Australorp x Orpington??

[sophiejw]

Hello,

I'm hoping for some advice please

I have a White Orpington hen, and a young Australorp cockerel. I'm contemplating cross breeding them, I'm after nice big birds for meat and eggs. I just wondered if anyone could suggest what the chicks might be like- any idea of what colour I would get? And would they be OK layers? I'm assuming they'd be pretty good eating as they're both big breeds. (we were going to eat the cockerel in the next few weeks, along with another 3 cockerels I had, but Mr Fox came the night before last and killed the 3 cockerels we were going to eat, together with a hen and my favourite Polish Crested

. So I'm now feeling a little reluctant to kill this cockerel after he survived Mr Fox, hence wondering about using him for breeding).

Any thoughts / advice would be gratefully received

 

[phasianidae]

i'm not an expert on White Orpingtons whether they are dominant white or reccesive white, but as far as egg laying that would depend on your parent stock. Is your White Orpington a good layer? heres my hen whos father was a Buff Orpington and her mother a Black Australorp, she is an amazing layer.... literally every day:

 

[sophiejw]

Thanks for the picture, she's lovely

Rosie my white orpington is a great layer most of the time- every day except for when she takes random weeks off here and there. But I think that's usually because she doesn't like the weather. Don't know about the cockerel's stock- he was an ebay hatching egg. But Australorps are meant to be good generally I believe so fingers crossed....

 

[sophiejw]

Here's Rosie-

And here's a picture of one of the Australorp cockerels (not sure if it's the one I've still got, but they were all pretty much identical)

 

[phasianidae]

go for it! if you hen is reccesive white then the chicks would be black. if your hen is dominant white then the chicks would be white.