Australorps breed Thread

[chickisoup]

We have rolls and rolls of "chicken" but the only thing we use it for is to keep the wild turkeys and deer out of our veggie gardens. Not good for much else up here.

 

[4chickymama]

I just had decision with friends about poultry wire.it was actually intended to keep birds out of gardens NOT to protect them from predators...hardware cloth can hold my 5month old German Shepard x INSIDE our chicken tractor lol there are times when our chicks are out I lock him in

I was wondering how well the hardware cloth would hold up. I'm heading to town today for supplies, so I will pick some up. There is a roll here but its not ours so Ben doesn't want to use it.

 

[adam73]

4chickymama.....pictures is from aug 17th & no those aren't my 1st aussies those babies are from a flock i have

 

[adam73]

 

[4chickymama]

Alright, these are just crappy cell phone pics



The girls, Farina, Charianna, and Dorothy. We hope. And now my husband saw the pics and he's re-taking them, 'cause I failed. Ha!

 

[4chickymama]

okay, here's his shot:

 

[getaclue]

4chicky, seeing your pics makes me want to fire up my incubator again. They're cute.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Quick question and some chicken drama:

My husband and I are looking to get into Black Australorps. I think they are beautiful and, more importantly, make great dual purpose birds from what I have read.

We have the fortune of living not too far from some great breeders and will be picking up about 10 adult birds to start our flock.

In addition to breeding stock, we wanted some generic hatchery birds to keep egg production high.

To skip the brooding process, we tracked down a gentleman on Craigslist who had six BA hens for sale. They were hatchery birds and he raved about them when I contacted him to buy his birds. He said he was downsizing and was going with a different breed. I said that was great, the price was reasonable, and as soon as we finished our coop/run, we would pick them up from him in a round trip to get our other birds as well.

After a few days, I contacted him to let him know we would be done with the coop in a week or so and looked forward to meeting him and his birds. He informed me that he sold them to someone else already and that they weren't really the best layers. He advised we go with a different breed like EEs if we were looking for egg production. I told him I would talk to my husband and get back to him.

After I got over my initial feather-ruffle regarding his bad business practices (I feel he should have told me that he sold the birds to someone else, since I had already made an offer and he accepted and said he would hold them for us... in addition to gloating about his hens, and then turning around and telling us that, well, they weren't *that* great), I was wondering why his hens weren't laying as an Australorp is said to lay.

I know that the type of feed and light conditions can factor in, and I don't have that much info on it, but could it be that he got a bad batch from the hatchery? Is the myth of the record-breaking egg-layer overblown?

Any input would be helpful.

 

[ronott1]

Quick question and some chicken drama:

My husband and I are looking to get into Black Australorps. I think they are beautiful and, more importantly, make great dual purpose birds from what I have read.

We have the fortune of living not too far from some great breeders and will be picking up about 10 adult birds to start our flock.

In addition to breeding stock, we wanted some generic hatchery birds to keep egg production high.

To skip the brooding process, we tracked down a gentleman on Craigslist who had six BA hens for sale. They were hatchery birds and he raved about them when I contacted him to buy his birds. He said he was downsizing and was going with a different breed. I said that was great, the price was reasonable, and as soon as we finished our coop/run, we would pick them up from him in a round trip to get our other birds as well.

After a few days, I contacted him to let him know we would be done with the coop in a week or so and looked forward to meeting him and his birds. He informed me that he sold them to someone else already and that they weren't really the best layers. He advised we go with a different breed like EEs if we were looking for egg production. I told him I would talk to my husband and get back to him.

After I got over my initial feather-ruffle regarding his bad business practices (I feel he should have told me that he sold the birds to someone else, since I had already made an offer and he accepted and said he would hold them for us... in addition to gloating about his hens, and then turning around and telling us that, well, they weren't *that* great), I was wondering why his hens weren't laying as an Australorp is said to lay.

I know that the type of feed and light conditions can factor in, and I don't have that much info on it, but could it be that he got a bad batch from the hatchery? Is the myth of the record-breaking egg-layer overblown?

Any input would be helpful.

Australorps lay well but they do not lay 360 eggs the first year on average for the breed.

If you look up the numbers, you will see over 200 or so on average, maybe up to 250. That is for the first year. Egg production drops of sharply for the best egg layers after the first year.

EEs are not good dual purpose. They will lay a lot of eggs but the boys will be little things to eat. For Dual purpose, get the show quality lorps that have been bread to standard.

Look at it like the guy did you a favor; now you can get some nicer australorps.

Given that we all have way too many chickens quickly, it would not hurt to get some EEs for eggs. It may be next Spring before the better australorps are ready. Australorps integrate well so you should be able to integrate them easily to the flock of EEs.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Australorps lay well but they do not lay 360 eggs the first year on average for the breed.

If you look up the numbers, you will see over 200 or so on average, maybe up to 250. That is for the first year. Egg production drops of sharply for the best egg layers after the first year.

EEs are not good dual purpose. They will lay a lot of eggs but the boys will be little things to eat. For Dual purpose, get the show quality lorps that have been bread to standard.

Look at it like the guy did you a favor; now you can get some nicer australorps.

Given that we all have way too many chickens quickly, it would not hurt to get some EEs for eggs. It may be next Spring before the better australorps are ready. Australorps integrate well so you should be able to integrate them easily to the flock of EEs.

Fortunately, the birds we found are show-quality. They are HUGE. They are already a year old or so and we really want a single-bird flock... We're going to start a breeding line and accidental crosses would be a waste of resources to feed and grow.

Thanks for the input! I feel better already.