# What kind of hens are these?



## Gin82 (Sep 21, 2013)

We just purchased these from a local person and don't know what kind they are. We're completely new at this and just got them for the eggs. Hope they're good laying hens. Any info would be helpful.


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## Courage (Sep 21, 2013)

Look like red stars to me - lucky for you, they are bred for egg production!


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## L0rZ (Mar 23, 2013)

Yup red star I've got 4 myself. Great girls! How many did you get?


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## Apyl (Jun 20, 2012)

Red sex links.


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## Gin82 (Sep 21, 2013)

We got 4 lighter colored ones and 4 darker ones but have now given the light colored ones to a friend. So we just have 4 hens like the dark red one in the picture and 1 rooster that is my profile pic. I Googled red sex links and it says they can lay 300 eggs or more per hen!!! That's a lot of eggs!!! Thank y'all for the info.


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## Courage (Sep 21, 2013)

Red stars, Rex sex links, whatever you call it, it's a crossbreed where the females hatch out one color, and the males hatch out another. There's also a Black Star/Sex Link.


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## Gin82 (Sep 21, 2013)

Yes that was what it was saying on the page I pulled up on Google. I think it's so neat how they can be cross bred and make all these neat hybrids. It said a golden comet is another hybrid besides the red/black stars. They're all mixtures of rhode island reds and other kinds. What I don't understand is why some of our's are light and some are dark but still the same kind. I'm thinking the darker ones must have more Rhode Island Red in them. I'm enjoying learning more about chickens and my husband is liking feeding and the cleaning up after them! Lol


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## Courage (Sep 21, 2013)

Once I get home and have more time, I'll give you tons of info on them if you want!


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

The darker hen is not a red sex link...it's not a clear pic of her standing up, but I'm thinking she may have some RIR in her...maybe what they call a production red~a hatchery's answer to RIRs. 200-280 per year on average, according to Cackle Hatchery site.


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## Gin82 (Sep 21, 2013)

Yes we definitely have one of those. It is a RIR that my husband got at a livestock auction in Eastanollee GA along with the mixed rooster. That's where he originally went when we decided we wanted chickens. He bought 4 young RIR hens and the rooster. It was a happy bunch until 3 of those hens turned out to be roosters as well. Lol. So that's what started all this mystery chicken business. We just had to settle for what we could find locally. It has been an ordeal but happy to have some and they're settling in just fine with the RIR hen and rooster we kept. We just want to learn all we can about them.
I can get better pics tomorrow evening and post.
Thanks for all the help!


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## Gin82 (Sep 21, 2013)

Hopefully these pics aren't too dark. It's cloudy here. See how much bigger the RIR is in the one pic? It may turn out to be a rooster too but think its a hen. And a video links.


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## Gin82 (Sep 21, 2013)

Since my last post we found out the Rhode Island Red we have is definitely a rooster. And the hens we have - still don't know what kind they are and they haven't layed a single egg. Could they be too young? How can we know their age?


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

The hens in the first pic of the post are not young, but older and look like they've quite a bit of rooster action, judging from the loss of feathers on the back and on the back of the head. 

I'd say you have some hens that are older and are in a slow down, they also look like red sex link girls, so they might have already hit their peak and are on the downhill side of their laying life.


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