ISA Brown Chicken

The ISA Brown is a hybrid chicken developed in France by the Institut de Sélection Animale. Hence, the acronym ISA. For over 40 years, these brown hens remained one of the top global egg layers.

That’s why many backyard chicken keepers have an ISA or two (and even more) in their flock. But not everyone can have pure parent stocks of ISA walking around their backyards. The ISA breeding formula is as guarded as the spice blend for the KFC Original Recipe chicken. But if people were to guess, a lot say they have some Rhode Island Red, White, and White Leghorns somewhere in their gene pool.

ISA chickens aren’t unique when it comes to appearance. These hybrids actually look very much like the other brown chicken breeds. And a lot of people mistake them for Comets, Rhode Island Reds, and Red Star Chickens.

The one thing you can get right with these birds is whether they’re hens or roosters. These hybrid chickens are also sex-linked. So as soon as they hatch, their fluff color tells you what sex they are.