Orps and Australorps...Meat Birds?

So I haven't gotten my chicks yet (Feb!), but we plan on getting 4 Orps or 2 Australorps and 2 Orps. We want decent layers that are good with kids (two very young ones) and we like the looks of both of them.

I was reading "The Backyard Homestead" the other day and it actually listed Orps and Australorps under "Meat Breeds". I had a 'HUH?' moment I thought, at least, they'd be considered Dual-Purpose birds (which was a category they included), if not layers. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I also heard recently that Australorps can get pretty broody...true? If so, we'd probably just get 4 Buff Orps. since we just want the eggs for breakfast.

Any input on these 2 issues? Thanks!

Quote:
They are both dual purpose breeds, decent for meat and eggs both.

Both breeds can go broody. The Orps have a reputation for going broody a lot, and some of my BA's have gone broody. It does not mean that they will, just that they can.

Quote:
Yes they are dual purpous birds, meat and egg combo..I have both but have never eaten one , Hupp farms has and they can tell you about how they are..brits prefer buff orps over any other bird as table fowl. large bird tender meat they claim..hupp is member in here, you can PM him and ask.

some of my australorps are tender loving mothers, others, not so much..they are actually molting and need a quiet space seems like they are brooding but you get so you can tell which ones are the best brooders after a while.. I am new to the orps but I hear they are excellent mothers.

I've eaten exactly one Orp lol. So far. I will be eating more next year. Yes, they are both dual purpose, and the Orps look to have more meat than Australorps but I've never dressed one or even own a 'lorp so I could be wrong. One of my three oldest Orps is the best mom a chick could ever have. They all go broody often but only the one has ever been allowed to hatch and she's just wonderful. She raised three batches last year.

At 24 weeks, my Orps dressed at 6.5-7.5 pounds.

I've processed both, but mine were from Cackle. Different strains of the same breeds will differ. The ones I am talking about are the hens, not the roosters. I ordered BA pullets and got pullets. I ordered Buff Orp straight run and got 7 out of 7 pullets, so I have no experience with roosters from either breed.

When they dressed out, the Orps were not nearly as much bigger than the BA as they looked. Those fluffy Orp feathers give a false impression. It varies quite a bit due to the individual, but my general impression was that I got a tiny bit more meat from the Orp than the BA. Not a whole lot, just a general impression.

The big difference to me was that the BA had a much larger fat pad in the pelvic region. This is where the hen stores excess fat. The liver, gizzard, and other internal organs seemed to have more fat on them too with the BA. They were all the same age and all ate the same, so I think it was a fair comparison. I'll emphasize it varied by the individual and that these were hens, not roosters. This may have been something specific to the Cackle BA's, but I wonder if this propensity to store extra fat helps the BA with the reputation for laying through the winter?