Thanks Junebuggena, that makes a lot of sense.
Thatotherfarmer, yours might have come from a gold based Australorp too then?
Greg88 thanks for the sympathy, we were pretty gutted. We lost another pure Orpington chick in the same fiasco, and it is the first time I have lost chickens - for any...
Just to give an update,
we did have three of these crosses: offspring of a buff orpington rooster and a black australorp hen. Two of them were unfortunately killed when they got out of their enclosure and the neighbour's dog found them. The last one has tried to mate with the hen who hatched...
Is it possible for male chicks to have the buff black coloring too, rather than silver?
We just had three chicks hatch from a black australorp hen and a buff orpington rooster, and they are all buff and black in varying degrees (none have the exact same coloring). Is it really possible we...