Production hen vs. Ameracana

[lbwaddle]

Thank you all for responding. I have one small Wyndotte that seems to be a little pushy, we say she has little hen syndrome. None of them fight each other and do not like to be separated. They were 5 months this month so I think I need to give her a couple more months (if they usually lay at 6 or 7 months). Will let you know, thanks again.

 

[lbwaddle]

To my surprise when I came home today and checked the coop I found a brown egg! She did it:yiipchick

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Brown as well as white eggs are readily available at most supermarkets. Aldi is the only chain that I am currently aware of that only stocks white shelled eggs. If you buy brown shelled eggs from

anywhere then you must pay about 50 to one dollar more per dozen for the privilege of eating the same egg out of a different colored shell.

Just how many eggs do the Red Star hybrids lay per year?

A good leghorn hen will lay between 300-340 eggs per year. We had one back in the early sixties who laid 365. She went back to the hatchery from wince she came.

Leghorns also produce eggs that are just as big, just as tasty and just as wholesome as the hybrid hens your speaking of lay, but leghorns lay these eggs on about 10% to 15% less feed. With my automotive background that makes the Red Hybrid birds look like gas-guzzlers instead of hybrids.

.

The selling point to Red Star hybrids is that no highly paid chick sexing experts are employed at the hatcheries if they only hatch sex-linked hybrids.

The only negative thing most posters mentioned about the Leghorn is that they don't like us humans running them down to smooch them. Chasing a laying hen down sounds to me like a good

way to cause egg peritonitis, blood spots in the eggs, or eggs with checked shells, it also won't sweeten the personality of any roosters that you own. If you positively, absolutely, must pet a

reluctant hen, go to her roost after dark and catch her but only after she is gently awoke. You also don't want her to suddenly wake up and think that she is in the grasp of an owl or raccoon do

you?

 

[Naser]

You are probably right. I have 7 leghorns 2 laying and 5 growers. the 2 laying are laying better than the brown hybrids and they don't eat as much, only recently we can get white leghorns in Ireland.
I read that leghorns are very flighty so I bought 7 and a leghorn rooster, when I work in the garden I don't want chooks disturbing me. man now I have to bribe the leghorns before they let me alone, or they roost on the wheelbarrow waiting for treats.
They call them here the white star They say it is inbreed variety of white leghorns

 

[dheltzel]

RLRs are or at one time were considered a dual purpose breed. Dual purpose chickens are neither a good laying breed or a good broiler breed of chicken so they should start laying in their own good time and not on a humans' time table. That is why brown eggs must sell at a premium to eggs with a white shell.

Brown eggshell laying hens usually lay fewer eggs than white eggshell laying hens produce in an equal time. Since time is money, brown eggs are more expensive by the dozen because of the extra time needed to lay a dozen brown eggs verses the time needed by white eggshell producing hens to lay a dozen white shelled eggs.

Brown egg color does not mean poor laying ability. It would be trivial to breed the brown color into a strain of production leghorns and get the same high production, just brown eggs. Industry convention is the main reason that is not done.

You are correct that "heritage" or show quality strains of RIR are generally less productive, but the "production reds" sold by hatcheries tend to be as productive as their sex-links or barred rocks. There might be slight variations they could tease out at the quantities that commercial farmers produce, but you would never find them ordering from the hatcheries we do anyway, they almost always keep Hyline leghorns (a hybrid of 2 strains of white leghorns that use sex-linked traits for feather sexing the chicks) or ISA browns, a proprietary sex-link that produces brown eggs at almost the rate of the Hylines, but is a larger bird that needs more space.

I think the commercial producers do mostly white eggs to perpetuate the idea that the brown eggs are worth more. That way they can sell both into a segmented market. If most of the eggs were brown, you'd have the situation reversed (as it has been in the past), where white eggs sell at a premium. That was a market that Barred Hollands were created to address, and when the market flip-flopped to all white eggs, they went out of favor and are now critically endangered as a breed.

 

[ThePRfan]

Brown egg color does not mean poor laying ability. It would be trivial to breed the brown color into a strain of production leghorns and get the same high production, just brown eggs. Industry convention is the main reason that is not done.

You are correct that "heritage" or show quality strains of RIR are generally less productive, but the "production reds" sold by hatcheries tend to be as productive as their sex-links or barred rocks. There might be slight variations they could tease out at the quantities that commercial farmers produce, but you would never find them ordering from the hatcheries we do anyway, they almost always keep Hyline leghorns (a hybrid of 2 strains of white leghorns that use sex-linked traits for feather sexing the chicks) or ISA browns, a proprietary sex-link that produces brown eggs at almost the rate of the Hylines, but is a larger bird that needs more space.

I think the commercial producers do mostly white eggs to perpetuate the idea that the brown eggs are worth more. That way they can sell both into a segmented market. If most of the eggs were brown, you'd have the situation reversed (as it has been in the past), where white eggs sell at a premium. That was a market that Barred Hollands were created to address, and when the market flip-flopped to all white eggs, they went out of favor and are now critically endangered as a breed.

My red sexlink is as good as my Production.I guess we'd all be pretty mad if we didn't get want we came for.I got sex links,heritage RIR,from a PR tub.
If you would like a Production hen,just breed a NHR and RIR mixed.I plan on getting a incubator,and hatching at least 5 RIR's and 1 NH roo,if it doesn't work out i'll keep trying and update you on if I got any PR's.
Just about any brown egg colored hen does a great job,same with the white heritage.Like Tetra tints(RIR Leghorn mixed.)They lay excellent.I believe the Red heritage does better then the white.

 

[ThePRfan]

Brown as well as white eggs are readily available at most supermarkets. Aldi is the only chain that I am currently aware of that only stocks white shelled eggs. If you buy brown shelled eggs from

anywhere then you must pay about 50 to one dollar more per dozen for the privilege of eating the same egg out of a different colored shell.

Just how many eggs do the Red Star hybrids lay per year?

A good leghorn hen will lay between 300-340 eggs per year. We had one back in the early sixties who laid 365. She went back to the hatchery from wince she came.

Leghorns also produce eggs that are just as big, just as tasty and just as wholesome as the hybrid hens your speaking of lay, but leghorns lay these eggs on about 10% to 15% less feed. With my automotive background that makes the Red Hybrid birds look like gas-guzzlers instead of hybrids.

.

The selling point to Red Star hybrids is that no highly paid chick sexing experts are employed at the hatcheries if they only hatch sex-linked hybrids.

The only negative thing most posters mentioned about the Leghorn is that they don't like us humans running them down to smooch them. Chasing a laying hen down sounds to me like a good

way to cause egg peritonitis, blood spots in the eggs, or eggs with checked shells, it also won't sweeten the personality of any roosters that you own. If you positively, absolutely, must pet a

reluctant hen, go to her roost after dark and catch her but only after she is gently awoke. You also don't want her to suddenly wake up and think that she is in the grasp of an owl or raccoon do

you?

Red stars and Red sexlinks are the same thing.So really just find a calculation on the sexlink,and its the same for red star.