Star

The wonderful thing about red sex-links for people new to chickens would be the ability to confidently know for sure what gender you are buying. If you only want hens then this might be a good choice for you. We have 6 of these wonderful birds, all females. They are calm and GREAT large brown egg layers! Many hatcheries create their own brand names for sex link chickens.

great layers and great personalites

I absolutely ADORE my Star. She is my favorite chicken ( if I HAD to pick favorites) and head honcho of my three younger ones. I hand raised her from a tiny chicken, and she is extremely affectionate. She's figured out that she can climb up my leg vertically while flapping her wings really hard to perch on my shoulder. I call it a 'bird party' because she'll initiate a shoulder perch, and the others will follow suit. She LOVES to nuzzle my hand so that I pet her neck. I would recommend this breed to beginners and anyone for that matter.

My 2yo black stars are the first hens I've ever owned. I got them just over a month ago, March 2012. They went straight to the coop and hid there for 2 days, and finally ventured out when I started putting food on the ground instead of the coop. They come running to me the second they hear me or see me. They don't readily let you pick them up, but they don't try to run screaming away either. Once you get them in your arms, they settle in and don't try to fly or fight their way down. They eat out of my hands and after a few minutes will let me pet them. It took them about 3 weeks to settle in and produce my first egg! I get an egg, sometimes two, a day. I love my little mama's!

sweet girls !I just got 5 redstars they are19 weeks old ,waiting for eggs , they are very quiet ,curios and like to be petted this one I named fancy!

My star is only 4 weeks old, so it's too soon to tell. She is one of the smallest and sweetest of the four I have.

I have experimented with six different breeds of hens and the Stars (Golden Comet) are without a doubt my favorite hands down. We had a mild winter, but they layed every day right through and the eggs are extra large to even bigger some days! Our one remaining Comet, Thelma,(dog got our other two) is as sweet as she can be and curious (we call her nosy). Her best friend Louise was an even better layer than she is. They love to free range during the day and will "talk" to us until we let them out. Great foragers and have done a good job of helping to turn the garden over for planting! If I had a whole flock of them I would be quite happy!

I got three Red Stars, three years ago. They are the most loving and outgoing hens - very affectionate, seeking hugs all the time. They are very curious, and always wondering what's around the next corner. They started laying their first winter, and pretty much produced an egg every day for the next year and a half.

This spring, I lost two of them to reproductive tract cancer. Our wonderful vet spayed the third, and she also had a very early stage of cancer. The vet says that about 30% of production birds get this cancer by their fourth year, because of the stress of pumping out so many eggs. It was heartbreaking because we'd come to love them so much. If you plan to have chickens as pets and keep them around for a long time, you may want to consider a breed that lays less often.

reliable layer but very big hens poops really big

my stars are only 5 wks old so cant really give that much feedback on them. but they did peck the wattle of our older silkie and made it bleed.

I have 5 one-year-old hens (2 Black and 3 Red). The blacks are my favorite - they have a great personality and are simply beautiful.

They started laying at 5 months old and have laid 2-ounce brown eggs consistently all winter long, even when we had a week straight of rain and they were basically confined to their coop. The girls free range all day and don't eat much feed for the amount of eggs they produce.

All our Stars are friendly and most enjoy being held. My 8-year-old often runs around the yard with a hen tucked under his arm like a football! The do tend to get underfoot when we are feeding them or they think we might have treats, and we had one hen break a toe when she got stepped on. It healed well and doesn't give her any problem now. We have one hen who loves music and hangs out by my boy's bedroom window to listen to him play guitar. She will sneak in whenever she can.

The only cons I can think of is that mine are greedy girls and once they jumped up and snatched a sandwich right out of my hand when I wasn't paying attention. They also tend to hog the nesting boxes and will kick our Rocks out if they want the same box. I didn't list these things in the CONS section because this may just be a result of the pecking order and not necessarily an aspect of the breed. They also can be hard to tell apart, so you may want to band them with different colored zip ties in the beginning if that's important to you.

Overall, I love this breed! They are the core of our flock, have great personalities, and love to hang out with me when I'm in the yard weeding or doing chores. I would recommend them especially for those who can only have a few hens because they are reliable layers, eat very little, and are good with children. Plus, because they're a sex link, you don't have to go through the worry of possibly having gotten a cockerel by mistake!

a couple of these hens will actually stick around to get some petting, but not for long.....

My Star lays almost 2 to 3 eggs a day and she has hatched out over 20 chicks in one clutch. These birds are great all around hens.

I have two Black Stars, one Red Star and a laced winged Wyandotte. The Stars are all great people hens; they follow me around and love to be held. They're not quite as cuddly as my sweet little Wyandotte. These hens have loads of personality, but I find that the Red Star is the really comedian of the group as is always the instigator of all chicken mayhem at my house. They are also very talkative to each other and to me.

They have been very consistent egg producers for the year I've had them. It is rare for any of the Stars to miss a day of egg laying. The eggs are L - XL. The albumen of the Red Star is much more dense than that of the Black Stars.

Because they are intelligent, you need to make sure they have lots of activities available. Mine free range, so I'm not sure how they would do in close quarters. They also tend to overwhelm the meek little Wyandotte, though they don't peck or otherwise mistreat her.

I think this is a perfect breed for the first time chicken owner, and would highly recommend you include at least one Red Star.

These guys are great chickens I really enjoy having them (I have a black star and a red star), they are so curious (my red star more so though) as far as I know they lay everyday (i'm pretty sure I havn't payed much attention to it, I do have one that lays every other day) anyway all in all I enjoy them.

Bette...names after Bette Davis who was also bossy...is noisy!
Pretty, great eggs, good attitude, I would have more of them!

Always come running when we go out, and even wait to be picked up. Very awesome layers of maybe even XL eggs at times, one lays dark brown eggs and my other one lays a light brown. Gets along well with my barred rocks. Mine where darker red chicks, and as adults still have that dark red orange color, One has white flecks in neck feathers and a lighter tail feather.

Careful where you buy them, some can have lots of health problems when they age!

I had my Black star hen for 6 yrs... I love her she was a sweety!! She go sick and didn't make it!!

I was hesitant to give this breed only 3 stars because I've heard so many stories from fellow chicken-owners that conflicted with my feelings about the breed. I may have an atypical Red Star hen, so keep that in mind as you are reading my review. From what I've heard, these are supposed to be the very best layers, but I haven't been as pleased with ours. She doesn't lay as often as my other chickens. She gets an egg in about every other day. And when she does lay them, they are enormous! Much too big to fit inside a standard, large size egg carton to sell. (I believe this might be due to the fact that she holds her eggs in for 2 days at a time.)

She is extremely skittish and particular. The slightest change in her schedule will cause her to stop laying for days at a time. She also has more trouble than all my other hens at grooming herself. We have to keep her behind trimmed almost to her skin or it gets bad back there.

Even so, I'm giving this breed another chance, just because I've heard such good things from everyone else. We just brought 13 more Red Stars home and I'm going to test and see if our first Red Star was just an odd ball!

These have been the best chickens I have had. Reliable layers of big eggs! So friendly, they will squat and let me pick them up no problem. Even with a shovel in my hands they will stay close so they can scratch in the freshly dug soil. They are even pretty good with the kids. They are also quieter then the other breeds we have had. We had one that would (no joke) jump up on our lap and stand on our legs when we would sit on the porch swing (see pic at top). Only negative has been that unlike our Road Island Reds that run these give up when attacked. That and we have had a couple get sick and not make it. Even still, I would get them again. Perfect for people in the city or those with kids. Or people that just want friendly birds!