ISA Brown or something else?

[emscheid]

We bought ISA brown pullets from Tractor Supply back in March. It was the very first day they started selling chicks, and they ONLY had ISA browns at the time.

So now they are about 7 weeks old and we've noticed that one of them is quite a bit darker than the rest- mostly dark red with very little white (only underneath), very unlike the rest that are lighter brown/white speckled.

Yesterday we also noticed that near her rump, on each side there is one feather that is half white/half BLACK. Seems unusual because all the others have very white rumps!

Just wondering if this is normal variation within the typical ISA brown coloring, or is it possible she is a different kind that got mixed into the ISA browns somehow (can that happen? it would have been at the "factory" not at TSC, because they had no other chicks yet).

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

A photo would be very helpful. Red sex links (which ISA Browns are one proprietary line of) vary considerably in both color and pattern due to being mixed breed birds. Descriptions can lead to picturing a very different bird than what is being described, which is why photos are essential.

 

[emscheid]

So here are a few pictures....

 

[junebuggena]

So here are a few pictures....

All red sexlink pullets. Isa Browns are a type of red sexlink. They are crossbreeds that can be sexed by color. ISAs are a cross of four different breeds, so they can be highly variable in the shades of red, the amount of white, and the amount of black patterning.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

That's a great example of the variations that can be found in these birds -- yes, she is an ISA Brown.

 

[emscheid]

Ok, it was the black feathers that had me curious, I didn't know ISA brown's might sometimes have black (I have only ever seen the light brown/white pattern). Thanks!

 

[jeffkerle65]

Here are some pics of the Isa brown colour variation that I bred...



I
The eggs are all from my Isa Brown laying hens.
I hatched them in an incubator, they are 4 to 5 weeks old, One is pure white, a through back from the original
Rhode Island white maybe?

 

[junebuggena]

Here are some pics of the Isa brown colour variation that I bred...



I
The eggs are all from my Isa Brown laying hens.
I hatched them in an incubator, they are 4 to 5 weeks old, One is pure white, a through back from the original
Rhode Island white maybe?

First of all, you need to understand that Isa Browns aren't a breed. They are crossbred sexlink. They don't breed true, and their chicks will not be sexlinked like their parents. They produce mixed breed chicks.
Isa Brown hens are red base color, with a single copy of the dominant white gene. Dominant white only affects black patterning. Isa Brown males have one gene for silver base color, and one gene for red base color. The silver, being the dominant gene, is expressed. They also have a single gene for dominant white.
That means that there is a 50% chance for silver base color chicks and 50% chance for red base color chicks. About 50% of chicks will have a single copy of dominant white, 25% will be 'pure' for dominant white (two copies), and 25% won't get the dominant white gene at all. Some of those silver base color chicks will appear solid white because you can't see white patterning on a white base color.
The white chicks aren't throwbacks. They are just one of the logical possibilities, given the genetics of the Isa Brown parents.

 

[jeffkerle65]

This rooster... what would it be?

The one in between the pullets?

 

[junebuggena]

This rooster... what would it be?

The one in between the pullets?

Production Red.