Brown hen, is she an Austrolorp or something else?

[Raising Reds]

This is one of our hens, Cobina. She is the same size as my Rhode Island Reds and lays light brown and sometimes spotted eggs. I thought initially she was an Austrolorp but she doesn't really look like the pictures I've seen of them.

 

[Cetawin]

Not an australorp for sure. She looks like a beautiful mix too me but I am not familiar with all the breeds. Hopefully one of the more knowledgeable will be able to tell you.

 

[Raising Reds]

She is very pretty. Her feathers have a nice pattern that doesn't show that well in this photograph.

I never thought of her being a mixed breed. Duh!

 

[coffeelady3]

The pic's a little hard to see, but black sex link perhaps???

 

[walkswithdog]

She's part partridge something. Hence the pattern. Leg color is off for pure partridge rock though.

 

[vtsarahb]

pretty!

Could be a barnevelder... but they are pretty rare from what I've heard.

 

[pinkfeather]

Quote:
That's what I think- Barnevelder. I love those guys; so pretty!

 

[Raising Reds]

I googled some Barnevelder images and that's her! The size, personality and egg information fit too.

Thank you so much for your input Vtsarahb and Pinkfeather.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

She's very pretty. We have 2 barnevelders (pics on my BYC page), but it seems as if they are kind of rare. How did you end up with such a rare chicken without even knowing?

Barnevelders are supposed to lay dark eggs. Mine don't lay real dark eggs, but they do lay darker eggs than my other brown egg layers (BRs, BSLs,& RIR) - one of my barnies lays a darker egg than the other - their eggs are the two on the bottom row of my avatar that are next to the white egg.

 

[Raising Reds]

Quote:
I got all of my hens from a neighbor who was kind enough to give me three from his flock of eighteen. He choose them for me and they've all been really good layers. He is the one who originally told me she was an Austrolorp so I assume he didn't realize what he had. I'm going to tell him that Cobina is a Barnevelder and also ask him where she originally came from.

I haven't figured out which hen lays which eggs but I have noticed that on the days I get three, one is longer and skinnier than the other two so I imagine that she is laying the "skinny" eggs.

Skinny is a relative term since all three hens lay eggs that barely fit in a "jumbo" carton.

Cobina has a good personality though she is more shy and, quite frankly, not quite as smart as the other two. I would love to breed her but with the limited space I have I guess I'll have to stick with just my three. Maybe someday if we move to a house with more acreage I'll get my wish.