ISA Brown Repro Attempt

[StarChicken]

No, I didn't do it . . . I got the chicks when they were three days old!

This fellow pool player was telling my daughter about reproducing his ISA Browns (I don't know where the roo came from). He had hatched them without planning ahead for housing them, so he was willing to let them go! I said I'd take them, so I have what I'm pretty sure are mutts! That's OK, they're really nicely calm chicks; not flighty at all.

Their colors are all over the place; one is yellowish white with black splotches all over, some are just plain yellowish white. Some have quite a bit of red.

Since I understand the "white" ones should be roosters and the others hens, since these are no longer ISA Browns (they don't breed true), will I be able to use the same way to tell their sex?

 

[sourland]

No. Color sexing of sex link chick only works on the F1 birds.

 

[StarChicken]

No. Color sexing of sex link chick only works on the F1 birds.

Which is what I figured.

Thanks for confirming. Maybe some of the white ones will be egg layers.

 

[sourland]

Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have what I'm pretty sure are mutts! That's OK, they're really nicely calm chicks; not flighty at all.

Sourland is exactly right. You cannot use sex links to make sex links, the genetics don't line up correctly. The colors will not tell you the sex. Any of those could be girls, any could be boys.

ISA Browns are commercial egg laying hybrids. They are bred to remain relatively small so more of what they eat goes to egg production instead of maintaining a big body. And they are bred to lay a lot of large sized eggs. It would be interesting to know what the rooster was.

What you have are mutts but they will inherit a tendency for a relatively small body and great egg laying from their mothers. There is no telling what they will get from their father but I'd expect the pullets to lay a decent sized egg and probably a lot of them. You should be happy with the girls.

The boys probably won't be all that big if you butcher for meat, depending some on what the father was. But they should not be horrible.

Good luck with them.

 

[StarChicken]

Sourland is exactly right. You cannot use sex links to make sex links, the genetics don't line up correctly. The colors will not tell you the sex. Any of those could be girls, any could be boys.

ISA Browns are commercial egg laying hybrids. They are bred to remain relatively small so more of what they eat goes to egg production instead of maintaining a big body. And they are bred to lay a lot of large sized eggs. It would be interesting to know what the rooster was.

What you have are mutts but they will inherit a tendency for a relatively small body and great egg laying from their mothers. There is no telling what they will get from their father but I'd expect the pullets to lay a decent sized egg and probably a lot of them. You should be happy with the girls.

The boys probably won't be all that big if you butcher for meat, depending some on what the father was. But they should not be horrible.

Good luck with them.

I know exactly what you're saying. My daughter and I laughed at the guy who tried to repro his ISA Browns and told him he only had mutts at that point.

In the various articles I've read about ISA Browns, they're listed as dual purpose, but they aren't listed in the "Top 11 Dual Purpose Chickens" list I found. Although I'm not cruel hearted enough to enjoy killing a chicken I've raised, I will do what's necessary to put food on the table. Daughter is another matter altogether! She'd never!

I have four sex link chickens now (can't remember the name) that aren't ideal at all! I got them from the farmer's co-op here a couple of years ago, and their egg laying isn't all that great. They're laying nicely for now, but I get three larger eggs and one small one per day. They're due to stop laying within the next year, so I need these babies to replace them when they retire.

They are friendly, though, and follow me around like a puppy dog.

 

[StarChicken]

Afternoon, folks.

My 11 ISA Brown Mutts (3 roos and 8 pullets) are now approximately 10 to 11 weeks old, and their "grow-out" cage is getting rather small, to say the least!

I need to put them in a permanent home. I have an adequate size pen, but there are four one-year-old sex-links in there now.

I'm wondering if it'll be safe to put my "teenagers" in with them, since they will outnumber the older hens.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Have the hens seen them yet?

 

[StarChicken]

Have the hens seen them yet?

They have now!

Yesterday, my daughter and I created a partition for the "new kids on the block" in the adult chicken pen, then added the teenagers.

Of course, the hens were curious, and when one looked into the partition, the white cockerel fluffed his feathers out around his neck; guess he was telling her to back off.

So, after that was done, she went home and I was left to create a temporary roost for them to sleep on. I had to wade through teenage chicks every time I went into our out of their temporary door.

Of course, the inevitable happened; I left the door open a smidge and some of them snuck out! All heck broke loose and I had a red cockerel fighting with a red hen, and other fights developing around me. Talk about herding cats??? Herding chickens is much more complicated! But, I finally got them back in.

Fast forward to two finished perches and door closed. Two of the white pullets escaped over the top of the 3 ft. fence after the adult chickens had gone to bed. I decided to wait until they were all asleep to move them back to where they belong. Whew! Getting a sleeping chicken to move over on a perch is nigh to impossible! Several scratches on my arms, and they were finally all situated.

This morning, everyone is in their proper place; no more escapees. Maybe they learned their lesson. Hopefully, they won't escape again tonight after the big gals have gone to bed. We'll see . . . I may have to move sleeping chickens again tonight.

All in all, I'm thinking that after about a week, they should be acclimated to each other; if not, another week, but they're growing so fast, I don't think they can be confined much longer, although there's plenty of space for awhile yet.

Ain't chickens fun!?

 

[StarChicken]

On Friday, I took down the dividing fence between the teenage chickens and my adult hens. A tiny bit of chaos, but everyone settled in pretty quickly.

While rearranging their feed and water containers and working on the entry gate, I still had to wade through teenagers, but that's not a real problem any more. I've also had time to observe the interaction between teens and adults.

Those teenagers know how to get out of the way! The only real problem I see is that if the adult hens see a teen in an especially good spot, they'll take it away from them. Not nice, Lady Hen! Not nice at all!

I'm sure as they grow, the teens will stand up for themselves, and if they don't, there's plenty of room to get out of the way. The teens will even fly over the adults! So funny to see them do that.