ISA-Brown page. :)))))))

[tlcollins13]

yall are awesome. appreciate it. so would it be better to find an isa rooster, or just as good to use my rir?

 

[Fred's Hens]

yall are awesome. appreciate it. so would it be better to find an isa rooster, or just as good to use my rir?

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.

 

[tlcollins13]

so basically the offspring of my isa's and rir would have average, if not slightly better considering their parents. Thank God for your experiment. I'm definately keeping all my girls until they die. potentially less feed consumption while laying probably more than the average hen. i love it. it seems like you confirmed what ive been thinking as far as the sex links are concerned. my original thought (a bit naive) was i'd have 2 roosters (RIR and BR) and 3 types of hens (ISA, BSL, and BR), and no matter how they reproduced, i'd have some variation of the original (cross)breeds. now ive got my BR and BSL seperate from the ISA's and RIR.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

 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.

This seems to be true of any breed or cross in my experience. Of the three ISA boys from last year's birds I have one who is a bit obnoxious to the other roosters in the pen, but he's not the top bird so he doesn't get too much out of hand. I'd cull him, but he's also the largest of the three...

The four boys from this year's batch haven't yet evidenced enough personality to differentiate themselves one from another. There was more color difference than I was expecting when they were still in their juvenile plumage but that has mostly disappeared since they grew in their adult feathering.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

This year's ISA Brown chick order when it came in from Townline.

Now in the brooder.

A shot of this year's ISA Brown order in their grow-out pen. Around ten-twelve weeks as I recall.

The first eggs from those birds laid about three days ago. They are a little pale for this early in the season. The eggs laid the next day were closer to the darker brown color they normally lay in the first half of their season.

Two of the pullets the day I found the first eggs in their tractor.

Previous year's photos look substantially the same so I won't bother with those.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

No one else wants to contribute to the discussion? I think an ISA Brown thread is a good idea.

 

[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.

 

[cmom]

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

 

[cmom]

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.

 

[Fred's Hens]

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.