ISA-Brown page. :)))))))

[Sphynxcrazy]

I am thinking of ordering from townline. we have a hy-line hatchery 3 hours away that i might be able to get chicks from also. My pen i am building will be huge, along with being let out to roam in the afternoons. i sell the eggs at farmers market so i need good producers, and I replace my bird every 2-3 years.

 

[Math]

I just finished reading this thread. I have red sex link hens that are almost two years old. They were "laying machines" but have begun to slow now. I don't know but it could be the shorter days of Winter. I bought mine from a TSC in South Georgia and I plan to buy more in the future. Mine were labeled red pullets but they look like the ISA Brown or Cinnamon Queen. What do you think?

 

[cmom]

I just finished reading this thread. I have red sex link hens that are almost two years old. They were "laying machines" but have begun to slow now. I don't know but it could be the shorter days of Winter. I bought mine from a TSC in South Georgia and I plan to buy more in the future. Mine were labeled red pullets but they look like the ISA Brown or Cinnamon Queen. What do you think?

They look like Red Sex-Links to me. Cool weather, molting and hot weather will make most birds slow down and some quit laying for awhile. Their bodies are taking a break. Most birds do slow down after they get to be around 2 years old. I have some old RSL's that are around 5 years old and I still get 2 or 3 eggs a week from them.

 

[Sphynxcrazy]

Someone told me that the isa Browns can be very canablistic if crowded at all. After looking into them and other sexlinks. I'm going to order red/golden sex links from a hatchery. Every hatchery has their own "strain" of sex link, which is what an isa brown is. Basically, just pick a hatchery and order the gold sexlinks. Each hatchery has their own name for them.

 

[cmom]

Someone told me that the isa Browns can be very canablistic if crowded at all. After looking into them and other sexlinks. I'm going to order red/golden sex links from a hatchery. Every hatchery has their own "strain" of sex link, which is what an isa brown is. Basically, just pick a hatchery and order the gold sexlinks. Each hatchery has their own name for them.

From research I did some years ago, to my knowledge the only hatchery that is licensed to hatch the ISA Browns is Townline Hatchery in Zeeland, Michigan, http://townlinehatchery.com/shop/chicks/brown-egg-layers/. Also Quite a few places that sell chicks do not have their own hatchery but order the chicks from other hatcheries. They may have breeds listed such as ISA Browns but the chicks would actually come from a hatchery like Townline. I have had ISA Browns some years ago and I found them to be very friendly and docile. I had around 50 at one time. Never had any that were cannibalistic. Maybe if I had more. When they were in their grow-out pen that pen wasn't very large. Just don't know. Maybe any flock of birds that are extremely crowded my be cannibalistic. If they are over crowded they may fight more over their feed.

 

[Syerf]

From research I did some years ago, to my knowledge the only hatchery that is licensed to hatch the ISA Browns is Townline Hatchery in Zeeland, Michigan, http://townlinehatchery.com/shop/chicks/brown-egg-layers/. Also Quite a few places that sell chicks do not have their own hatchery but order the chicks from other hatcheries. They may have breeds listed such as ISA Browns but the chicks would actually come from a hatchery like Townline. I have had ISA Browns some years ago and I found them to be very friendly and docile. I had around 50 at one time. Never had any that were cannibalistic. Maybe if I had more. When they were in their grow-out pen that pen wasn't very large. Just don't know. Maybe any flock of birds that are extremely crowded my be cannibalistic. If they are over crowded they may fight more over their feed.

There is no license to hatch ISA browns, a hatchery just has to shell out the money for breeders from ISA or buy eggs from someone who has.

 

[cmom]

Quote: You may be correct. Several years ago a BYC member who worked at Townline Hatchery, I think (I may be wrong) told me that Townline was licensed to sell ISA Browns. I think he has since retired and doesn't work there any more.

 

[cmom]

The pure line breeds of ISA are bred in 7 R&D centers located in Canada, France and the Netherlands. From the latest generation of pure lines, grandparent stock (GPS) are produced at 5 production centers located in Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, France and Indonesia. The GPS of different pure lines are crossed to produce parent stock (PS) day-old chicks that are supplied to 300 distributors around the world. The different PS are crossed by distributors to produce laying hens for thousands of egg producers all over the world.

 

[cmom]

I just found this. I thought I had read it somewhere before. I don't where I saw the information before during my research because it was several years ago since I did the research.

The name, ISA Brown, is trademarked to the "Institut de Sélection Animale" and breeders would have to be officially licensed to sell ISA Brown Chickens.
https://www.purelypoultry.com/isa-brown-chickens-p-1209.html

I found this on another thread.

To my knowledge, Townline Hatchery in Zeeland, MI is the only licensed hatchery in the U.S. that sells the real ISA brown from Hubbard. I sent an email to the company about a year ago and got a call back from the home office in France. The man (heavy French accent) said that Townline is their supplier in the U.S. There may be others by now, but at that time Townline was the only licensed supplier. Several hatcheries have other, similar super layers like sex-links, golden comets, etc. I have tried several other layers, but none have compared to the ISA brown. These chickens lay like crazy, eat very little, and they seem to be affected very little by weather conditions. They do seem to get respiratory problems more readily than other breeds I have had in the past. They grow fast and lay great big brown eggs.

 

[Sidhe13]

How come there is no Isa Brown under the "Breeds" category up the top? Are the a sub-breed of something else or do they have another name?