Australorp gender?

[weloveourchooks]

Hi there,

any opinion on gender fo my 23 wk old australorps?

Our old girl at the back is * years old and hatched out and raised the other three

(This is the 3rd time I've attempted to create this thread - not sure what I'm dong wrong)






Cheers

 

[AustralorpsAU]

From what i can see you have pullets.
I may be wrong though. I hope for your sake they are.
These are my pullets and they are only a week or two older than yours!

 

[Greenthumb83]

Beautiful birds! They look like pullets to me also. Welcome to BYC!

 

[weloveourchooks]

Thanks Greenthumb83 ! We think they're pretty special

The "girl" we are most concerned with is the white leg banded lady. I wasn't sure about the shape of her saddle feathers - they did seem a bit longer and pointier than the other girls, however nowhere near the look of saddle feathers of a full grown rooster - I can't seem to find any pics of 23 wk old Australorp cockerals to compare to.


Hope your right - I'd hate to see her go!

 

[donrae]

Everyone is female, and you should be getting eggs literally any day now.

Those are beautiful birds! Are you in the States or Australia? They're definitely much nicer than the normal hatchery birds in the US.

 

[weloveourchooks]

Hope so Donrae !

I'm in Australia - Canberra. One of the southern cities. Temp ranges from -6C on a few winter nights to a couple of 40C days in summer and we found that the Australorp (Bruno) from a batch of 4 different breed pullets we purchased 8 years ago coped with the temperature ranges well.

I purchased 6 fertilised pure breed eggs from a small property out of town when Bruno went broody (a couple of weeks after her only remaining companion died) - so no, not hatchery eggs as such. All six hatched out but 2 showed their true colours at about 10 weeks (attempted crowing and very developed combs and wattles) so they were returned to the breeder . The remaining 4 (1 out of the pictures) still have not started to lay whereas bruno started to lay at 20 weeks so I was starting to have my doubts.

Bruno was purchased as a six week old from a hatchery and we couldn't fault her. She has hatched out clutches of 6 twice and is such a great mother. She still gives us 3 - 4 eggs each week . Can't wait until I'm collecting more!

Thanks

 

[Chookepie]

Your Australorps look amazing, and they are definitely pullets. Hope they lay well and all the best

 

[Greenthumb83]

I have a handful of Australorp chicks and I wish they would grow up to look like that! Haha i doubt they will though. I have 5 pullets and a cockerel (I'm keeping him for now).

Let us know when you start getting eggs from these girls.

 

[donrae]

Just another thing that makes me kind of sad about our hatcheries here in the US. I mean, they churn out the birds and make them affordable, but folks start calling any black bird an Australorp. Your ladies are beautiful and show some nice shape, something we don't get in a run of the mill bird here.

And I do think you'll have eggs literally any day. If they're free ranging , you might start going on some egg hunts or confine them.

 

[Chookepie]

Indeed the factory breeders don't have the nicest looking birds. I went to an australorp specialist breeder that is local to me to get mine.