Red Hens - What are they?

[unionwirewoman]

Interesting ..... I have been a little confused on this for awhile . I do know that's what the feed store here was selling thm as though . They take about amonth or so longer to reach "maturity" than the cornish x's I had , And were still about 1-2 lbs lighter than them . I am going to try and "age "them a day or two longer than I did last year though . They were a little rubbery the way we did it (my fiance's mom has done it for god knows how long )

 

[silkiechicken]

Hmmm... I wonder if they were mislabeled then? I would imagine a meat bird to be much heftier. So if a cornish x is dressed at about 5-6 lbs at 8 weeks, then these guys were about 4 or so lbs at 12 weeks? If so, that would be more than a layer breed.

 

[ole-crone]

I dealt with this same problem today!

I have some started pullets to sell and I can't figure out what they are. I bought them last August from Murray McMurray - their Brown Egg Layer Assortment. There were a lot of red hens in the mix but they appear to be at least two different breeds. I assume that since the Red Stars are supposed to have more white color in their background that they are either RIR or NH. NH are supposedly lighter but more evenly colored than RIR - that fit. Some of them are a lighter more even red and the other is darker but spotchy.

I'm so confused! I finally told the person interested in them that he could choose what he wanted them to be because I can't figure it out. I thought I had it worked out when I was given a small flock of Red Stars - they were red with some white feathers here and there. Then they came out of their molt and started looking more like my RIR/NHs.

AURGGGGGGH!

 

[silkiechicken]

Good ol red stars, gold sexlinks, cinnamon queens and production reds. All reddish and can fool the eye when it comes to trying to categorize them. Maybe a new title would be "Red layers: A red chicken that lays brown eggs. Has many possible brown laying ancestors. "

 

[chickenranchwife]

I say production reds, as I have some of them that look like that.

 

[Pinsprings]

This is so funny, because the guy that I got them off of called them "red hens", they do lay dark brown eggs, he sold me 8 hens, 5 barred rocks and 3 of these, because he was getting too many eggs and was tired of trying to sell them.

 

[Buster]

My vote is NHR- the ones in the pics look like mine.

 

[ibpboo]

Well, I thought I hadn't seen a NH before, but with thsi question I decided to look it up. NH are derived from RIR! Oh my gosh, so much to learn about breeds. How would you know if it is a NH or RIR. Have to really study. Now I wonder what my RIR's are. Wikipedia definitions are making me lean mine are more RIR, mine never go broody and they are good pets, orangey-red eyes. Boy, the more you learn, the less you know!

 

[McGoo]

How do you (are you) treat scaly leg mites?

 

[mom'sfolly]

They look like my RSL. My RIR is darker even though she is a hatchery bird.