I have in the past bought black austrolorps and rode island reds and I have both breeds now that I like although l like the black austrolorps better for laying now they are more dependable about laying now . Does any one recommend a breed of hen that lays really good ? I get all of my hens from TRC does any one know how to tell a female from a male ??????
If you are looking at pure numbers of eggs and want to cull your birds every couple of years, the commercial Red Sex Links for brown eggs and the White Leghorns for white eggs are probably going to be tops. Most farm/feeds stores that carry chicks will carry some sort of Red Sex Link, depending on the hatchery they will have different names, Red Star, Golden Comet, ISA Brown etc, and most also carry White Leghorns. The nice thing about commercial Red Sex Links is they can be sexed at hatch by their down color, the girls are a reddish color and the boys are yellow.. with the Leghorns they would have to be vent sexed at that age, with any luck they will get in pullets rather than straight run so they would already be sexed for you.
Im partial to my white leghorns. I get an egg a day from each of mine. One of them has also been laying a double yolker at least once a week. Nothing seems to phase them. They have laid all winter and even through an ice storm lol My Easter eggers do pretty good too. I get 5-7 eggs a week from each of them. They also come in some really cool color patterns.
My red sex links, white leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, and Barred Rocks are GREAT layers. I also have black sex links that are really good layers too.
