Are Red Stars as Good as They Say?

[Tracie]

I have 17 ofthe red stars they all hens. Does anyone have pic. out there.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

Not true. I've had a few game hens lay two eggs a day. And I've had hybrid types lay twice a day. The ISA browns I had were the queens of laying. 5 different days in a couple month time period I had an extra egg from the flock. And one day I had two extra eggs

 

[Manningjw]

We have loved our Red Stars. They definitely out produce any other brown egg layer hands down - there aren't many breeders that breed brown egg layers for commercial egg production like Australorps used to be. That being said not all "Red Stars" are created equally, breeders use different birds with white feathering to do the sex linked cross. The Warren brown/ISA brown/Bovan brown are similar cross breeds for commercial production value. In our experience, our Red Stars molted late and often still produced some eggs during different phases of their molt. They also laid eggs throughout the entire winter even in freezing temperatures/snow. My current red star (3rd one now from all different sources) is being upstaged by my White Leghorn, but the two previous red stars would have her beat.

Our oldest red star got an impacted crop after 3-3.5 years old and has only laid 1 or 2 eggs since. She is getting quite old now and her crop has never fully recovered but we are letting her live out her time, she is a wonderful little chicken. We always joked that she earned her chicken retirement in her first year of laying eggs. In her first year of laying, she laid an egg every single day, sometimes double yolk. Out of her first 90 days, she laid 89 eggs, taking her second day off only.

 

[BriskRooster]

i wouldn't buy red-stars, they lay very well for about 3 years then suddenly stop and seem to get sick and die, they are genetically bred for commercial egg production, so basically in a egg farm as soon as they stop laying, their dog food.

i would recommend barred rocks.

pure breeds like barred rocks are very tough compared to crossbred-redstars

 

[Dead Rabbit]

I'm all about production. I replace every couple yrs at the most. Where did your previous two sets of "red stars" come from.the only ones with that name I've seen is from McMurry . Best layers I ever had were ISA. from town line in michigan. But I have problems with shell quality after a yr old or less.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

We have loved our Red Stars.  They definitely out produce any other brown egg layer hands down - there aren't many breeders that breed brown egg layers for commercial egg production like Australorps used to be.  That being said not all "Red Stars" are created equally, breeders use different birds with white feathering to do the sex linked cross.  The Warren brown/ISA brown/Bovan brown are similar cross breeds for commercial production value.  In our experience, our Red Stars molted late and often still produced some eggs during different phases of their molt.  They also laid eggs throughout the entire winter even in freezing temperatures/snow.  My current red star (3rd one now from all different sources) is being upstaged by my White Leghorn, but the two previous red stars would have her beat.  

Our oldest red star got an impacted crop after 3-3.5 years old and has only laid 1 or 2 eggs since.  She is getting quite old now and her crop has never fully recovered but we are letting her live out her time, she is a wonderful little chicken.  We always joked that she earned her chicken retirement in her first year of laying eggs.  In her first year of laying, she laid an egg every single day, sometimes double yolk. Out of her first 90 days, she laid 89 eggs, taking her second day off only.

My last post was in reference to this post

 

[Bweis13]

My sister got some from TSC a couple of years ago, and one would lay a double yolk egg EVERY DAY. Anyone ever heard of that? The poor hen only lived about a year or so, poor thing. Her eggs were so huge they couldn't even shut a jumbo egg carton on them. I'm thinking the double yolk thing had something to do with her early death.

 

[Michael OShay]

I have had both red stars and RIRs and the red stars will lay more eggs, however I prefer black stars over either. The black stars are a little friendlier and more docile than the red stars and mine laid a little better in cold, winter weather than my red stars. Hope this helps.

 

[Manningjw]

I'm all about production. I replace every couple yrs at the most. Where did your previous two sets of "red stars" come from.the only ones with that name I've seen is from McMurry . Best layers I ever had were ISA. from town line in michigan. But I have problems with shell quality after a yr old or less.

Our first Red Star was from a local feed store - we don't know the hatchery(didn't even think to write it down, it was our first time owning chickens). The second red star was from Mypetchicken.com - she is a pretty good layer, rarely ever skips a day regardless of season, she has good shell quality but it doesn't say what cross she is. My most recent red star is about about 6 eggs per week, skipping day 7 - eggs aren't quite as dark or large as the first two. I tried to pick out my last one to be either ISA or warren by selecting one that is listed as RIR x RIW but they were in a mixed bin of other 'red star' type sex links so there is no way to really know.

 

[welsummer27]

I had a red star last year that layed better than my plymouth rock.It also was a great winter layer.