Hi Bill,
gee, I had a chuckle when I read your 'formula' for creating these birds. Didn't think you'd got 'em by selective breeding from Utility lines. The various combinations of non-rounded skull, sunken cheeks, mulberry-colored face, wrinkles and facial hair, so common in Utilities, are very difficult to get rid of without some form of outcrossing. But, who would have thought of using a Buff Orp. to produce an Aussie? Sheer genius!!! Our early commercial breeders put lots of different stuff into the Utility Aussie, but I reckon this is the first time the Aussie has had blue egg gene added. I've never come across Ameraucanas here, but I'm presuming that they carry this from Auracanas. Seriously though, you may have got lucky initially, but what you have done/do with them has a lot more to do with skillful breeding. Any issues with 'nasty' recessives popping up? Having got so close to a good head and tail, I'd be wary of intro'ing any more Utility blood, for the reasons mentioned above. Are you going for intensive inbreeding for a while to see if you can establish a line which sets the good qualities you've achieved so far?
I think it's terrific that folks are posting pics of their experiments. I find them interesting, as we're still adding bits and pieces to 'improve' our birds, but it must be even more interesting to those of you trying to get a line on where you're at with your own projects from all over the country. Opens up more opportunities for learning or even exchanging stock. I'm more a sharing sort of breeder, rather than the sort who closely guards their 'secret formulas'. Guess I'm more into the challenge of breeding good birds rather than winning prizes - not to say I won't show eventually if I manage to produce what I'm aiming for though!
Cheers Geoff from Aus
Really hope you folk survived the big blow and wet with yourselves and your birds intact!
Yay, I can post pics again! For the history buffs, this was what was regarded as a stud, purebred Utility Australorp in around 1953. It comes from a really interesting publication from our State Dept. of Agriculture. Back then we had lots of Govt. supervised laying tests/competitions and lots of research into raising egglayers. Really informative on selective breeding for egglaying. If anyone's interested, I could post some of it. To me, this is one of its more contentious viewpoints. 
