Golden Comets

goodolsurvival1

In the Brooder
Jan 26, 2015
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0
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So we are waiting on our RKO (ruralking) to get their chicks in prob close to march 3rd ish... working on the design for the coop will have a theme, and then do a run tractor also (the coop and attached run will be permanent but moveable if we need to by detaching from one another to make it easier to move - will share pics once its worked on and is done).

my step father said that they usually carry golden comets and that is what they always got when they raised them.

so i know they lay brown eggs, decent size, lay sooner then most breeds, and are pretty docile.

Is it true that as chicks you can tell the sexes? as the roos are white and the pullets are a redish like color.

Also I wasn't able to find this or I missed it, but how long does this breed usually live for?

I also have read where many have commented on how quiet they are as hens, with the roosters are they also docile and aren't over cockadoodlers lol (we havent decided on if we will try a rooster too also or not, our main thing is hens and eggs, but on the fence cuz we have a few neighbors close and dont want to be a prob as they like us right now lol).

also if rko carries a buff, are the buffs and golden comets okay as coop mates or will the comets pick on the buffs? (just wanted to get 1 or 2 buffs if they have them, but dont want to deal with bullying by one breed on the other and would just stick with the golden comets then)... I have been around chickens good an bad experiences with some breeds, which has just allowed me to know what breeds i dont want due to having 3 kids 8 and under that will want to help with them.

ty in advance for tips etc. with this breed.
 
Golden Comet is one of the names that is used for Red Sex Links. Sex links aren't actually a breed, but rather a cross-bred hybrid created with selective parent breeds - the cross results in chicks that are able to be sexed by color/pattern from hatch - hence the name "sex link" as the color/pattern is directly linked to gender.
By "buff" are you referring to Buff Orpingtons? "Buff" itself is a color descriptor, many breeds come in a buff coloration.
Given that you are primarily interested in eggs and have three small children, I would suggest that you take a rooster out of the running for the time being. Take this time to gain some valuable experience in chicken keeping with a nice starter flock of hens.
 
Ya sorry forgot that buff is also a color class for many breeds, but i meant buff orpingtons as that breed was recommended from someone on the forum cuz of the kids, but know we will want to go also or completely with the golden comets (i know they go by golden buff etc.. its just our rko calls them golden comets). And with the rooster was thinking that just go with a solid hen flock.

Do u know what the goldens health etc is like do they live to 8ish yrs or so and when about do they start to not lay eggs so much to the point of not at all?

Ty
 
My Golden Comets are easily my favorite birds in my flock. They are friendly and funny, very curious, and some if the smartest and bravest if my flock. I have hens only, but do wish I had gotten a roo. I have on Buff Orp along with a bunch if ither breeds. Everyone gets along great, of course there are little squabbles here and there.

As for health and age, I don't expect my Comets to lay past 2 years old, just because they're a production breed and burn out early. I'll also probably cull them around that age since eggs are a business for me. If you want breeds that lay longer, orps are probably a better choice, or heritage breeds.
 
My Golden Comets are easily my favorite birds in my flock. They are friendly and funny, very curious, and some if the smartest and bravest if my flock. I have hens only, but do wish I had gotten a roo. I have on Buff Orp along with a bunch if ither breeds. Everyone gets along great, of course there are little squabbles here and there.

As for health and age, I don't expect my Comets to lay past 2 years old, just because they're a production breed and burn out early. I'll also probably cull them around that age since eggs are a business for me. If you want breeds that lay longer, orps are probably a better choice, or heritage breeds.


Ty. The reason i asked on age is cuz of knowing when to get a new flock and start weeding out. If we got buff orp were going to start weeding out at around 2yrs anyways as recommended since their lay count can start lowering.

And cull? Does that mean in simple terms to take them from an egg bird to a meat bird and processes them? Or does it mean something else?
 
Cull technically means to remove from the flock, but yes for me it means to slaughter.
ok ty, for us it may techn mean that too if i can handle the first stages of it. my husband hunts it took till the second deer to be okay touching it for me anyways while it still had its head on lol. but since then he does the skinning etc. and I'm the one that processes it for us... so i know i wont have a problem with the plucking and those stages.

is it hard or a specific techn when it comes to removing their organs and stuff?
 
The definition of “cull” is “to select”. Many people think it means “kill” but it really doesn’t. If you cull your birds, you remove them from your flock. That may mean you eat them, sell them, or give them away. It could even mean you just move them to another pen, such as separating chickens you don’t want to breed from your breeding flock. How you cull your flock just depends on your management practices. Your choice.

As Ol Grey Mare said Golden Comets are just sex links. It’s just a marketing name that could mean different things, like a pickup truck could be a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or some other brand. These pickups could have extended cabs, long beds, or not. Golden Comet really doesn’t tell you a lot about the chicken, just that it is a sex link.

The hatcheries make Golden Comets two different ways. Some hatcheries cross two regular breeds, say a New Hampshire rooster and a White Rock hen, and call those Golden Comets. They can use other breeds to make a chicken called Golden Comet. These tend to be like their parents, usually good dual purpose chickens. Since the dual purpose chickens the hatcheries use to make these Golden Comets (or other red or black sex links) normally lay really well, so do these chickens. Their personalities normally match the personalities of their parents. With the breeds normally used to create this type of sex links they usually have pretty good personalities and are normally fairly calm. A lot of people really like them but they really aren’t any different than the breeds that parent them.

The other Golden Comets are based on the commercial egg laying hybrids. These tend to be smaller than the sex links made from crossing breeds so they don’t need as much feed to maintain their larger bodies. These are egg laying machines, popping out a lot of fairly large eggs. They are specially bred to be calm and manage in a crowded commercial hen house. They can make great pets. The drawback is that they are egg laying specialists, laying fairly large eggs compared to their small body size. They are more prone to egg laying problems, like prolapse or being egg bound, especially if you overfeed them. It’s not that every one of these has these problems, just that they are more prone to it than their larger cousins. Since they are pretty small, much like a leghorn, there just isn’t much meat on them. You can still eat them, just don’t expect a lot of meat. Many people use these older hens to make delicious broth.

If you know which hatchery that RKO is getting the chicks from you can go online and see what they say about their Golden Comets and maybe figure out which type they sell. Adult chicken weight is a good clue.

It varies from hen to hen and you have to have enough chickens for averages to mean much, but most hens will lay really well their first year. After their first adult molt, they will lay really well the second year, with the bonus that the eggs are larger. But after each adult molt after the first, the egg production tends to drop 15% to 20% across the flock. They will still lay a lot of eggs, maybe 5 eggs a week instead of 6, but across a commercial flock that drop in production is enough that they are just not as profitable. Individual hens may still lay a lot more or they could lay a lot less than this flock average. Commercial operations tend to remove these hens from production instead of feeding them through a molt and then accepting a reduced profit margin. This is when the commercial type of hybrid egg layers tend to have even more health problems. They are not bred for longevity of laying plus the eggs are even larger though their body is not.

I know someone who gets a dozen “spent hens” from a commercial egg laying farm, feeds them through the molt, and gets some really nice egg production the next year. Then when they start their next molt and quit laying he puts them in the freezer and gets some more spent hens to start again. They don’t quit laying as they get older, they just reduce laying where it is not as profitable for commercial operations after a few adult molts.

I see you are fairly new here so, welcome. This is the Meat Bird board referenced. Look at the very top of it at the archives.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/21/meat-birds-etc
 

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