Isa Browns--what gender?

[Fred's Hens]

One lonely ISA male sitting in the midst of females. The whole point of Sex Links is the ability to "see" the sex at hatch. Awesome egg layers, well, except for the male.

 

[WarmChick]

Update: since my hubby and son picked out the chicks and didn't think to ask if they were pullets or straight run, I went back to where they got them. There were signs by the isa browns saying they were pullets, so that's that! Aaaannnnddd while I was there I just had to grab another cute little black sex link pullet as well

 

[enola]

Isa brown pullets don't have white wing feathers, roosters do..... sorry

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Isa brown pullets don't have white wing feathers, roosters do..... sorry

Sure they do. I have 50 outside right now, and several of the pullets are much more white, including having white wing feathers. What she has to watch for are dark red shoulders--those, pullets cannot have.

 

[WarmChick]

Isa brown pullets don't have white wing feathers, roosters do..... sorry

Yikes--then Townline Hatchery {Zeeland, MI} messed up because that's who our farm store gets their chicks from and the entire galvanized tub of chicks {with a sign stating that they're Isa Brown Pullets} had white wing feathers.

Uh-oh!

 

[WarmChick]

Sure they do. I have 50 outside right now, and several of the pullets are much more white, including having white wing feathers. What she has to watch for are dark red shoulders--those, pullets cannot have.

Thanks! I think the shoulders looked more red in the photo than they actually are. Tough to get the lighting right!

 

[Eggcessive]

I got some ISA browns last year from a local farm store that weren't labeled as all pullets. Some salesperson who didn't know what they were talking about told me the lighter ones were male and the darker ones were female, and lots of people there believed them. I was glad when I looked them up to find I had all 6 pullets, and quite a few had some white in them. They are awesome layers of a deep brown jumbo egg. Very independent assertive foragers. Not bullies, but they won't take any guff off of the others.

 

[Tricoglossus]

I got some ISA browns last year from a local farm store that weren't labeled as all pullets. Some salesperson who didn't know what they were talking about told me the lighter ones were male and the darker ones were female, and lots of people there believed them. I was glad when I looked them up to find I had all 6 pullets, and quite a few had some white in them. They are awesome layers of a deep brown jumbo egg. Very independent assertive foragers. Not bullies, but they won't take any guff off of the others.

Just curious as to how any male Isa Browns would make it to your local feed store? Here in Australia when the Isa Brown chicks hatch at the hatcheries the males are culled immediately. Only the female chicks will be sent to feed stores for purchase.

 

[smarsh]

Just curious as to how any male Isa Browns would make it to your local feed store? Here in Australia when the Isa Brown chicks hatch at the hatcheries the males are culled immediately. Only the female chicks will be sent to feed stores for purchase.

I suspect that is the case here as well, that is point of the breed. Some birds are sold straight run at the feed stores but mostly not. I suspect, but don't know, that this breed of sex link is lighter than most, and the roos are very pale yellow, where as the females show varying amounts of darker tones. 2 of these look quite a bit lighter, but i suspect the roos would still stand out from them.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Yikes--then Townline Hatchery {Zeeland, MI} messed up because that's who our farm store gets their chicks from and the entire galvanized tub of chicks {with a sign stating that they're Isa Brown Pullets} had white wing feathers.

Uh-oh!

Mine are from Townline, too. So I wouldn't worry about the white wing feathers at all.

It's hard for hatcheries to screw up sexing on ISA Brown. Pretty much the whole point of the hybrid is that they are easy to sex, calm birds that lay tons of eggs. Don't get me wrong, it can and does happen, but it's not as common as them getting the sex of an Orpington wrong, for example.