Australorps breed Thread

[katschicks11]

Hi Geoff,
Ya this sexing lorps has not proved easy for me, When they was hatched a day or so I did the wing sexing, from that I thought I had one of each? With-in 2-3 days one had tiny tail feathers and the other had none for weeks and I read about pullets getting tails and feathering out faster so I thought Great (A Girl) and put a velcro band on its foot. That ended up to be my prov'en Cockerel

The other is the one that did not grow tail feathers for weeks, to me does have looks of both pullet and cockerel, it does have the combs like my guy and they are about the same size, at 17 1/2 weeks they are as large or slightly larger the my 1 1/2 year hens, and like you said has a henny looking tail. I have seen (it) grab my lead hen by the back neck feathers to make her back down. My daughter said she seen (it) play rodeo with the same hen, ( I did not see this) so far no crowing from (it), but I've only seen my cockerel crow one day about 4-5 times. I've been out there every mornin early to try to catch it on video sense then. Maybe he's camera shy?
So I guess I'll wait until (it) crows or lays and egg.

And about the breeding, ya I can tell which hen lay's what egg, I have already choose 2 of the 3 girls to use eggs from if one goes broody again.
My lead hen after she got to lay-ing she laid every day for 3 months strait before taking a day off then laid 3 1/2 weeks before another day off, I thought wow, but she does my smaller eggs. the other two lay larger eggs and when goin good layed about 5- 6 eggs a week. But one of those hens has golden eyes and likes to complain alot, If I had a couple of pullets hatched I would of sent her to the pot. So I would not use her eggs.

Thanks your thoughts, Kathy

 

[CarolynF]

Hi folks,
please tell me you weren't blown away in the storm. I'm concerned, as most of you have stopped posting. I post the following for interest/comment and it's in no way a recommendation! It's from a book called "The International Poultry Book", published here in the 1930's. If Walt's reading, I don't think they meant the American/Canadian Poultry Book. Ha! Ha! Seriously though, anyone heard of this? " To secure more colour in the plumage of Orpingtons and other breeds requiring green sheen, the feeding of sulphur before the last feathering is recommended. Start with a saltspoonful a day and increase the dose to up to a teaspoonful to be given in the mash. Done in Summer to early Autumn(Fall)". Certainly don't have a sheen problem myself with 'lorps, but it may be relevant to some Orp. strains. Stop 'em getting a few diseases anyway, if it didn't kill 'em!
Cheers Geoff from Aus

Hi Geoff,
I've noticed a definite lack of posts from the east coast, too. I hope everyone is ok. I'm on the West coast, the Pacific Northwest.
It's interesting that the measure is a "saltspoonful", the only time I ever see those are in antique stores! But I love seeing a piece of history float to the surface. Thanks for sharing it. I wonder if that dosage is per bird?

 

[fowlman01]

Hi folks,
please tell me you weren't blown away in the storm. I'm concerned, as most of you have stopped posting. I post the following for interest/comment and it's in no way a recommendation! It's from a book called "The International Poultry Book", published here in the 1930's. If Walt's reading, I don't think they meant the American/Canadian Poultry Book. Ha! Ha! Seriously though, anyone heard of this? " To secure more colour in the plumage of Orpingtons and other breeds requiring green sheen, the feeding of sulphur before the last feathering is recommended. Start with a saltspoonful a day and increase the dose to up to a teaspoonful to be given in the mash. Done in Summer to early Autumn(Fall)". Certainly don't have a sheen problem myself with 'lorps, but it may be relevant to some Orp. strains. Stop 'em getting a few diseases anyway, if it didn't kill 'em!
Cheers Geoff from Aus

Yep, I am reading, but haven't had much time to do so lately. I'm on the other end of the states, so we didn't get any of those storms. We are famous for our earthquakes on this side of the US. Over the years I have found that the green sheen is as much in the breeding as anything else. I have never heard of giving them sulphur, but there are a lot of things I haven't heard of before. Does it say you have to sacrifice a goat and burn candles when you administer the sulphur?

Good advice on the meanness being genetic...it is.

Walt

 

[groche]

Hi Kathy,
if your cranky girl has "golden eyes", she's no purebred Utility or "Heritage Australorp". They should have dark brown at least, and black is preferred in both Utility and Exhibition lines. Your bird would be culled straight off here, or, at least, would never be bred from. I'd call it Pot!
Carolyn, I assume the sulphur dosage is per bird by the quantities given and there was no mention of any particular number of birds. The old breeders loved their sulphur and, of course, we still use sulphur-based drugs today. I agree with Walt that it has a touch of 'old wives' tale' about it, but I don't suppose it would do any harm in those quantities.

 

[katschicks11]

Geoff,
I agree with you about my golden eye girl, the only reason she's lasted this long is that I have only 3 hens and she is a good layer. But her eggs will not end-up in any hatching.
I was just so exited to be getting chickens at the time about all I cared about was getting healthy looking duel breeds. Now that I've had them, I'm learning whats good and bad with them, most of my learning has been from BYC it has been so helpful on all chicken raising.

I'm hoping my girl who went broody last summer will do so again, hopefully hen we don't have record heat wave, as soon as I received the eggs to put under her we had a two weeks strait of 100 -109 not much better after that high 95's . out of the 15 eggs I put under her only 2 hatched. I was just happy not to lose her to the heat. She was a good broody and mom she never tried to bite me and took really good care of the chicks.

 

[groche]

Kathy,
I'd be letting that good broody grow old. To a certain extent 'lorps have , as a Utility breed, had broodiness bred out of them. When one does go broody, however, they usually make great moms, though the larger Exhibition strains can be too heavy and clumsy and sometimes crush eggs.
Cheers Geoff

 

[lildinkem]

Couple of the Aussies shown at the Ohio Natls. I had only enough room on my camera to get 2 of these Aussie pics.
hope you all are enjoying your weekend

 

[bruceha2000]

I'll try to do that tomorrow. Pictures are complicated for me, I have to take the pic, go down to town where I get service, e-mail it to myself and then come back home and post it!!

I know this is an old post, but I've only managed to get to page 102 of 153 so far

Anyway, What kind of camera do you have? I think any digital camera will come with a cable to connect to a computer. If not, you can get the proper kind of card reader that plugs into a USB (or other) port on the computer. Saves the time and expense of going to town for processing.

Since I'm posting, here are my 2 Australorps from Ideal Poultry in Texas hatched 6/11/2012. They batted 1000 on sexing my 12 girls!

This is Zorra, she is also my current Avatar. After reading through the first 100 pages of the thread, I can see there are many faults compared to the Aussie standards. WAY too flat and long in the back for one. She is quite large, as big as the EEs.



This is Echo. You can't tell since they are not side by side but she is much smaller than Zorra. About the same size as the Anconas and Partridge Chanteclers. She doesn't seem as flat along the back but her tail is too high and she seems to have a large "bustle". Her nickname is "Echo the earwig eater". This girl would do anything to get those live earwigs including jumping in my lap and stuffing her head in the 1 quart yogurt container I had them in. Sorry that the picture is fuzzy. My girls generally won't stand still for photos.



Bruce

 

[groche]

Hi Bill,
enjoyed the pics as I've not seen any American show birds 'in action'. It's hard to tell from just pics and the buggers usually save their worst stance for snapping time! The first bird seems to have nice back curve but the tail is still a little 'Langshany/pointy'. The second one seems to have a better tail but a rather flat back that might suit a Sussex more than a 'lorp. Great black legs on both birds. The standout feature for me as the major diff. between these and our show birds is the face. These birds seem to have typical Utility faces and not the smooth, clean faces required here in an exhibition chook. Your "burds" should beat these easily within a generation, I reckon. Once again though, I don't know what your SOP is regarding faces.
Please folks, don't regard any comments I make as comparison, as criticisms of either American birds or purebred Utility 'lorps. I luv 'em!
Cheers Geoff

 

[groche]

Welcome Bruce.
Hope you enjoy the thread and your Australorp experience. My son would love that earwig-eater of yours - he's got a plague of the buggers in his vegie patch!
Cheers Geoff from Aus