I have a flock of "Red Stars" that I got from the local feed store, so other than "generic red hen that lays brown eggs" I don't really know what they are. Some mix of something. Whatever it is, they are very prolific layers - I get an egg a day almost every single day from every one of them, even in the middle of winter. More recently I went looking for a rooster. I found a local guy that raises pure bred Barred Rocks and had a surplus of Roos. He gave me a nice one for free and told me to come back any time if I needed another. So now I'm incubating eggs that will be 50% Red Star and 50% Barred Rock. I plan on selling the chicks on Craigslist as barnyard mixes and whatever doesn't sell by the time it grows up will be meat chickens. But this got me thinking. Eventually I will probably keep some of these birds for my next generation of layers. And eventually I will get a new Roo - probably a purebred Barred Rock from the same guy. Then the eggs I hatch will be 75% Barred Rock, and 25% something else. Rinse. Repeat. At what point do they stop being barnyard mixes and just become Barred Rocks? Fourth generation? Fifth? Never? I don't mean show quality purebred, but just for the purposes of person to person sale. When I'm talking to someone about what they are it's easy to say half Red Star, half Barred Rock. It's a little cumbersome to say 75% Barred Rock, 25% other. It starts to sound ridiculous when you get to 87.5/12.5 and spirals downward from there. At what point can I just say they are Barred Rocks without being deceptive? Of course this is all just speculation. I'm incubating my first generation right now, so who knows what will happen between now and gen4.
Not quite what you're asking, but Red Stars are not a barnyard mix...they are a very specific sex-link hybrid bred for home layers. A quick google will get you information on the founndation breeds, production, broodiness (or rather lack therof) etc
Yeah, I get that. But even though they are specific hybrids I still don't know what's in them. My understanding is that Red Stars are a mix between an RIR rooster and one of three or four different possible hens so the Red Star designation doesn't really tell me what's in them breed wise. By barnyard mix I was referring to the RSxBR offspring that I am currently incubating. Not the current hens or rooster.
Mixes quit being mixes when the parents look and act like one another, and when they reproduce their offspring looks, produces, and acts like the parents. When mix becomes breed. In one sentence when they breed true.
When they breed true. If your red stars are red sex links, the following thread should give you an idea what you're looking at chick-wise https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/847050/what-do-barred-rock-isa-brown-mixes-look-like I'd think getting to a consistent barred bird would happen in just a generation or two, if the rooster you start with is pure barred. Put the barred pullets back under him and you'll have a bird that is for backyard purposes a barred rock.
