Red Stars-true breed?

[77horses]

Has anyone ever heard of a Red Star chicken??? Every time I see a picture of a hen that looks exactly like our Red Star hens, the person says they are "Sex Links". Are Red Stars even a true breed? No one ever says anything about them! I can't find many pics of them when I look them up on like Google, but they are at McMurray Hatchery.

So they do exist. I'm just wondering why people call them sex links.

are they an actual breed? They look similar to RIRs, but lighter.

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

Red Stars, Golden Comets, Sexlinks are all pretty much the same thing. They are a breed cross so that the color will show if they are male or female.

 

[77horses]

ohhh!
what do you mean by, "They are a breed cross so that the color will show if they are male or female"? does that mean that you can tell their gender by their color???

 

[speckledhen]

Like CEF said, they are a hybrid layer. Those names are just the trade names of the breed. You can breed your own and give it a name, too!
Yes, at hatch, the males and females are different enough to tell them apart easily.

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

Yes... A lighter will be a rooster and Darker a Female. When I got my sexlinks I got 1 roo out of 599 hens. The females are brown and He is more white than brown.

 

[77horses]

Here's our Red Star pullet, when she was younger. Now she is much older! (this pic is a little fuzzy, but it's the most recent one i have at the moment!)

and the one in the back ground(the really light one) is our Buff Orpington hen.(not a red star!)

 

[77horses]

Here's another picshe's a female right?) she's now about 20-24 weeks old(6-7 months) still not laying, but has no rooster characteristics, has a fairly small comb now, short. she has a red face and will be laying soon. She was pretty light as a baby, but turned out to be a hen.

 

[LilBizzy]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sex Links are cross-bred chickens whose color at hatching is differentiated by sex, thus making chick sexing an easier process. Sex Links come in many varieties, none of which are a true breed. As hybrids of laying or dual-purpose breeds infused with extra vigor via heterosis, Sex Links are extremely good egg layers which often produce 300 eggs a year or more.

The two most common varieties are the Black Sex Link (also called Black Stars) and the Red Sex Link (Also known as Golden Comet, Gold Star, and Cinnamon Queen). Blacks are a cross between a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire rooster and a Barred Rock hen. The opposite version is the Black Rock, which is a Barred Rock male crossed with a Rhode Island Red hen. Red Sex Links are a cross between a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire rooster and a White Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island White or Delaware hen. In Europe, the Cream Legbar and ISA Brown sex links also exist.

Here is mine

edited to show off my ladies

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Thanks for the info!!! That clears things up a bit I think.

So for our hens, we can tell their gender when they are babies by looking at the color??? SWEET! That's great!

So, if you mixed a red star hen with a RIR rooster, would that also be known as a "sex link" or red star?

 

[77horses]

and great looking hens, LilBizzy!

One of our hens is lighter colored, but definitely a hen....?

That doesn't really make sense.