Australorps breed Thread

[RossAussie]

G’day
These notes might help some of you with your breeding programs.

With respect to culling we don't cull our Australorp Large or Bantams until 10 to 12 weeks old unless I spot a major fault such as an eye colour other than black or dark brown, more than 7 distinct serrations in the comb (but my lines rarely produce this), split wing or wry tail. (again very rare).

With respect to eye colour you can usually tell a good quality round Australorp eye and colour by four to six weeks of age.

We also follow a very vigorous program when it comes to raring our chickens.
It all starts with the hen and if you feed a balanced nutritional diet to your breeders then the chicks will hatch will little problems.
We hatch them in Incubators and sometimes I use broodies to help raise them up if I have too many chickens, but that is only in extreme cases.

We are very bio-security conscience within our Incubator Room and we are paranoid about air spread disease. Our Incubator Room is out-of-bounds to those with shoes on who have been on other poultry properties.

Day Old: (As they are leaving the incubator) Chicks are hand inoculated for Mareks Disease and transferred to Growing Brooders within the Incubator Room. We do this so they can’t catch any air-born diseases.

Day Old to Day 3: Chicks are watered with a CRD based additive to the water.

Day Old to 4 weeks: Chicks are fed with Coccidiosis treated chick grower.

Day 7 & 8 : Chicks are treated for Coccidiosis with a vitamin additive to their waterers, irrespective of the weather.

21 days: Chick are retreated for 48 hours with CRD additive, and fed a simple natural “formula” treat that we have devised for strength, stamina and familiarity with their owners.
This “formula” is given to them as a treat three times a week, until they are 90 days old.

22 Days: Chicks are transferred to Outside Growing Boxes (with warming lamps) and fed fresh greens with moved into Large Runs where they can play and grow up.

30 days: Chicks are treated for IB (Infectious Bronchitis)

40 days: Chicks are treated for ILT (Infectious Laryngotracheitis)

45-50 days: Chicks are moved in larger runs where they can play and grow up.

60 days: Chicks are inoculated for Fowl Pox and wormed with an internal drench.

70 days to 90 days: Chicks are sexed, broken up into gender groups and some are culled if necessary.

90 days: Chicks are retreated with CRD additive for 24 hours, and sprayed with an external drench concoction for lice, mites, etc and this continues bi-monthly for life.

By then they should be very healthy and you can tell some of your early potential Champions.

It’s a very simple program that we have been doing for years.

The secret is healthy happy chicks is fresh water daily, no over-damp overnight feed and daily observation as often as you can to see that they are happy and thriving. Works for me.

If you want pictures of my Incubator room and yards, rather than bore you with pictures, I can add them to a pdf file if you wish.

Can pdf files be added here?

Kind regards,

Ross

 

[ronott1]

G’day
These notes might help some of you with your breeding programs.

With respect to culling we don't cull our Australorp Large or Bantams until 10 to 12 weeks old unless I spot a major fault such as an eye colour other than black or dark brown, more than 7 distinct serrations in the comb (but my lines rarely produce this), split wing or wry tail. (again very rare).

With respect to eye colour you can usually tell a good quality round Australorp eye and colour by four to six weeks of age.

We also follow a very vigorous program when it comes to raring our chickens.
It all starts with the hen and if you feed a balanced nutritional diet to your breeders then the chicks will hatch will little problems.
We hatch them in Incubators and sometimes I use broodies to help raise them up if I have too many chickens, but that is only in extreme cases.

We are very bio-security conscience within our Incubator Room and we are paranoid about air spread disease. Our Incubator Room is out-of-bounds to those with shoes on who have been on other poultry properties.

Day Old: (As they are leaving the incubator) Chicks are hand inoculated for Mareks Disease and transferred to Growing Brooders within the Incubator Room. We do this so they can’t catch any air-born diseases.

Day Old to Day 3: Chicks are watered with a CRD based additive to the water.

Day Old to 4 weeks: Chicks are fed with Coccidiosis treated chick grower.

Day 7 & 8 : Chicks are treated for Coccidiosis with a vitamin additive to their waterers, irrespective of the weather.

21 days: Chick are retreated for 48 hours with CRD additive, and fed a simple natural “formula” treat that we have devised for strength, stamina and familiarity with their owners.
This “formula” is given to them as a treat three times a week, until they are 90 days old.

22 Days: Chicks are transferred to Outside Growing Boxes (with warming lamps) and fed fresh greens with moved into Large Runs where they can play and grow up.

30 days: Chicks are treated for IB (Infectious Bronchitis)

40 days: Chicks are treated for ILT (Infectious Laryngotracheitis)

45-50 days: Chicks are moved in larger runs where they can play and grow up.

60 days: Chicks are inoculated for Fowl Pox and wormed with an internal drench.

70 days to 90 days: Chicks are sexed, broken up into gender groups and some are culled if necessary.

90 days: Chicks are retreated with CRD additive for 24 hours, and sprayed with an external drench concoction for lice, mites, etc and this continues bi-monthly for life.

By then they should be very healthy and you can tell some of your early potential Champions.

It’s a very simple program that we have been doing for years.

The secret is healthy happy chicks is fresh water daily, no over-damp overnight feed and daily observation as often as you can to see that they are happy and thriving. Works for me.

If you want pictures of my Incubator room and yards, rather than bore you with pictures, I can add them to a pdf file if you wish.

Can pdf files be added here?

Kind regards,

Ross

First off, Thank You so much for this!

Click on Quote or reply and look for the paper clip tool in the tool bar. Click on it and then browse for the pdf or other file. Once it is uploaded here, you can select the file later from a pull down menu after clicking the insert file tool button.

I hope this helps!

Ron

 

[lildinkem]

Pic of a pullet in with my Cuckoo Orp. Haven't had an egg from her yet. I have 2 young cockerel just eager to go when she & a couple of others are ready to lay.
Hope you Aussies appreciate what US Americans have to work with. Geoff has kept my interest in my very small flock.
Cheers to you boys
Bill

 

[aveca]

Ross, you couldnt bore us if you tried..Love every minute of it..LOVE to see the incubators brooders ect..lot of people from beginner to advanced could learn something from it..

If Chet pops in..One week and counting..still have a lot brewing..some were infertile most of the rest are coasting along..couple air cells healing but little cockeyed so anything can happen with those..Super excited to see them..Should start popping out about this time next week..I kept notes along the way of what was infertile , a few quit early on, the rest doing good...you will have to explain the initials..like who is X or ross/lil..I always hate the defening silence right befor they hatch..all you can do is wait..wont be getting much sleep Im sure..they are riding alng with some others that wont need a sepreator..way different color.

 

[groche]

Pic of a pullet in with my Cuckoo Orp. Haven't had an egg from her yet. I have 2 young cockerel just eager to go when she & a couple of others are ready to lay.
Hope you Aussies appreciate what US Americans have to work with. Geoff has kept my interest in my very small flock.
Cheers to you boys
Bill



Thanks Bill,
not her best angle, perhaps, but she seems to have nice curve and, if you 'smooth out' her outline a little, the tail conformation is getting rounder rather than the upright tendency in the Utilities. Just needs the right boy, mate!
Cheers Geoff

 

[groche]

Hi Ross,
really nice young girls and I hope there are some winners in there for you. Looking at your rearing program, no wonder you're successful. Makes my birds seem downright neglected! Pics of some of my keepers to follow. Been busy with the cull and making cockerel sausages. Yum! Sorry, Vego's!
Cheers Geoff

 

[RossAussie]

G'day,

These are some pictures of the new poultry shed that we completed in 2010. We call it "Black Chook Paradise" and the owner is sitting at the front entrance. He reckons they are his pens, his fowls, his area.

All of the old pens are still there adjacent to the new pens and they are used as growing areas.

I tried to insert a pdf attachment, but I'm not allowed to add an attachment, so I had it made up as a jpeg.I think you can click on them and they come up bigger.

At least it will give an idea of where they are grown up here.

Regards,

Ross

 

[RossAussie]

G'day again,

I've enclosed some internal pictures on the Incubator room. This will give you a little idea of how we go about our poultry hobby.



The bench above has a microscope where we analyse the feaces of the fowls for parasite issues. Often we will disect a culled fowl and take a good look inside for internal gut problems. That same fowl is usually a Sunday evening roast.



Above is the Eastern wall which shows a 288 egg Incubator and a corresponding 288 egg Hatcher. To their right is one of the 4 Maino Brooders, but they are being replaced with a five tier unit from Europe that should arrive within 2 weeks. This will save us a lot of space and once it's all in place I'll do a picture of it.
You can see some Australorp chicks playing in that Maino Brooder.

The 288 Hatcher has four large baskets broken up into four sections and eight sections each to make it easier for identification of the hatchlings if I need. That basically gives me 32 different combinations if I need it.




Above is the western wall and here we have a Brinsea 180 and an IM 108 incubator. I actually won that Brinsea at a show, which was nice.



Adjacent to the little IM Incubator is a new R-Com 180 which is just automatic everything and is a pleasure to use. All of the incubators are used purely for incubation only. The egg embryos are finished off at 18 days in the 288 Hatcher which helps to alleviate any transfer of infections, bugs, diseases, if any.



Here is my desk where I sit and plan out my hatchings. When this picture was taken I must have just been candling some eggs.

Within the room is a fridge and a sink with a large stainless steel bench and stainless cupboards to house the various inoculations and veterinary supplies. It has a Reverse Cycle A/C so we can incubate and hatch on the same median temperature, and a little coffee machine.

The fridge might house a few cold beers too, but don't tell my wife.

The important thing here is that all of the materials used in this room, such as paint, chairs, desks, benchtops, cupboards, A/C unit, fridge, light fittings, etc, etc, are all either second hand or factory seconds. The room is 3 metres x 9 metres and is enclosed within the shed, but it does have large external windows, with kitchen type curtains, for air flow. It is vermin proof and wasn't as expensive to fit out as many people think.

I hope that I haven't taken up too much space and time with my pictures, but you can see what we do. I've been breeding show fowls a very long time and I try to make it as easy as I can on the chickens and on myself.

Kind regards,

Ross

 

[ronott1]

I candled the Blue Australorp eggs from Huppfarms today and 12 of 14 are developing on day 7!

 

[aveca]

G'day,

These are some pictures of the new poultry shed that we completed in 2010. We call it "Black Chook Paradise" and the owner is sitting at the front entrance. He reckons they are his pens, his fowls, his area.

All of the old pens are still there adjacent to the new pens and they are used as growing areas.

I tried to insert a pdf attachment, but I'm not allowed to add an attachment, so I had it made up as a jpeg.I think you can click on them and they come up bigger.

At least it will give an idea of where they are grown up here.

Regards,

Ross

Now that is absolutly wonderful!! Its a model of form to function , tons of greenery ..neat, clean..absolutly love it..