Australorp/free range/flying ability?

My Australorp, Blackberry, will fly across the yard to the compost pile when she first gets out for her supervised free ranging. She can get up about 3-4 feet high and fly about 20-30 feet. She's only 21 weeks so she may be lighter than an older hen and thus able to get airborne easier.

I've never seen my Black Australop "Black Girl" (not very original I know) fly. She will beat the Sumatra Roosters to near death or death I assume. She can more than handle herself. I once had to seperate her and Sammy, the head Roo, a Sumatra. She had him pinned to the ground and in what I think was a death grip. The Roo's no longer go near her. She is Queen of the girls.....

I have 2 Australorp hens, almost a year old, and they are my dear favorites. I would be sick if something happened to them. They are so friendly, and curious, they garden with me, they are not afraid of anything, they come when they're called.... just fabulous birds. ANYHOW, on topic.... They don't fly much at all. I've seen them fly 4' high to reach a porch rail, once or twice, just for treats, but they have very little interest in my trees. They are more interested in the worms and bugs hiding under the stepping stones (that I MUST turn over for them at least every couple of days). I have a constant hawk threat in my yard, more so than any other predator. There are some giants that soar the skies above. I am home 5 days a week, and I make sure that all my birds get to come out for supervised foraging for a few hours. Its my excuse to do gardening or reading, or whatever, outside. I put both my big dogs out there in the yard, and my two daughters, and we just make time to watch the birds. They don't have a coop with a run. I have more of a chicken vault, to keep them safe, so I know they really need their foraging time. My fences are only 3'-4' tall, and they don't fly over them. Overall, they seem to be pretty happy birds, even though they aren't free ranging all day long, but rather just a few hours. They go back in their coop after a while, and get right in their nests. I get lots of nice eggs, and everybody gets along fabulously....almost. I have some younger pullets I'm trying to integrate slowly, and my "Christy" isn't too fond of them yet. I'll have to keep reading on tricks for integration. They free range together, without any serious incidents, but I'm not sure they'd take to being "cooped up" together yet.

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They do not fly well. Best flight performance as juvenile where when startled exceptional individuals might get 10 feet above ground and go 30 to 40 feet horizontally. If birds had trees around and knew how to use them they could evade made most ground predators. Problems are they are to slow to use flight and when they do they do not reliably try to get into a tree. They fly a piece and come right back down into predator's clutches. This is problem with most meat and dual purpose breeds. It is a function of flying ability and behavior. You will need to protect as if they are incapable of flight or running from ground predator.

Thank you to everyone for letting me know about the Australorp's flying abilities. The birds are getting friendlier and friendlier. One pullet doesn't mind a good backscratch. Right now, I am keeping an eye on their water and their "run" because we have seven inches of snow, and it is still coming down (a big deal where I live).

Susan
in Chesnee, SC

stonykill - we had our Australorp get injured from jumping down from the roost. We've had a terrible time getting her to heal. Several trips to the vet. Then cortisone injections at home. Close to 2 months of confinement now. I believe we are going to put her back with the flock this weekend. But we are going to lower the roost first. It's at about 5 ft now. Has a lower roost they fly to or walk up the ramp to and can hop to the first then hop/fly to the second. She injured herself by trying to fly from the floor up to the roost and fell. I was frantic. At that point realized she wasn't a good flyer at all. She is around 10 mths if that. So I was curious about yours or others in how high they have their roosts for the australorps. It's not like I can make the decision on where she is going to sleep. We put some lower roosts in in sort of a stair step arrangement but nobody roosts there. They all go up the ramp then hop to the first then fly to the second. She desperately wants to be with the other girls and boy. I let her out just to walk around a bit and stretch her legs, etc. and I left the coop door open just letting more of a breeze through as it was a very hot day. She flew up the stairs and into the coop and walked up the ramp this time. So hoping she learned her lesson and will do well this weekend. I don't use litter on the floor in the summer. But since she is going to fly down to the floor I suspect I'm going to put a thick layer of litter down in the center so she will have a soft landing. Basically I was just trying to find out from anyone the situation that works for them with their austras roosting and getting up and down. thanks for any info/insight you can provide.

I have 4 black australorp's that are 6 and a half months old. I have to say that YES my australorp's DO fly! Yesterday I was having my great pyranees pup "corral" them into the coop so we could mow the lawn. Sadly, she managed to scare the black australorp hens and they flew into the trees (3 of 4). We finally got 2 down and into the coop, the last one (Sweetie belle, my 9 yr old named her) decided to fly into a tree on the perimeter of our property, when I tried to grab her she flew behind our yard into a business parking lot. Someone chose that time to tell me they were tearing down a fence behind our yard. By the time I got ovedr our fence to look for her she'd disappeared. Night came and we still hadn't found her. Told all our neighbors to watch for her and prayed she'd survive the night! Morning came, still no sign of her. Feared the worse had happened. Knock on our door 2 hours ago was a neighbor telling us she saw our hen in her backyard. Yay! It took some doing but after climbing trees and chasing her I finally caught the little bird and deposited her safely into the coop to eat her breakfast! So, from experience I say yes black australorp's do fly!

Glad you found her safe and she's back home! Proving Australops do fly!!! LOL

We have 20 Australorps, and I am shocked at how well they fly. We had a fenced in area 1600 sq.ft that a former owner had kept goats in. I thought that would be ideal to give them free-ranging and protection. They aren't terribly interested in the trees but I've seen them stand next to the fence, and flap their way to land on the top at 5.5' up. Majority stat in their yard, but some aren't even slowed down by the fence. They just fly right over it. `