Australorps breed Thread

[MeanV2]

Are the hens good layers? Or are they more into show?

I have 12 Gilbert Pullets and they are laying 45 to 47 eggs a week.

Dan

 

[cubakid]

People get that thought in their mind that "show" birds are so much different than regular layers. I'd say they lay close to the same, the only reason hatchery birds lay so abnormally well is the addition of leghorn blood. My show birds are great layers, I'd have to go through my hatching records but they are laying at least every other day, and are purer blood than a hatchery bird. They exhibit the original characteristic laying, but excel against hatchery birds at doing it on a large dual purpose frame, where hatchery birds are not designed for meat, because that would slow the hatcheries ability to hatch thousands of them.

 

[MeanV2]

People get that thought in their mind that "show" birds are so much different than regular layers. I'd say they lay close to the same, the only reason hatchery birds lay so abnormally well is the addition of leghorn blood. My show birds are great layers, I'd have to go through my hatching records but they are laying at least every other day, and are purer blood than a hatchery bird. They exhibit the original characteristic laying, but excel against hatchery birds at doing it on a large dual purpose frame, where hatchery birds are not designed for meat, because that would slow the hatcheries ability to hatch thousands of them.

Good post!!

Dan

 

[DeesHens]

Good blessed Sunday morning everyone!

First, thank you all for your input!
Grammachick and Deeshens - I can totally understand your frustration

. I too have limitations of health, climate, abundance of predators, etc that keeps me from being able to do all the hatching and breeding I would love to do. Probably a blessing in disguise for my poor city raised hubby otherwise I would have the entire 20 acre field between our house and woods loaded with feathered beauties!!!

Dan - I greatly value your (and others) input on what the australorp should be versus what is being assembly line produced by most hatcheries. Because of you all I have learned that most (but not all) commercial hatcheries are nothing more than the "puppy mills" of the poultry world and not just for the australorp.

I fell in love with Lorps year and a half ago when I decided I just had to have chickens in my life again after more years than I want to say

and talked my hubby into surrendering one of his hunting shacks. While he was busy dragging the thing out of the woods and converting it into a wonderful little coop I heard of a flock in trouble. By the time we got there only the sickest were left of over 100 birds stuffed into a cage in the corner of a barn. We brought home four of what I thought were black sex links but once I was able to get them reasonably healthy I realized one was an Aussie. I fell head over heels for her and the breed. (sadly, only one of my girls has survived. Momma, the aussie, finally succumbed to her bad breeding and health issues and needed to be culled a few months ago-the last little sex-link is still holding her own tho due to reproductive issues has not laid for a long time which is fine with me. her eggs were so full of "stuff" they weren't appetizing anyway).

My little flock now consists of three 8 mo. old cinnamon queens, my little sex-link, one 15 mo. old leghorn? mutt (a whole another, very funny, story

) and one Lorp roo named Little Max.

Little Max had a very rough start in life but is growing into a handsome young man. I purchased what I was told were two pullets from a small breeder sight unseen at 9 weeks in late August. Oops. Max was much smaller. Found out she (he) was a very sick little chick. Cocci, loaded with worms. Honestly didn't think she (he ) would even survive. Anyway, with some very hard work and a lot of drugs I got her (him) healthy only to discover I had 2 roos. Big Max was beautiful and I found him a wonderful home with a lady who already had two of his sisters. It was heart-breaking to let him go because he was so sweet and incredibly protective of his little brother. I wasn't sure how little Max would adjust without his guardian as they were inseparable and never mixed with the rest of my little flock because the sex-links picked on them. Anyway, Little Max is doing fine. He is now 6 mo. old and still very shy but I am slowly getting him to warm up to me now that his brother is no longer here and he is slowly being accepted, one at a time by the rest of the flock. He also is showing good intelligence, learning expected routines very quickly, except that is, what all these girls are and how HE is supposed to be leading and protecting them!!! He is a totally chicken chicken!!!

Little Max had his development stunted by his illness, it took him literally months to finally stop passing intestinal lining completely, so he is a bit of a late "bloomer". He just started trying to crow in the past 2 weeks. It was hilarious because his first attempt sounded EXACTLY like the hen laying song!

He is getting better, sort of. Now he just sounds like a very bad yodeler. His comb and wattles have just started to really develop but his plumage (with the help of a lot of extra protein) is finally growing in nicely and he is almost as grand looking as his brother . I hope to post a pic of him to get some honest critiques from you more knowledgeable folks here. I am going to be looking for a couple NON-HATCHERY ladies for him in the spring which is going to be a real challenge because of my rather remote location (took me months to locate the breeder he came from) and my goal is to eventually have a quality, all Lorp, little flock.

Really looking forward to all the wisdom, advice, honesty and shared experiences from everyone as I am still very much a novice on many things chicken and appreciate all the help and guidance I can get!

Now, I must go shovel a bit of snow and finish a few run projects while our temps are back up into the 20's. They are supposed to take another plunge later in the week after we get hit with another good snow.

HAVE A GREAT CYBER MONDAY ALL!

Enjoyed reading your update. I had been wondering how Little Max had been doing. Funny how he crows. He will get better with time. Also thanks for your understanding. I definitely would have a large flock of SOP Black Aussies if dreams were reality. Some folks are blessed with every advantage and others not so much. But in my life making the best of things is what matters. I really enjoy reading all the posts about my favorite chicken whether discussing SOP or folks experiences with them. Great stuff! Hope you and your flock can endure all that snow. Not my favorite weather for sure. We are looking at low temps for us (27F) tonight which means water freezing so I will fill the electric dog bowl for my girls. We have the ceramic fixture in their house with a reptile light on so their comb points aren't frozen hopefully. ~Dee~

 

[DeesHens]

Quote: Wonderful series of pics Ron. Recognized some of them from your past posts but fun to see them laid out together. The (LAST) two pics really crack me up. Very cute! Your flock is beautiful by the way. ~Dee~ (edited to enter key word)

 

[DeesHens]

People get that thought in their mind that "show" birds are so much different than regular layers. I'd say they lay close to the same, the only reason hatchery birds lay so abnormally well is the addition of leghorn blood. My show birds are great layers, I'd have to go through my hatching records but they are laying at least every other day, and are purer blood than a hatchery bird. They exhibit the original characteristic laying, but excel against hatchery birds at doing it on a large dual purpose frame, where hatchery birds are not designed for meat, because that would slow the hatcheries ability to hatch thousands of them.

Appreciate your post. It would be wonderful if there were enough Black Aussie breeders in the USA to supply everyone with fine birds like yours for sure. Have you been able to breed 6.5 lb. hens? From my limited search it seemed like the Aussie show birds in the USA are exceeding that standard. Curious how are yours measuring up to it? ~Dee~

 

[chickisoup]

Hi Dee

Surprised you remembered him! I changed his name to Little Max (after his big brother) because his original name just didn't fit a roo . The 're-homing of his big brother with the guy that said he wanted him turned into a nightmare for my sweet boy (long, stupid story I can't relay without getting upset all over again) but my friend and neighbor got the call and went running to rescue him and decided he belonged to her! Seems she had fallen in love with the big sweet ball of feathers herself when she went with me to deliver him to this "gentleman" . When she called to tell me what happened I went right over expecting to pick up my roo but found her hugging him close and wanting my help to set up a special place just for him and the two little girl lorps. . It has since turned out that her other roo wanted nothing to do with the little girls anyway and totally ignores the little trio. . It could not have worked out better!

I am still going to try to get pullets from Urch in the spring if my health permits the road trip. I really would like to see his setup!!! I was going to try hatching but my only broody was momma. Besides, with my luck I'd hatch out all boys!!!

Little Max is really beginning to settle down and today he actually sounded his first warning to the girls! But at what I have no clue it still shows that there's hope for him yet

We have some weather coming and by the weekend the highs are supposed to be around 0 . but I am still going to try and get a good picture of him to post. I hope I can show off how he shines

 

[Vamvakas]

Appreciate your post. It would be wonderful if there were enough Black Aussie breeders in the USA to supply everyone with fine birds like yours for sure. Have you been able to breed 6.5 lb. hens? From my limited search it seemed like the Aussie show birds in the USA are exceeding that standard. Curious how are yours measuring up to it? ~Dee~

Here in the U.S the bigger the better. I noticed judges are strict on bantams weight, but on large fowl they let it slide and prefer bigger birds.

 

[ronott1]

Here in the U.S the bigger the better. I noticed judges are strict on bantams weight, but on large fowl they let it slide and prefer bigger birds.

It sounds like the size is more regional. Some judges know that Australorps are supposed to be smaller and some don't.

The important thing is for the Lorps to keep their curves compared to the Orps.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: Wonderful series of pics Ron. Recognized some of them from your past posts but fun to see them laid out together. The two pics really crack me up. Very cute! Your flock is beautiful by the way. ~Dee~
Love this One " What ca Doing ? "