New with chicks!

[tiffanyhurd]

We have had our chicks two weeks on Sunday! They are Golden Stars and almost a month old, I have not seen anything written about them. We were told they are great layers. Any other information on them would be appreciated. In a couple of weeks we are going to be getting two Ameracaunas, who are about 4 months old. Will be able to eventually put them together or should we keep them in their own space?

 

[chi-rn]

I have Golden Comets, which are really the same thing. These are hybrid chickens.... bred from two pure-bred chickens. They are sex-linked... meaning, one of the advantages is from hatch, hens and roosters are different colors. They are prolific layers of large brown eggs. And, they start laying earlier than most hens... somewhere around 17-18 weeks. They do not go broody... and you really shouldn't try to hatch their eggs, since the result will not be Golden Stars.. but, rather some combination of the genes of the 2 original parents that cannot be anticipated. They are not meat birds at all... never really get heavy enough for that... all their energy goes to egg laying. They are sweet girls... I absolutely love mine. You can see 'em on my "BYC Page".

 

[benjoycei]

Hi from NC

 

[Darklingstorm]

Stars are "sex link" chickens, meaning they're bred specifically so that males and females are different colors when they hatch. Females are egg-laying machines that continue to lay well in the heat and cold, when many others slow down. The males are said to be good "fryers". Stars are not recognized by the American Poultry Association and are just one of many hybrid sex-link crosses available on the market today.

Red Sex-Links are the result of various crosses. White Rocks with the silver factor (the dominant white gene would produce all white offspring) are crossed with a New Hampshire male to produce the Golden Comet. Silver Laced Wyandotte crossed with New Hampshire gives the Cinnamon Queen. Two other crosses are obtained with Rhode Island White x Rhode Island Red, and Delaware x Production Red. These two crosses are simply called Red Sex-Links. Males hatch out white and, depending on the cross, feather out to pure white or with some black feathering. Females hatch out buff or red also depending on cross, and they feather out in one of three ways.

1. Buff with white or tinted undercolor (such as Golden Comet, Rhode Island Red x Rhode Island White)
2. Red with White or tinted undercolor (Cinnamon Queen)
3. Red with Red undercolor (Delaware x Production Red) (In this color pattern it is almost impossible to distinguish daughters' color from father's color.)

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I have discovered in my researching that "sex link" chickens are called by different names, so finding information about one particular kind is hard unless you know for sure who (what) the Mom & Dad are. I've also learned that sex link chickens do not breed true when breed. So if you are wanting to continue the breed you will have to find out the combination (as mentioned above) and breed from them.

As for your second question, it is recommended that you quarantine all new arrivals for a couple of months (except day old chicks) before introducing them to the other chickens. It is also recommended that the two different group be as close as possible in age or wait till the youngest ones are fully feathered and big enough to "run" or defend themselves. I have personally introduced new chickens that are a month apart in age, but I waited till the second group was fully feathered and I had them in a separate run for several weeks so that the older ones could see and "talk" to the younger ones but not able to get to them. They are all one flock now and doing just fine.

 

[cmom]

I breed breeds for sex links. I Currently breed to produce Red Star Sex Links and Rhode Island Reds. I am going to start breeding Rose Comb Rhode Island Whites later this year. I have bred Delaware females and Rhode Island White females with Rhode Island Red males which produces a Red Sex Link which are excellent layers of large brown eggs. I started out with Rhode Island Reds.

I would quarantine the new birds for at least a month to be safe so you don't inadvertently introduce any health issues that the new birds could have that you may not be aware of. To integrate my younger birds with my older birds, I fixed up a cage with some wire where my younger birds could escape from my older ones. They figured it out pretty quick that they could go into the cage and the older birds couldn't. The younger ones would come out but when the older birds went after them they escaped into their cage. I did put food and water in the cage. Slowly the younger birds came out more and the older birds didn't chase and pick on them as much. Now they are all living in harmony.

 

[swmalone]

I have a black sex link and she started laying a couple weeks ago at 16 weeks of age. She has been great I have been getting 5-6 eggs a week for the last couple of weeks, the only problem is that she seems to be my cleverest chicken because she has figured out a way to break out of the make-shift run extension that I add onto the chicken ark. When I find her out she promptly runs up to me, squats, and lets me put her back in the run. Then an hour later she breaks out again.

I hope you enjoy your chickens.