What's the best Laying hybrid.. Isa browns?

[WalkingOnSunshine]

ok, thanks! I'll check theirs out for sure. Last spring I ordered 15 from efowl. They're great looking birds with good colored eggs, but only around half of them lay daily, even with added light. Also strombergs says that theirs are bred for laying abilities alone, instead of looks which is definatley what I'm looking for in that breed. I order all of my meat birds from strombergs and they've been great so far but do you have any opinions about either of those sites?

Sorry. I've had chicks from Mt. Healthy, MMM, and Meyer. I'm in Ohio, so I try to stay as close to my state as possible to lessen the stress of traveling. I think you just have to take your best guess and order some, and keep track of the laying rates of hens from different hatcheries. It's a multi-year process, unfortunately.

My project for this year is to breed some hens that lay lots of large blue and seafoam green eggs. I have some very good Leghorns (Ideal 236) and some Tetra Tints that lay very well, and I have a true Ameraucana rooster. I'll breed those hens to him, which should give me hens that lay blue and pale green eggs, assuming that the rooster is homozygous for the blue egg gene (he should be). Then I'll have to take a look at laying frequency and egg size, and decide whether to breed them back to a Leghorn rooster or whether I want to breed back to the Ameraucana rooster to strengthen the egg color. I'm looking forward to it--I think it will be fun. And I'm always able to sell off surplus chicks through Craigslist, so I can afford to play a bit and hatch far more than I'd need.

 

[reeds16]

That sounds really cool! I've never tried breeding my own chickens. I used to get pullets from craigslist but that didn't end up very well (my flock got infested with mites, lice and many diseases) so I started over and now I just order them from hatcheries. I'll try a couple of the ones you mentioned and see how they compare to the others I've used.

 

[normanack]

Most of my chickens -- including an ISA Brown -- are from Townline, which is pretty close and supplies our local feed store. As far as I know they're the only hatchery in the U.S. licensed to sell ISA Browns. All the chicks I got from them have been healthy and vigorous.

Like many hatcheries, they mislabel their Easter Eggers as Araucanas. If you're looking for real Araucanas or Ameraucanas, I'd recommend finding a good private breeder.

x2 on going with a hatchery close to you.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Did you notice that Townline has brought in another commercial layer from ISA?

 

[reeds16]

Yes, I'm planning on getting my Isa's from Townline and for the Easter Eggers/ Ameraucanas/ Araucanas I just want whatever lays the most. It doesn't really matter to me if they're completely real. Whats the other commercial layer from Isa that townline got?

 

[Fred's Hens]

From ISA's sister division the DeKalb Amber Link

 

[normanack]

Did you notice that Townline has brought in another commercial layer from ISA?

Nope -- serves me right for not checking their website before posting. D'oh!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Yes, I'm planning on getting my Isa's from Townline and for the Easter Eggers/ Ameraucanas/ Araucanas I just want whatever lays the most. It doesn't really matter to me if they're completely real. Whats the other commercial layer from Isa that townline got?

If you get some EEs from Stromberg, let me know how they lay. I find such a difference between Meyer and MMM, I'd be very interested to find out how another hatchery's birds lay. I am trying more and more to keep a closed flock and not order chicks, so I'm not sure that I'd ever want to order any for myself--unless I knew in advance that they lay even better than the ones from MMM!

 

[reeds16]

yeah, I'll let you know how well they lay if I order them from strombergs

 

[Mitsos Lamprogiorgos]

Don't try even to think to compare the THRYLL called hy-line brown to other hybrids that lay brown eggs.