Australorps breed Thread

[aveca]

G'day Chester and Berta,

It's great to see someone on this forum that I actually know! I've been watching for a few of your posts on Facebook and your fowls are looking great.

I wish there was a way to get some stock over to you, but between Australian Primary and USDA it's a long and expensive exercise to get fertile eggs into the USA.

It's early Sunday morning here and I've just fed all my fowls. Later I'm going down to an auction run by Steve Higgins local poultry club, just for a look (not to buy - I have too many now) and to say hello to some old friends. I'm no longer an active member, as you know I had that massive heart attack and I've been just cruising.

Steve and I are going to the Australian Australorp Tiltes in June at a place called Dubbo in NSW. It's about a 10 hour drive, so he'll do most of the driving. He has some cracking large Australorps this season and he's a big chance of winning it again. I have some handy Bantams that will give that section a nudge, but I didn't breed Large this season as I still can't get around all that well.

They also hold the Australian Langshan Titles at the same venue at that show and I have a small team that might do well. But its in the hands of the Judges, and as long as we have a good time, have a few quiet beers and meet friendly folk, it will be all worthwhile.

Chet, old mate, it's great to hear from you, and I'll support this forum a little more now that I know someone. I had a bit of a rough time with my first post, but I just brush that off.

Cheers to you and Berta and kind regards,

Ross

Hope you dont mind me saying thats Super exciting Ross..Im sorry havnt had a chance to get over to facebook yet but hope to tommorrow....Chet is another great Aussie person..I hope you come back and bring us some pictures of the show, and the english orp people would LOVE to see a few of the big orpingtons too..

 

[ocap]

G'day Chester and Berta,

It's great to see someone on this forum that I actually know! I've been watching for a few of your posts on Facebook and your fowls are looking great.

I wish there was a way to get some stock over to you, but between Australian Primary and USDA it's a long and expensive exercise to get fertile eggs into the USA.

It's early Sunday morning here and I've just fed all my fowls. Later I'm going down to an auction run by Steve Higgins local poultry club, just for a look (not to buy - I have too many now) and to say hello to some old friends. I'm no longer an active member, as you know I had that massive heart attack and I've been just cruising.

Steve and I are going to the Australian Australorp Tiltes in June at a place called Dubbo in NSW. It's about a 10 hour drive, so he'll do most of the driving. He has some cracking large Australorps this season and he's a big chance of winning it again. I have some handy Bantams that will give that section a nudge, but I didn't breed Large this season as I still can't get around all that well.

They also hold the Australian Langshan Titles at the same venue at that show and I have a small team that might do well. But its in the hands of the Judges, and as long as we have a good time, have a few quiet beers and meet friendly folk, it will be all worthwhile.

Chet, old mate, it's great to hear from you, and I'll support this forum a little more now that I know someone. I had a bit of a rough time with my first post, but I just brush that off.

Cheers to you and Berta and kind regards,

Ross

Welcome back Ross,
I am glad you returned! I will post some photos of my roosters in the fall (your spring) and would appreciate your opinion on which to keep for a breeder and which to eat. Do you need four photos or more of each bird? I have also had heart surgery but without the heart attack, Are you at the stage of recovery where you can lift 10 pounds?
John (ocap)

 

[kacklinkelly]

"i have looked at other chick pictures and they kind of look like mine but I'm still unsure. It just upsets me that I was told they were one thing and now I find out they may not be. But I still love them the same I do have a favorite to and I think its a rooster."

I have had this same discussion on this forum earlier on. I requested an australorp and ended up having some white tips on feathers. They did eventually grow out to be beautiful black feathers with that beetle green sheen to them. However, as Rattlesnake pointed out, my supposed australorp has slate legs with yellow soles of her feet so.... not australorp but she is my favorite regardless.

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Ross,
Good to hear from you and keep in touch, you can always PM me.

Chet,
Where have you been hiding? Tell the truth, do the emails I send you bother you, or are they ok?

 

[RossAussie]

G'day,

As I know Chet Hupp from many years of old emails, I'm happy to get involved a little bit more in here. Chet's a good bloke and he often emails with a good mate of mine here in Australia, so the goodwill of breeding and enjoying Australorps (and poultry in general) is world wide.

One thing I did notice in the threads here is people worrying if their new chicks are male or female. The key of course is to be very patient and let them grow out. Leave them enjoy their natural growth and stop stressing over it. I've known of many people who have "poked" around in the vent area of the chicks, not knowing what to look for, and trying to figure out what sex they have, only to acidentally infect the poor little chick.

So here's a little trick from a humble old breeder that you might care to try.
If you have bred them (or purchased day olds) leave them alone until they are about 4, 5 or 6 days old.
Pick the chick up very gently by the legs and hold the chick upsidedown with its head pointing down towards the ground.
If it tends to put its head back upwards between its legs, chances are you have a cockerel.
If it tends to keep its head pointing straight down towards the ground, chances are you have a pullet.
It doesn't neccesarily work every time, but in 90% its an easy way to sex them.

Just give it a try.

Regards,

Ross

 

[RossAussie]

Welcome back Ross,
I am glad you returned! I will post some photos of my roosters in the fall (your spring) and would appreciate your opinion on which to keep for a breeder and which to eat. Do you need four photos or more of each bird? I have also had heart surgery but without the heart attack, Are you at the stage of recovery where you can lift 10 pounds?
John (ocap)

G'day John,
I would be honoured to take a look at your pictures. A couple of each would be fine and I would need to know their ages. Do you show these fowls?

With my little heart attack, I had no idea that I had actually had one. I was just walking up the paddocks with my wife one day and it felt like I was in slow motion. I was in hospital once in late 2011 and 7 times during 2012 and had three stents, a pacemaker and an aortic valve replacement which is full-on open heart surgery. After a very strong recovery I picked up a Staf Virus which floored me, but I'm now back to lifting 20kg (45 pounds) bags of poultry feed, but I do it very carefully and slowly. I'm an ex Rugby League player and I'm rather big muscley fellow, so my recovery has been a bit quicker than normal. My weight has blown out a bit, but I'm getting it back slowly.

This sounds a bit gruesome in a poultry forum so I'm sorry to the forum if this has drifted away from poultry.

Regards,

Ross

 

[aveca]

It's OK Ross, were just glad your on the mend..funny how heart attacks don't present like you might expect..I work at a
Renouned cardiac hospital...glad your getting back to the business of poultry..Chet is a great guy and enthusiastic Australorp breeder

 

[WVDan44]

One thing I did notice in the threads here is people worrying if their new chicks are male or female. The key of course is to be very patient and let them grow out. Leave them enjoy their natural growth and stop stressing over it. I've known of many people who have "poked" around in the vent area of the chicks, not knowing what to look for, and trying to figure out what sex they have, only to acidentally infect the poor little chick.

Hello again Ross,

As you say, allowing the chicks to grow out is the best advice re: sexing young birds. This notion has been presented previously a time or two by other seasoned breeders. I suppose many of us are anxious to find out what we have in order to move out the birds we don't want and save on the feed bill LOL. If you're raising fowl only for show, it would bade well to keep them until they grow out because often the ones you fancy early on are not the ones that turn out for the best. It's all a game of odds and a bit of luck I'd say, and so we work to learn all we can to swing the odds in our favour! The egg producer may have a completely different method and mind set when it comes to culling.

 

[huppfarm]

Howdy Kurt! I'm still alive and kicking! dont get on the computer much as I have been busy out in the pens mixing and matching the BAs and the Blues, hoping to make the correct breeding pens for future stock. If the days are nice, im outside most the day, but lately the weather sucks and keeps me indoors where I can do some b.s. ing with everyone.
Naw the emails are good, keep em coming........I dont always reply to everyone's emails....but agree with many of them and just stay off the grid and out of big brothers hearing or seeing range.........low profile on major political topics will keep from sending a red light on next to my name and a knock on the door or flashlights in your face while in your bed. YOU get the picture.

Other than that we have 4 dozen eggs in the bator since Friday and hope for much fertility when we check them next Friday.
We are trying to breed for the Splash Australorps to make a different strain of blues and that will release us from having to rely on the Splash Orpingtons which we have to breed the traits out.

Its all good clean fun and we are glad to get back to business after our losses due to the strain of wild bird disease we suffered, moving us backwards to square one.

We took hatchlings from Urch and bred them to our hatchlings from Gary Rossman from Wisconsin, both have great contributions of traits I look for, so we are hoping for some wonderful birds as they mature.

Good to hear from you and Ive checked out your posts enjoying them all!

Have a good one and Happy Hatches to All!

 

[huppfarm]

Howdy Ross, Yep, I have looked into the possibilities of shipping eggs from Down under and it is quite a cost not to mention the amount of handling the eggs would receive trying to get to Arizona without having all the membranes ripped and air sacks scattered all over the inside of the shell. Perhaps when I retire in 7 years a plane ride would be in my best interest and just hand carry them home after a wonderful vacation. Would still have to get it approved through customs and pay some sort of fee (I'm sure).

I have dropped out of the Face-book thing for personal reasons that I need not explain, I hope that I made an impact of minimal proportions in the poultry world there. I ran across a few folks there that I had no use for but that is likely anywhere you go in the real or cyber world. So I just stick to emails or this site for connections with folks that are open minded and honest.

Your road trip sounds like a hoot and good luck to you and Steve at the show, that would be a good reason too, see a real Australorp Showing of the best of the best!

The best to you and yours!