ISA Brown

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Free range ISA Brown hens at CERES Community Environment Park.

The ISA Brown is a French breed of chicken, which is a cross between Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White chickens. The breed is known for its high egg production of approximately 300 eggs per hen in the first year.

These chickens are very good for first time, garden chicken owners as these chickens are good layers, less flighty and will be unable to escape with their wings clipped.

They are very light-bodied birds and therefore poor eating.

ISA stands for Institut de Sélection Animale, the company which developed the breed in 1978 for egg production as a battery hen. In 1997, the ISA Group merged with Merck & Co., forming Hubbard ISA, so the breed is sometimes called Hubbard Isa Brown. In 2005, Institut de Sélection Animale (ISA) and Hendrix Poultry Breeders (HPB) merged. Institut de Sélection Animale SAS, France (ISA SAS) is now an operational centre of Hendrix Genetics. In March 2005, Hubbard was purchased from Merial Ltd by Group Grimaud La Corbiere, SA.

ISA's are now considered by most fanciers a breed of chicken, not just a hybrid. Breeding isa X isa will produce isa chicks, just as rhode red X rhode white will. The isa X isa chicks lay more, for they are selected from the best layers.