Australorp and Australorp crosses

[Bucky182]

First do any of you have Australorps or make any Australorp crosses? I am getting ready to re-stock my hen house with 50-100 hens and am considering these birds for the first time. First how do they lay and what size egg. I know what the hateries say but have you ever seen them advertise a bird and say they suck? LOL I have also thought of crossing them with a RR or a cherry egger or with a barred bird for a black sex link. Do any of you do this or have these and if so what is your opinion on these birds. Also, do they go broody for you?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think you'll find that where you get them can make a difference. Not specifically with Australorp but I've noticed a difference in the birds from different hatcheries, and breeders can have totally different goals. If you get then from a breeder, you need to find out what traits that specific breeder is breeding for and see if that is what you want..

I got my BA from Cackle. They did not start laying extremely early but by 6 months most of them were laying. They start out with a small egg like practically all the others, but eventually they laid a nice large egg. They did lay very well the first summer/fall and skipped the molt the first winter, again like my other pullets. They did lay pretty well throughout the winter.

My second year, they did molt and stop laying for a while. But when the molt was over, they went back to laying really nice eggs throughout the rest of winter.

I had a few go broody. One certain one of them went broody and raised 15 chicks, staying with them until they were about 9 weeks old. This was late summer and she molted during the last month or more of being with the chicks. This meant she was over the molt before the others even started. That is the only time I've seen that happen and it was a BA.

I also eat mine. I noticed that my BA from Cackle have a larger fat pad than the other breeds I had. That fat pad in the pelvic region is where a laying hen stores excess energy. I don't know if that is what makes them so good at laying during the winter.

 

[Nonny]

I only have three, so very limited experience to draw from, but this what I know abotu my girls so far:

They are BA/ISA Brown hybrids and for us they're great. Docile, great layers (average 6 eggs per week each so far, although they're still only young at 11 months old). One in particular is bloody noisy, but the other two aren't.

Their eggs started out around the 46g mark, but nowadays they usually weigh in at around 65g, and I've had a few double yolkers as well (one was a huge 96g!)

One tried to go broody on me, but since we don't have a roo there's no point, so I just kept stealing her eggs and locking her out of the coop until bedtime and after two weeks she's over it already.