red star hen crossed with barred rock rooster

wullus

Chirping
7 Years
May 7, 2012
142
1
89
Queensland, Australia
Would this make a nice chick? Would it be likely to go broody then just a red star alone? (I know that with red star's hatchlings, they lose the super-laying gene)

Would it be a good mum?

Also, I saw our barred rock rooster mount a few of our hens today while free-ranging (we have five hens but only one lays eggs: what he did was jump on the back of the hen for like 5 seconds max, and jump off, to which the hen would shake her feathers and carry about pecking in the garden), does this mean that we are guaranteed to have fertilized eggs that I can incubate?
 
There are some variations, but a normal sequence when chickens mate is:

The rooster dances for the hen by lowering a wing and circling. This signals his intentions.

The hen squats. This spreads her out on the ground so the rooster's weight is spread out instead of all going through her legs.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. This head grab is her signal to raise her tail out of the way.

The rooster very quickly touches her vent with his and hops off. It can be over in an instant.

The hen stands up, fluffs up her feathers, and shakes. This gets his deposit in the right place to fertilize the eggs.

It does not always go exactly like this. The rooster does not always dance. Sometimes there is some chasing involved. But as long as the hen eventually squats and the rooster is not so rough he injures her, everything is as it should be.

From what you described, you should have fertile eggs. This thread shows you how you can crack and egg and look for the bull's eye. You can't hatch an egg that you have cracked, but if you find a bull's eye in the eggs you crack, the eggs you don't crack should also be fertile.

Fertile Egg Photos
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008&p=6

I don’t know the genetics of your red star hen. A red star could be a cross of many different breeds. Chickens inherit traits like going broody or laying lots of large eggs from their parents. The red star is a good layer because she inherited the genes to lay well from her parents. It has nothing to do with her being a sex link. You can make sex links from breeds that are lousy layers and the sex links will be lousy layers. Or you can cross good layers and get good layers. The sex links you get from hatcheries are almost always really good layers because their parents were good layers but that is not because they are sex links.

Where this gets more complicated is that some hatcheries' red stars are made by crossing two regular breeds, like Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire roosters over White Rock, Delaware, or Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. These are good layers because the flocks they come from are good layers. The hens are also a normal size because their parents were normal size. But some hatcheries sell commercial egg layers as red stars. These have been bred for many generations with very specific blood lines to produce commercial egg laying chickens that lay a lot of large eggs. These are usually smaller and often have leghorn blood in them. These are super laying chickens because of the very tightly controlled blood lines.

If you cross your red star with the barred rock rooster, you should get a chick with laying abilities somewhere between your red star and barred rock. That should give you a really good layer. If your red star was made by crossing two regular breeds, the offspring from her and the barred rock should lay about as well as she does. If your red star is actually a commercial egg laying chicken (which is a real possibility. I’m not sure what is available in Australia) then there will probably be a drop-off in egg laying ability, but they should still be good egg layers.

It’s the same thing about them going broody. Many chickens, especially from hatcheries and commercial production flocks, have had a lot of the broodiness bred out of them. That is especially true of the commercial laying breeds. Any hen can still go broody, but the odds of that happening are not real great with a lot of hatchery chickens. Some breeds have a better chance than others, especially the non-production breeds. I’d think that cross would not be very likely to go broody, but I really don’t know the background of the parents. I sure would not count on it. If you want a broody hen, you will have a lot better odds of getting one by getting a breed that is there for decoration, like silkies, cochin (you may call these peking), or maybe polish or Orpington. But don’t count on a production breed going broody.
 
Hi, thanks so much for your lengthly post! Yea, when I first introduced them in (some new additions to the existing flock a few weeks ago), he kept circling them to the side with his wing, and they ran away like they were about to get pecked. I thought it might have had something to do with mating but wasn't competely sure. Haha.

Today when I was watching them, and one of the hens just randomly sprinted back to the coop, and a few seconds later the rooster took off after it. I went down too and saw him jump on her back and do this little thingo, then they got off and ran back to the others.

And thanks for your help with the breeding and stuff. I'm hoping they sort of look like the barred rock more so than the red star, cos we have so many of the red ones it is not funny. but it's good to know that they will still be decent layers. thank you so much :)
 
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I have one chick hatched from my broody. It is a red star/barred rock cross like you're wondering about. The chick has a bright orange beak and legs, dark feathers and bars. It's only 4 weeks old, so I can't tell what it looks like it's a cross of, and I think it may be a roo. I think anything that has a barred roo over it will turn into a pretty chick.
 
A chick from a red star and a barred rock should look a whole lot like the barred rock. The barring is dominant, so it will be barred. The actual color depends a bit on the genetics, which can vary in the red star. You might get something in there that could affect it, but the black from the barred rock should also be dominant. I'd expect all the offspring to be black barred, but you might get a few red feathers showing up. If you red star has a white tail, the offspring might have a white tail.

It really depends on what genetics the red star contributes, but you should not get red chicks.

This rooster is not barred, but this is what I'm talking about on maybe getting some red feathers showing up. This leakage could be golden like this or maybe dark red, if it shows up at all.

 
I have one chick hatched from my broody. It is a red star/barred rock cross like you're wondering about. The chick has a bright orange beak and legs, dark feathers and bars. It's only 4 weeks old, so I can't tell what it looks like it's a cross of, and I think it may be a roo. I think anything that has a barred roo over it will turn into a pretty chick.
I was just wondering, do you have a picture of him? It would be awesome to see what he looks like :) thanks! :)

A chick from a red star and a barred rock should look a whole lot like the barred rock. The barring is dominant, so it will be barred. The actual color depends a bit on the genetics, which can vary in the red star. You might get something in there that could affect it, but the black from the barred rock should also be dominant. I'd expect all the offspring to be black barred, but you might get a few red feathers showing up. If you red star has a white tail, the offspring might have a white tail.
It really depends on what genetics the red star contributes, but you should not get red chicks.
This rooster is not barred, but this is what I'm talking about on maybe getting some red feathers showing up. This leakage could be golden like this or maybe dark red, if it shows up at all.
Ahhhhh okay, so a few might leak through. I'll see, I will definately post pictures of them once they're hatched. Tomorrow I'll post a photo of my hens and roo, and then I'll put up a pic once it's hatched. This will be my first time using an incubator though, so I'm best to collect the eggs from the red star, leave them for a few days, and then put them in the incubator after it has been turned on for a day or two? I'm still waiting for my incubator to arrive off ebay :)

Thanks so much again :)
 
Me again: one of my pullets has just laid her first egg! It is so tiny and small compared to the other hens, at least three quarters of it's size. Would it be safe to put in the incubator, or should the eggs all be around the same size? Thanks! :)

Here's a picture for comparison:


Obviously, the new pullet egg is the one second from left :) all the others are from the first hen we have, who's been laying for a few months.

Here's a picture of our first hen:


And the rooster:


As you can see our coop needs cleaning up a bit, which I will probably do today :)

Thanks!
 
Your coop looks fine to me.

There are things you should do and things you can do. They are not always the same.

You can incubate the little eggs. There is a fair chance they will hatch. You should wait a few weeks to incubate them for a few reasons. It sometimes takes a while for a pullet to get all the kinks worked out of its internal egg laying factory. It may take her a while to get everything right. There are a lot of things that have to be right for the egg to hatch. Still, most of them do get it right, so that is not a show-stopper.

Another thing is that the smaller egg does not contain as many nutrients as a bigger egg so the chick that hatches will be a little smaller than a chick from a larger egg. There are just niot enough nutrients in the egg for it to grow as big. That may make it a little less likely to live if it does hatch or maybe it will be small all its life and never get as big as a chick from a regular sized egg. I don't know it will never catch up for certain, it just might happen. I've seen people on this forum take both sides to that question.

The smaller eggs might hatch a little earlier in the incubator, but not earlier enough to be a problem.

I've hatched pullet eggs under a broody. The pullets were about 23 weeks old when I collected the eggs. I had about 80% hatch, which isn't too bad, but several died in the first 24 hours. That's unusual, but I don't know if it was because they were pullet eggs or if it had to do with something else. That was not a real bright broody in several ways. Those chicks were a little small and never really got that big. But they were raised in the fall. Maybe the forage was not as good then? I ate them before they totally matured so I can't say they would have ever caught up in size or not.

You can try to hatch the eggs. There is a reasonable chance they will be OK, but they are not as good as regular sized eggs.
 

Woah, Ridgerunner your picture looks just like the roosters I had! I named that breed the Firelights
smile.png

Now that I know what it is I can make more Firelights!
Yay! Thank-you
P.S.
Did you know that barred rock crossed with ameracauna
makes some pretty chickens? They have little barred beards
smile.png

You'll have little Firelight chicks!
 
I was just wondering, do you have a picture of him? It would be awesome to see what he looks like :) thanks! :)
Sorry, just saw this. My chick actually has turned out to be a pullet! She is barred, real similar to a pure barred rock pullet. Still the bright orange beak and legs, though. Pretty stocky, too, her legs are not as big as a meaty, but bigger than the BR's I had. I will take pics asap for you.
 

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