I've read that Golden Comets have a relatively short lifespan - is this true of all sex-links or is there one that lives longer..

[Parront]

They tend to have bigger bodies and may lay more medium eggs instead of the larger eggs, though some do lay larger eggs.

I would second this. The "Brown" sex-link from Ideal I have does not lay my largest egg. But, it is a very nice dark brown color egg. I would get more like her, the hatchery changed the name to "Brown Star" this year. Same bird, same picture.
Lots of marketing out there.

 

[Parront]

If you cross a black or brown male to Barred Holland females, you will get sexlinks. I had a sexlink girl is a Wheaten Ameraucana X California Grey. She is a wonderful layer of blue eggs and super kid friendly. She followed my toddler everywhere and let him pet her. Unfortunately, we had to give her away due to moving, but she is still laying good now at 5 year old.

The Barred Hollands are a very calm bird that is more like a Rock in the flock than a Leghorn. Your cross for blue eggs would probably be better for pets! Leghorns lay like a crazy, though. Too nervous for some new keepers.

 

[theoldchick]

The oldest Golden Comet I've seen was 7 years old according to the owner. She came into the veterinary clinic due to a dog attack. She was rather shocky so she was placed into a warmed oxygen cage where she perked up in an hour. Once stable, her wounds were cleaned and flushed and then she was returned the oxygen cage. She was sent home at the end of the day with antibiotics and pain medication. She was feisty at her one week check-up and doing extremely well a month later. I don't know how long she lived but a 7 year old hen surviving a dog attack is purty darned good!

 

[TillyPeeps]

The Barred Hollands are a very calm bird that is more like a Rock in the flock than a Leghorn. Your cross for blue eggs would probably be better for pets! Leghorns lay like a crazy, though. Too nervous for some new keepers.

I know. I was originally interested in an Ameraucana X Barred Holland as a pet, but the breeder switched to California Grey for higher production. She still turned to be a very lovely bird though.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

"You get what everyone gets. You get a lifetime."

In the case of the commercial egg layers from the big breeders, that usually means you received a relatively small body weight bird which reaches sexual maturity early (16-18 weeks avg to start of lay) which regularly produces a large number of eggs (5+/wk, 280-320 yr, seasonally varied) which are quite large relative to body size. Oh, and with good feed efficiency - not into mass on the bird, but rather mass in the near daily eggs.

That's hard on a critter. Very hard on a critter.

and as @Ridgerunner so thoroughly answered above (Informative post!), the initial stock has been selected to pump out more chicks, no efforts have been made to ensure longevity.

While individual birds vary, and all the trade names out there make it a game of speculations to identify parent stock, the typical expectation is a relatively small bird of relatively short lifespan, whose egg laying generally falls off pretty fast in year 2 or 3. Since they are used commercially for egg laying, and then become dog food (or similar) when productivity drops, and are easily replaced, that constellation of traits suits business needs quite nicely.

If those also suit your needs, its a good choice of bird. If it doesn't - or traits other than egg laying are more important (say, this is intended as a family pet...), look elsewhere.

 

[Eggalatarian]

In addition to my Easter Eggers (rooster and two hens) I have four Golden Comets (picked them because I needed 100 percent accurate to be a hen). For me, my chickens are all more like pets and the eggs are nice, but mainly I like them as pets (albeit a unique one <G>)>.

In previous posts you've likely seen that I've lost each of the three original EE's that I had, the most recent death was Mrs Pennyfeather, who died just one month short of being 11 years old.

So, understandably I was more than a bit dismayed by reading that Golden Comets live 3 to 5 years. Anybody out there have some GCs that lived a relatively longer life?

Are there any of the sex-links that have a muh longer lifespan, as compared to the Golden Comets. Again, I mainly like the nearly 100 percent accuracy of the gender predictions with GC's

Here's to hoping that my GC hens all outlive the lifespan estimates. I must say, after only having Easter Eggers (both currently and in the past) that these Golden Comets are VERY tame and kind of like little dogs in chicken suits. They are just very friendly and will perch on my legs when I'm outside sitting with them.

I purchased 2 Golden comets with other breeds and 1 is still alive at 10 yrs old and her sis died last year of a hawk attack. Both the sweetest, healthiest girls - I was sad after I purchased to read this info but has not been true for Gracie and Eleanor! They get a very healthy lifestyle- with that said I will stick to heritage girls so as not to promote unhealthy breeding outcomes.

 

[Mrs. K]

Which really proves Stormcrow's point, you have them for a life time, no sense in worrying about how long that time period is.