ISA brown chick - roo or hen?? - NEW PICS!

[donrae]

He's very pretty

But he's not an ISA brown. Or, not a true, first generation. He looks typical of a second generation bird, when someone breeds sex links to each other. the result is a mix of red and white birds, with no linkage of color to gender. so, when you continue to breed them, you get basically mixed breed birds. You can't tell gender until around 6ish weeks or so. The offspring won't lay quite as stellar as the parent stock, but the genetics are still solid and they'll be nice backyard layers.

 

[Marci C]

I'm no expert, but this happened to us, got 8 "girls", as they grew, 2 of them grew combs & waddles faster & coloring came in rather quick also. As I read on differences of male & females of the breeds I got (Black Australorps & Barred Rocks). As they grew, it all proved that they were roos, just as I suspected. Good luck.

 

[Walkerspoint]

All 12 chicks survived; not knowing if they were roos or hens; eventually ended up with 5 hens a lot were creamy white some with a few brown spots and one vivid dark red. All of them started laying at 5 months! All lay brown eggs!!! Two roos are quite magnificent - one exactly like White Leghorn only creamy and another a dead ringer of a Rhode Island Red with black tail n all (his father has a white tail and mother must be Isa Brown or another brown hen who has lacing on her breast feathers. Having incubated them feeling very proud that they have made it to laying stage and are very healthy! No photos at present. Will post some soon.

 

[Goingsolo 24]

All 12 chicks survived; not knowing if they were roos or hens; eventually ended up with 5 hens a lot were creamy white some with a few brown spots and one vivid dark red. All of them started laying at 5 months! All lay brown eggs!!! Two roos are quite magnificent - one exactly like White Leghorn only creamy and another a dead ringer of a Rhode Island Red with black tail n all (his father has a white tail and mother must be Isa Brown or another brown hen who has lacing on her breast feathers. Having incubated them feeling very proud that they have made it to laying stage and are very healthy! No photos at present. Will post some soon.

I know a long time has passed since you posted this, but this is of great interest to me. What was your end result with your chicks? I have just started the 'chicken' thing. I bred ISA brown with rooster (?) - incubated in my home made polystyrene box. I hatched 8. They are 6 weeks old and I'm at the ... Rooster or hen stage! Our parents and chicks looked very similar.

 

[Goingsolo 24]

I know a long time has passed since you posted this, but this is of great interest to me. What was your end result with your chicks? I have just started the 'chicken' thing. I bred ISA brown with rooster (?) - incubated in my home made polystyrene box. I hatched 8. They are 6 weeks old and I'm at the ... Rooster or hen stage! Our parents and chicks looked very similar.

 

[Travelnurse72]

I got them from a local feed / bird store called 'Ivorsons' that sells a hell of a lot of chooks. Never purchased anything from there before, just happened to need horse feed on a sunday afternoon and stumbled across them then!

 

[nuthatched]

Those threads from 2010, my friend, you may not get a response from the original posters.

 

[Travelnurse72]

updated pix! Chicks are 6 wks old.

this is the hen:

this is the 'suspects' head:

this is the 'suspects' feathers... I tried to get pix of where any saddle feather would be growing (as suggested by SloCrevs).. this chick is only just starting to feather out back there.. had been pecked a bit before I got it....

any futher opinions would be appreciated!!!

They both are hens. These are mine at 4.5 weeks. I have one rooster and one hen. This is my rooster! Notice the waddle? Combs vary, but waddles let you know