Sex-Links = short life span

[terryg]

It sounds like your hens have a great life. BTW, the huge commercial egg facilities don't use white leghorns, or at least not what you find in the mail order hatcheries that we use. The corporations have developed their own production birds and the genetics are closely guarded. In the 1930s the White Leghorn was THE best layer, but those days are long past!

 

[Yukonn15]

My two Red Stars just died. One this morning and one about 10 days ago. I just wish I knew what went wrong . The first one didn't look too hot for about a day and a half then I found her dead in the coop. The other I had nursed back to health about 4 months ago from a fight with another flock member. She became so dear to me after that and started to act more like my dogs than a chicken. A few days ago I noticed her seeming weak and diarrhea . So I gave her everything I could and quarantined her. She was eating and this morning she was gone. They were 21/2 years. The rest of my flock are happy,healthy. Is it the Red Star breed? They were my best layers. Then in the past 3 months they just stopped. My Easter eggers and my Buff were still laying. Now last week when I lost my first Red Star they all stopped laying. Any insight? Thanks Jeanine

 

[Mrs. K]

2. 5 years almost exactly has been my experience. Where I live we have hard winters, and I do let mine free range with a great deal of predators, I have never had a bird of any breed live beyond 3.5 years. Maybe it is the winter, maybe it is the predators, maybe it is just hard luck.

However, my egg production birds, such as the sex links, when they get to the 2 year old mark, they look old, and by 2.5 I have lost them.

Mrs K

 

[Yukonn15]

Thanks Mrs. K,
That helps me understand a lot . Confirms what the others were saying too

 

[Traphill]

I had 3 Red Stars and they were as sweet as could be, I never put a light in the coop in the winter but at 3 years they just literally dropped dead within 3 weeks of each other. The rest of the flock are doing great. I really think that they are breed to wear themselves out. I enjoyed them but probably won't get them again.

 

[cute chicks here]

I have had red sex links and they all seemed to die around 3. They were pets and I was attached to them and felt so sad. I kept their coop clean, fed them good food, let them out to forage every day and made sure they were in at night. I will no longer get this breed because even though they layed eggs every day it was sad to loose them.

 

[Yukonn15]

No more Red Stars for me. It's too sad when you lose any animal but it was two within two weeks. Ouch.

 

[123RedBeard]

Like was said earlier ... Depends ALOT on what the parents were, to understand their health and age challenges ...

One thing about the sexlink's is the hatcheries don't need to hire people to vent sex the chicks ... The dark ones are female, throw the light/yellow fluff balls in the grinder for dog food ...

Thirty some years ago we had black sexlink's ... We kept them for two laying seasons ... So we got chicks every two years, and butchered the old hens every other fall ... They slowed down a bit the second year, but not too bad.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When you read this thread pay a lot of attention to what Fred said early on. There are two basic types of sex links you might get from a hatchery, the ones that are the commercial egg layers and the ones made from two specific breeds of dual purpose chickens.

Just like the broilers are highly specialized for meat, the commercial egg layers are highly specialized to produce a lot of eggs in a short time. They are not bred for longevity.

The ones made from dual purpose breeds are not as specialized. They will be like their parents. There is nothing about them being sex links that affects their longevity. Their parents affect that.

How you feed them does make a difference, especially the commercial sex links. They have fairly small bodies and produce fairly large eggs. This can be hard on their bodies and can lead to laying problems. Think of a woman giving natural birth to a ten pound baby on a regular schedule. That will be harder on her body than having a seven pound baby. The higher percent protein you feed them the larger the eggs. Don’t love them literally to death by feeding them a really high protein diet if you want longevity. Keep the protein level around 16% and you will still get lots of large eggs without making it even harder on them.

 

[Mssocks]

Hi, I also have red sex link hens that are soon 2.5 years old. Some are not laying at all, out of 9 hens we get 3-4 eggs a day on average. How long did your red sex link hens live? Ours have turned into pets, so I will be keeping them til they die of old age...just wandering how long that will be. Thanks!!