Australorp Rhode island red cross. Chicks !

[Playfulroost]

I have two RIR roosters that are friendly, great with the hens yet very submissive with me. I chose them for personality and one had fast growth. They were chosen from 46 hatchery males. Of course, two of them ended up being hens. I butchered the ones with bad attitudes first. One of the roos is a hero. There was a predator one night, he lost all his big beautiful tail feathers but two. All the hens were fine, and other than a scratch on his comb, he was not injured. I am crossing the roos over barred rock hens, trying to make black sex link chickens that can be sexed at birth. I just hatched out five chicks, my first incubated ones! All 3 of the black birds have the white spot on their heads indicating that they are roos. Since I am using hatchery chickens, I will have ato wait to see if it worked. The other two are red, one is full blooded RIR. I went to the feed store today. They had 4 blue astralorp pullets available, I could not resist! They are so pretty! All birds are same age, seem content together. I am excited to have the blue chickens. I plan on crossing them with my RIR roos. I am grateful for the photos! I wondered what they will look like.

 

[CatMedico]

I am not who you're responding to but I figure they would look kind of similar to mine except black. I have production blues which are rhode island reds and blue australorps. This is what they look like.

Beautiful! I have RIR’s and Blue Austrolorp chicks too! I think 1 of my blues is a roo, so maybe I’ll see the same some day!

 

[Felicidoo]

I'm coming across this post quite late, but I found this thread out of sheer luck. I just got new chicks from our local hatchery that are called Aquila chickens. These are Black Austalorp/Rhode Island Red cross. I have been googling for days trying to find any info on Aquila chickens and here I found this. Your chicks look exactly like mine - same white markings on black! I just wish I could find more information other than the little blurb on the hatchery's website. I can't wait for them to mature. They're super sweet already.

 

[The Shepard Team]

They call those a road island blue.

 

[Playfulroost]

They call those a road island blue.

Thanks! Good to know.

 

[Ambernjarvis]

Look at that bleed threw, many of mine have the red in face but that one is prominent ! View attachment 1497714

What breed are these??

 

[YochickyMama]

Thanks for the great information! I actually do not have a roo. My australorp went very broody so I decided to let her sit on eggs instead of trying to break her. I knew someone who had only 2 hens when the 1 turned out to be a male RIR & other female australorp. So I got some of their eggs and let my Australorp sit. (Unfortunately their australorp was killed a few days later by bobcat so it will be the last of that pair ) Their rooster is fairly nice but seems to hate men so I guess we'll just have to wait and see ! I have a female RIR & she's always had an attitude compared to other hens. Any idea if they will stay black or will they end up with some browns in there as well? I'm looking forward to see what this mix brings us

I was told they will shine purple in the sun. I am excited because I have some of this breed also.