Australorps breed Thread

[DeesHens]

Ocap,
Glad to help. You do not only have to watch your own dogs, but strays are killers around here!
On another note, spring is here and all the other predators are hungry. The Hupp 6 is now the Hupp 5. I caught a fat raccoon chowing down on my precious blue australorp pullet last night, he had his last supper! He literally ate thru an anchor fence dog kennel to do his nasty! If y'all use chicken wire beware!
Chet, I am sorry for dropping the ball,and will do my best with the rest.
Kurt

OH NO! Not your blue BA.

Raccoon are terrible predators I know from experience here! Really sorry to hear that bad news Kurt. As you may recall we have some fat nasty raccoon here as well. So after studying all the options we hooked up our chicken paddock with electric wire at various heights and a strand at the top as well. So far so good. I heard something let out a holler the first night we fired it up. Deer or raccoon? Not sure which? They got zapped good at any rate. I was sorry that yesterday a cute little finch at the 2" wire height got zapped to death. We do have a pulse unit but it got stuck in the netting behind the electric wire. DH also put a net over the top as well as the eagles and hawks are always circling around here. The crows do chase them away frequently though.

Anyway, good luck finding a solution. ~Dee~

 

[aveca]

thats rotten kurt..i feel so bad..i had to swop out every peice of chicken wire for thicker smaller holed weasle proof and other predator proof wire..the weasles got 5 bbo last year....just made me sick..

 

[ocap]

we have every kind of predator here except bear and we have seen most of them. I don't like to see them in the daylight because of rabies

About half through with my BA chicken tractor, the "Urch Ten" are doing well and might graduate to the outdoors if the weather guessers ever take snow out of the forecast.

 

[groche]

Kurt,
so sorry to hear of your loss. Glad we don't have racoons here! We do have the goanna, a giant lizard, that smashed a friend's valuable flock.Not where I live, thank goodness. Have enough trouble with bloody foxes! It's another example of Murphey's law - " A chook-predator's first choice will always be the birds you can least afford to lose." Better luck with the rest, mate. I like the thought of the buggers being zapped. Revenge is sweet!
Cheers Geoff

 

[Triplell]

I am so sorry about everyone's losses. My coops are all inside a very large old barn and get outside only during the day. When the weather does not cooperate they stay inside. I would be devastated if something got inside and attacked all my chickens. There is five coops with in the barn. Again sorry for your loss.

 

[MadamContrary]

Hello all I hatched out 6 chicks and 2 are supposed to be black Australorps but, they seem to be awfully grey to me. What do you think?



This pretty baby is incredibly sweet and I hope it ends up a she.





the 2nd supposed Australorp is part of the grey chicken pile towards the back she has the deeper colored line down her middle.
Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[aveca]

boy......ive honestly never seen anything quite like that..over the years i have had 1 or 2 hatch with white head and beak that turns black eventually if it doesnt turn black thats not good...but i have never ever seen that smokey lavander color.unless the aussie breeder was trying to do that ..the tail area of the first baby doesnt look familiar like the tail wants to be set high...maybe its just the photo....

i dont want to ask who the seller is..but you might want to show them those pictures and ask them..i see one that at a glance looks like black australorp if it has pinkish to grey white sole of foot and dark eye..would be interesting to see what they say..what other kinds did you order? .....time will tell.

 

[tigercreek]

What aveca said. The only possible Aussie I see is the center chick in the bottom pic........What else did you order??.stan

 

[ronott1]

What aveca said. The only possible Aussie I see is the center chick in the bottom pic........What else did you order??.stan

Hi folks!

There is another way you can get a chick like that. There is a dangerous theory out in chicken land that was posted again yesterday on the Heritage Large Fowl thread. The first time I heard it was after a talk that Dr. Bramwell gave last Fall in Arkansas. The theory is that you only need to wait two weeks after introducing a new Rooster to a breeding pen.

COMPLETE AND UTTER RUBBISH!

Three people, including myself, have had Frankenchickens hatched that way from breeders. The old folks actually knew something about this.

This is my Show quality stock SG Dorking



The Breeder was working on a project and had a Wheaten Ameracauna in with the Hens. She waited two weeks after moving in a SG Dorking Rooster.

Yes folks that is an SG Dorking X Wheaten Am--Easter Egger from hatching eggs sold to me as Pure SG Dorking....You really do need to wait 30 days before the eggs are clear of the old Rooster. I also hatched Franken Rooster. I did get what looks like one SG Dorking Pullet but you never know. I can't use her for breeding, which is a shame.

 

[MadamContrary]

boy......ive honestly never seen anything quite like that..over the years i have had 1 or 2 hatch with white head and beak that turns black eventually if it doesnt turn black thats not good...but i have never ever seen that smokey lavander color.unless the aussie breeder was trying to do that ..the tail area of the first baby doesnt look familiar like the tail wants to be set high...maybe its just the photo....

i dont want to ask who the seller is..but you might want to show them those pictures and ask them..i see one that at a glance looks like black australorp if it has pinkish to grey white sole of foot and dark eye..would be interesting to see what they say..what other kinds did you order? .....time will tell.

I also had BC Marans,Barred Rock, EE, Cuckoo Marans along with the "Australorps". I made sure to note which chick hatched from which egg as they were marked with the breed. I just ordered "eggs for education" from my pet chicken so perhaps its just misslabeling or a hatchery frankinstien. It was a bit windy when I took the photos so it was flitted up a bit. The only one with a black beak is the one that I thought was a BC Marans. Now I am unsure.