Opinions wanted - Golden Comet hens

[Stephen518]

My daughter just got 1/2 dozen Comets. Their statistics look good on paper. Does anyone out there have some and if so, how would you rate the hens. I am interested mostly in egg laying but I would like any general information also. Are there anythings about them that needs to be known that is not published, etc.?

Thank you, Stephen

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Lots of us have them, you can also do a search under cinnamon queen, red sex link, red star... those are some of the names it goes by.

Mine are very friendly and curious, lay well and require a lot of calcium since they lay so often otherwise their shells get weak quickly. They are one of the few chickens in my flock that do not go broody (thankfully). The only "bad" thing is that because they're a hybrid if you incubate their eggs you won't get a golden comet/red sex link chicken back.

 

[rarely bored]

My red sex links are awesome layers, but, in my free range set up, they prefer to hide their eggs. One of them is horrid. She will hide them, and when I finally figure out where she is hiding them, she will find a new place to lay.

If I didn't get a kick out of her personality, she'd be gone.

 

[BusyBlonde]

We had them for our "starter" flock. The egg production is incredible for the first year - almost an egg a day - a VERY large egg - from each hen. They are fairly docile birds, although we got ours from a poultry farm and they were not used to people, they became very friendly to us with the help of treats.

The downside to us was after the first year, egg production was dramatically reduced. By the end of the second year, we were lucky to get 1 egg from 8 hens per day (not molting - just not producing). We have since gone to Barred Rocks, which may not lay quite as large an egg or quite as prolifically, but should lay longer. We also have roosters, so we can breed our own chicks. The comets will not breed true, as they are a cross breed.

 

[LT]

We have two Golden Comets in our flock of 9. Our first layer was a Golden Comet at 18 1/2 weeks, and she has laid basically every day since then. The other one started at 24 weeks and has been equally reliable. They are two of my friendliest, so I am very happy with them, but these are also my first chickens, so I think they are all amazing!!!!

 

[MommyMagpie]

We have four; two are older (about 2 years old) and one is no longer laying at all. The other older one lays 2 - 3 huge eggs per week. They were given to us as laying pullets and the first year they both laid every day like clockwork. The younger two are about 6 months old and have been laying for a month or so, the eggs are already the size of store large eggs.

Their personalities are great - very friendly and tolerant of handling, love treats, not overly noisy, eggs are laid in the nest box. But because of their relatively short productive life, we've decided to have a max of two of these girls in future and the rest of the flock will be heritage breeds.

 

[Fred's Hens]

There are dozens of strains of sex-links. The "recipe" used in making them is held very tightly by the genetics companies which supply the hatcheries with the parent stock. Look here: http://www.isapoultry.com/en/Products/ISA.aspx

Note the "products" offered by ISA, Shaver, Bovan, Hendrix, HiSex, DeKalb who are all part of a poultry genetics conglomerate, producing hatching eggs and parent stock for the World Wide commercial poultry industry. These companies produce a dozen "models" of these top laying hybrid birds, and they get sold, through the hatcheries with a variety of cute name.

Thus, it is very hard to generalize about all the strains. What is known for sure? You have a terrific layer that will not breed true, as they are a "one time nick", a hybrid. They often have nice personalities, because they are bred for confinement and close quarters. Typically tight feathered, smallish bodied birds with great feed conversion.

I always keep a bunch in my flock for their consistent, large egg production. I've have both the ISA Brown model and the Bovan Brown models.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do you happen to know where your daughter got the hens? Some hatcheries will sell the commercial chickens Fred is talking about, but some do not use those but instead cross regular breeds to get their sex links. These are much more likely to lay like regular hatchery chickens instead of burning out like the commercial hens that have been specifically bred to lay large eggs very regularly for a fairly short life.

It is indeed hard to generalize, but if we know which hatchery they came from, you can possibly get some fairly specific imformation.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Fred's Hens :

There are dozens of strains of sex-links. The "recipe" used in making them is held very tightly by the genetics companies which supply the hatcheries with the parent stock. Look here: http://www.isapoultry.com/en/Products/ISA.aspx

Note the "products" offered by ISA, Shaver, Bovan, Hendrix, HiSex, DeKalb who are all part of a poultry genetics conglomerate, producing hatching eggs and parent stock for the World Wide commercial poultry industry. These companies produce a dozen "models" of these top laying hybrid birds, and they get sold, through the hatcheries with a variety of cute name.

Thus, it is very hard to generalize about all the strains. What is known for sure? You have a terrific layer that will not breed true, as they are a "one time nick", a hybrid. They often have nice personalities, because they are bred for confinement and close quarters. Typically tight feathered, smallish bodied birds with great feed conversion.

I always keep a bunch in my flock for their consistent, large egg production. I've have both the ISA Brown model and the Bovan Brown models.

Since you keep a bunch for layers...but they don't continue being good layers long term....do you cull/eat and then get new chicks yearly? Or have you found a mixed breed that gives you similar results that you can breed yourself/?​

 

[Fred's Hens]

I essentially have begun to keep two flocks. One is made up of hens that please me. Barred Rocks, RIRs, etc. These we are in the beginnings of up-breeding. We also have Black Australorps and Speckled Sussex. A couple of brothers in KY keep our breeding flocks and we do our breeding there. Twice or three times a year, we take birds back and forth. Yes, we have also bred some of the sex links and I have some 2nd generations here now to judge their productivity. They are coming into lay now, so I'll let you know.

But my wife has a small egg business here with good customers. The ISAs and Bovans keep that going on a consistent basis. You just cannot beat a gold sex link or red sex link for consistent large egg production. We have some ISAs that are now in their second laying season and still going very strong.

Don't want to get too far afield from the OP's questions about her gold sex links.