ISA-Brown page. :))))))) - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlcollins13 

somehow i was lucky enough to come across nearly 3 dozen pullets. i'd love to find a rooster to mate them with. is it true that the rooster is ?red and the hen white? or does it matter as long as youve got one of each color? ive got a RIR cockerel for when they all get of age. 

 

If you try to breed Isa Browns to anything, they will not breed true. I have tried it and I came out with white, black, and brown and white combinations for both sexes. I had some cockerels that had the same color as the female Isa's. Here is a picture of some that hatched out from my Isa Browns.

Here are some of the same chicks a little older.

These are all male chicks The white chicks are the Isa Brown males. Also some BOs and RIRs.

The top right side are some of my Isa Brown hens.

There are some of the Buff Orpington, Isa Brown and RIR pullets in the bottom left side of the picture.

Now I have been breeding my RIR rooster to my RIW hens. The male chicks are white like the hens and the female chicks look like the Isa Brown color.

I also did an experimental breeding Delaware hens to a RIR rooster. The female chicks looked like the RIR rooster and the male chicks were white like the Delaware hens. I put those pullets from that breeding in with one of my RIR roosters and all of the chicks from that next breeding hatched out looking like the RIRs, both male and female. You can't really tell them apart from the other RIRs except they are a little lighter in color more like a Production Red and have yellow legs with no brown on the front of the legs and on the toes like the RIRs do.

Could be either Production Reds or New Hampshire Reds. They both have black on their tail feathers.

Maybe they are the RIR male to Delaware female cross. The pullets look more like RIR/NHR and have the black feathers on the tips of their tail feathers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicken wranger 

I have some that I bought from a feed store that said they were brown sexlinks. That are redish brown, like thve, but have black tips on tholier tail feathers instead of white. This makes me wonder if they are another breed.

There are a ton of these various hybrids, made a bunch of different ways.  If there is black in the tail feathers, imho, they aren't ISA Browns. But then, none of these hybrids are breeds.  They are hybrids, mixes.   

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred's Hens 

 

There are a ton of these various hybrids, made a bunch of different ways.  If there is black in the tail feathers, imho, they aren't ISA Browns. But then, none of these hybrids are breeds.  They are hybrids, mixes.   

 True

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred's Hens 

 

Well, that's hard to say.  The problem with using the ISA rooster is the chicks eventually, in our experience, begin to become somewhat "average" and lose the red coloration very quickly.  The RIR rooster would be nifty, because your chicks would pick up that red, production red type coloration.  We are breeding an RIR over our ISA's this year and while it is too soon to judge, we really like the little red chicks we are getting.  I must also say that not all ISA roosters are particularly nice.  We've found them a bit on the over bearing side.  Since you already have the red, that's what I'd use first and see if you like what you get.

Do you have any pics of your RIR/Isa chicks? I may put one of my RIR boys with my Isa girls to see what I come up with. I had one Isa Rooster that was a bit aggressive but I did cure him of it, at least with me, but no one but me goes into the chicken's yards but me. I do not allow strangers to go into the yards as I don't want to introduce any kind of disease.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmom 

 True

 

Do you have any pics of your RIR/Isa chicks? I may put one of my RIR boys with my Isa girls to see what I come up with. I had one Isa Rooster that was a bit aggressive but I did cure him of it, at least with me, but no one but me goes into the chicken's yards but me. I do not allow strangers to go into the yards as I don't want to introduce any kind of disease.

Not yet.  I did a thread here:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/660815/breeding-sex-links-third-generation

Maybe  you'll find it interesting.

OK, I do have one photo.  I'm not a good photographer. 

i think the thread is an awesome idea. the hens with more white, are they isa's too? i'm just wonderin how much my girls colors will change with age.

so cmom, from looking at the chicks from your rir/ riw mix, i wonder if somebody could "counterfit" isa's..... hope that's not an idiotic idea