Australorp or Jersey Giant?

[CarpCharacin]

I entered all 7 of my chickens into the state fair. I picked them up last night because yesterday was the last day of the fair. I have 2 chickens that I got when they were little and the hatchery claimed they were jersey giants. They wrote australorp on the cards at the fair even though I entered them as jersey giants. Their toes are mostly light grey, but it has a little yellow in the center. Don't jerseys get bigger than australorps? I hope they are jerseys. Are they jerseys or australorps?

 

[Isaac 0]

Australorps have white feet while jersey giants have yellow

 

[Pyxis]

If you got them from a hatchery they're likely not really representative of either breed. Hatcheries don't breed to the standard. They're just rough likenesses of the breed they are supposed to be. There is a way you're supposed to be able to tell them apart by foot color, but I'm not sure which one is supposed to hatch which color since I don't keep them so I'll leave it to someone else to tell you.

 

[junebuggena]

You have to look on the bottoms of the feed to see the skin color. Australorps have white skin. Jersey Giants have yellow skin.

 

[CarpCharacin]

Here are photos of both of their feet.

 

[junebuggena]

Australorps. The judges had it right. And hatchery sourced Giants do not get very large at all.

 

[CarpCharacin]

They just called it a hatchery. We got them from this person who hatched the and kept them in a shed and they were the only place that had jerseys in the area at the time. How big will they get? One got a first place blue ribbon and the other slightly smaller one got a second place red ribbon.

 

[junebuggena]

The get about 5 pounds if female, and approximately 8 pounds if male. Which is, ironically, the same size as hatchery sourced Jersey Giants. Your birds are likely bred from hatchery stock.

 

[CarpCharacin]

Are you sure they are australorps? Why don't the hatchery jerseys get big?

 

[CarpCharacin]

They said they were jerseys. Why are they australorps?