Breeding ISA Browns?

[goodevening]

I'm brand new here, so I'll roll my intro in: We first started with a couple of laying hens about a year and a half ago, a Barred Rock and a kind of Buff "Heinz 57" that had Rock and Orpington characteristics with a few feathers on her feet (as determined by the leader of the local 4-H group). The hens were for kid (ages 11 and 9) pets and for fresh eggs. We picked them up from a woman who sold eggs along with her greenhouse business.

We recently decided to expand with another hen and a rooster. Our last source had no available roosters, so we went with another local source. He had tons of breeds available to choose from (150 chickens and turkeys as his egg and meat selling hobby ). I read up on breeds with the Henderson Chicken Chart and we went over for the kids to pick something out last night. They picked out a young pair of ISA Browns. I knew nothing about them because they weren't on the chart, and they were new to the chicken farmer as well.

So today I'm reading about them. I'm wondering if breeding this pair will not work out, as it seems they are a hybrid, and offspring could turn out like anything? (and I'm also wondering if we ended up with 2 females since their coloring is the same). We were hoping to have a few show chickens at the local county fair over the next few years, so purebreds would be preferable in that situation, I would think.

The farmer was very kindly and offered to swap if we wanted to return these for any reason.

Any experience with raising/mating ISA Browns?

Thanks!

 

[Goose and Fig]

You can have great chicks- but they won't be sex-link, and not show birds. That doesn't mean you won't have pretty chickens! They'd be great layers as well.

 

[SunnyChic]

Welcome to BYC; you're going to love this forum! I don't know much about this breed, but I did find a thread that talked about them:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1188389
Best of luck with your chickens!

 

[yoker]

How old are they you could post pics and I would be able to tell the difference between roosters and hens.
They are exelalent layers.
I love them.

 

[goodevening]

Quote:
Yes, here is a pic: http://www.screencast.com/t/Jq822TIE

I'm not sure if it comes through in the picture, but one is larger than the other. He said he ordered the males 4 weeks after the females, so his guess last night was that the smaller ones were the males. The larger one is just about old enough to begin laying, but has not yet.

By the way, we also brought home a possible Ameraucana or Easter Egger (the farmer had got them from a craigslist posting) for a little novelty. I just started reading the sticky thread on that breed. She's younger, here's a pic of her: http://www.screencast.com/t/wfY5mc4t

Thanks!

 

[blackdotte]

They are a hybrid, & you have 2 pullets, The males are basically white and are usually killed at birth. They will not breed true, will lay heavily for 1 or 2 years than start to develop cancerous tumors and are usually dead by 3½ years of age.
You can not show them

 

[yoker]

they are both hens for sure.
But you will get a lot of eggs from them

 

[goodevening]

Thanks everyone! My daughter picked one to keep, and we took the other one back and exchanged her for a Barred Rock rooster, to match my son's Barred Rock hen. So, we're looking forward to lots of eggs now and some BR babies in the future.

 

[walkswithdog]

Welcome to the world of Plymouth Rocks, all colors welcome

You'll find the breed website at Crohio.com, the pick the Plymouth Rock group and you'll find quite a number of helpful people in the breed. Matt runs the place and he's dead useful. There's even an old version of the breed standard available on the site.

I have barred, partridge, black and blue rocks.