Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

If anyone out there has ever had Black Sex Link hens from Frey's, would you be able to say how long (in years) your hens were productive layers?
Thanks.

I had 3 BSls. One died at 3 from a prolapse but was still a good layer 3/4 week. Nearly was 5 when killed and still laying 3 a week. Loved these birds.

Thanks Killerbunny. Our BSL's are lovely little chickies that lay large eggs.

That should read 2. Great predators also and very "sensible" birds.

My BSL, Twyla, will be 7 this spring, and has only just retired from laying this past fall. Every other year she's laid 5-6 eggs a week, and 3 a week through the winter. She is one of my friendliest girls, a gentle leader (she's head hen) and she's quite savvy, as chickens go. I'm very fond of her.

Because we also have some red hens that are the dual purpose birds from Frey's, and were supposed to be our meat birds, I can compare them.
BSL - good natured; easy to pick up with submissive posturing; smallish; lay large eggs; took a long time to learn to get all the way into the coop at night so the door could be closed.
"RSL" dual purpose - larger bird; smaller eggs for a long time; very curious and "nosey"; develop bad habits - egg eating, feather eating, feather plucking and eating; no submissive posturing to pick them up.
That's my experience so far, since we have had chickens since June 2016.

I only had one BSL from Frey's that came with my original day olds 5 years ago. She was an awesome friendly laid back hen. Also my only hen that laid double yolkers about 4-5 times a month. I found her dead in the nesting box one morning when she was about 3 years old. No stuck egg so I assumed heart.
My brother has barred rocks and BSLs all from Frey's and he claims the BSLs are no where near as smart, eat eggs and overall are not as Hardy as the barred rocks. Guess he got a bad batch!

I found the couple of reds I had to be VERY aggressive, they went away!

I have 5 BSLs from Freys..got them as day olds last June...they are laying well,,,find them to be a tad more skittish than the RIRs i got at the same time but nice birds...guess i will find out how long the laying life is in due course...all i need to do is keep Otis in chk...the dummy...

Happy wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:16 pm

I only had one BSL from Frey's that came with my original day olds 5 years ago. She was an awesome friendly laid back hen. Also my only hen that laid double yolkers about 4-5 times a month. I found her dead in the nesting box one morning when she was about 3 years old. No stuck egg so I assumed heart.
My brother has barred rocks and BSLs all from Frey's and he claims the BSLs are no where near as smart, eat eggs and overall are not as Hardy as the barred rocks. Guess he got a bad batch!

Now that I've had the BSL's for a while, they do eat the occasional egg, usually if it is thin shelled or soft. They are excellent foragers, lay double yokers sometimes, and agree - they are not very smart. And our red Freys' dual purpose hens taught them to be more skiddish and not submissive. We keep them separated now, partly because the rooster that came with them (the good looking fellow in my avatar) is too large for the little black hens.
With the BSL's, we now have some RSL's because Freys had no barred rocks left. When we have space for more hens, I plan to get some barred rocks.