The ISA Brown is a

crossbreed A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to main ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

, with sex-linked coloration. It is thought to have been the result of a complex series of crosses including but not limited to

Rhode Island Red The Rhode Island Red is an American breed of domestic chicken. It is the state bird of Rhode Island. It was developed there and in Massachusetts in the late nineteenth century, by cross-breeding birds of Oriental origin such as the Malay with ...

s and Rhode Island Whites, and contains

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s from a wide range of breeds, the list of which is a closely guarded secret. It is known for its high egg production of approximately 300 eggs per hen in the first year of laying.

History

ISA stands for Institut de Sélection Animale, the company which developed the crossbreed in 1978 for egg production as a battery hen. In 1997, the ISA Group merged with Merck & Co., forming Hubbard ISA, so the variety is sometimes called Hubbard Isa Brown. In 2005, Institut de Sélection Animale (ISA) and Hendrix Poultry Breeders (HPB) merged in ISA B.V., which also became part of the multi-species breeding company,

Hendrix Genetics James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

. In March 2005, Hubbard was purchased from Merial Ltd by Group Grimaud La Corbiere, SA.

References

{{Commons category, ISA Brown Chicken crossbreeds

History

See also

References