they good layers?

Are the aggressive? I don't need a breed too aggressive because I already have Rhode Island reds, buff rocks and a leghorn(not sure what breed my white one is)

Below is what I have already

What does it mean when it says "straight run" as opposed to "Pullet"? I know pullet is female.

Click to expand...

First of all, straight run is the term chick sellers use to say that the chicks you will receive have not been sexed so they could be either a girl or a boy. This is usually because with most pure breeds it is nigh impossible to determine their gender when they hatch.

I have never had an anacona so I will link the breed reviews of it below so you can have a look. However I would also note that hens are individual personalities, I have had hens of the same breed that are boisterous and I have other ones that are scared of their own shadow. It is hard to generalise breeds.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/ancona

I do have an Araucana. She is an interesting persona, not top or bottom of the pecking order and fits in well with the other hens but isn't to fond of me (she is fairly flighty in that respect). She is quite easy going. She lays absolutely beautiful green eggs on a daily basis which are a good size. Although, the website you are looking at has misspelled Ameraucana and states that they are crosses so you are more likely to get Easter Eggers. In that case they are still beautiful birds and great characters in the flock but just aren't pure breed.

Breed reviews for Araucanas :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/araucana

Straight run means they pull a chick out of a bin with no regard to its sex. It might be male or female. They do not sex them before they ship them to you. You will probably get both males and females, but that is just odds. I’ve only ordered straight run a few times. Once I got 7 pullets out of 7 straight run chicks. That’s over 100 to 1 odds. There have been times I have gotten more cockerels than pullets. What you get just depends on your luck.

How would I tell the Sex of a chick in this case since these breeds could be male of female?


What about this breed? THe black star pullet.

Some chickens can be sexed at hatch, like that Black Star. Without going into detail, when you cross certain breeds you get chicks that show a difference in the down or some other way. The two methods the hatcheries we get chick from either make red sex links where the pullets hatch red and the cockerels hatch yellow or they make black sex links. The cockerels have a spot on the head that the pullets don’t have. There are several marketing names for these but two of the most common are “star” and “comet”. So your black star is a black sex link. But these are not breeds, they cross certain colors and patterns to get the genetics right so you can see that difference.

Hatcheries also use a process called vent sexing. Specially trained people look inside the vent of a chick that is just hatched and determine the sex. Males and females are made a little different inside the vent but there is not a lot of difference. Most hatcheries won’t even try to sex bantams this way, they are just too little to see clearly. They don’t always get it right with full-sized chicks either but most guarantee 90% correct rate. That means you might get some males (I have) but the majority will be female if that is what you order.

Ok good to know. I get my chicks at mucrdochs which is a home and ranch store. So far I've gotten all hens out of the 8 I've had. As the chicks get older will there typically be a distinct sign if I have a rooster instead of hens?

emilyschartz21 said:

Ok good to know. I get my chicks at mucrdochs which is a home and ranch store. So far I've gotten all hens out of the 8 I've had. As the chicks get older will there typically be a distinct sign if I have a rooster instead of hens?

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Yes, they usually feather out slower than females and in different places, they have wider combs that grow and get redder faster. They may act more dominantly. Eventually they will crow and after 20 weeks they will start to develop sickle, saddle and hackle feathers.