Australorps breed Thread

[ocap]

What other breeds do you have? What made you go with Australorps? Lol just curious...

I bought Buckeye and Wyandotte from Duane Urch at the same time. April 8 hatch date. total of ten Australorp (BA). I am after a source of food for the family and tick control, not showing. I looked at the breed descriptions and went with what I thought would be the most fun of the backyard dual purpose chickens and free range. I had placed an order with Cackle Hatchery before finding this web site so I have 49 more chicks arriving next Tuesday. I want to be able to raise chicks without electricity so I ordered birds that would go broody and if they don't I have 15 silkies in the Cackle order. The Cackle order has BA, Jersey Giant, Brahma, Orpington. silkie, and old English game bantam(for ticks and I don't know if I will be able to keep the roosters). So far I am inclined to have the BA as the main part of my flock, will modify that decision if the Cackle chicks outperform the Urch flock. The Buckeye breed is the most friendly with BA second.

 

[DeesHens]

Thought you guys might like to see this video my husband took of me cuddling one of our black australorp roos, "Mr. Carson".

Fun vid of your "Mr. Carson". He certainly is a handsome guy and was lovely to see him enjoying your attention. Thanks for sharing.

~Dee~

 

[DeesHens]

Ok. So I watched this video about feather sexing chicks at a day (or 2) old.

. Then I wrote to McMurray's Hatchery and asked them what breeds they used feather sexing on. This is the response I got from them.

Dear Becky

The following breeds may be feather sexed:

Araucana
Buff Orpington
Rhode Island
Black Giant
Dark Cornish
Silver Laced Wyandotte
White Rock,
Buff Minorca
Turkens
Black Minorca
Single Comb Leghorn
Black Australorp
New Hampshire
Pearl Whites

-------------------------------------------------------------
Sincerely,
Murray McMurray Hatchery

So, watch the video and see how it is done. They show some great photos that you can learn from! Hope this helps us all!

Hi Becky. That was very educational.

Personally I had noticed in my limited experience with my Barr Rocks in the past as well as the BA's I have now that the male "is more fuzzy overall" (for lack of better term) than my females or you might say "lack of same feather growth" early on.
Always fun to learn new things. Thanks for sharing. ~Dee~

 

[Cowboy44]

I bought Buckeye and Wyandotte from Duane Urch at the same time. April 8 hatch date. total of ten Australorp (BA). I am after a source of food for the family and tick control, not showing. I looked at the breed descriptions and went with what I thought would be the most fun of the backyard dual purpose chickens and free range. I had placed an order with Cackle Hatchery before finding this web site so I have 49 more chicks arriving next Tuesday. I want to be able to raise chicks without electricity so I ordered birds that would go broody and if they don't I have 15 silkies in the Cackle order. The Cackle order has BA, Jersey Giant, Brahma, Orpington. silkie, and old English game bantam(for ticks and I don't know if I will be able to keep the roosters). So far I am inclined to have the BA as the main part of my flock, will modify that decision if the Cackle chicks outperform the Urch flock. The Buckeye breed is the most friendly with BA second.

Wow...your gonna have a chicken coop full then lol...I'm wanting to go in that direction myself I want a cold and hot hardy dual purpose breed especially living in Southern Kentucky! I'm hoping I can free range my birds some...I have a huge coop and run but I love seeing them out foraging just live on a small farm but its located on a very active road and don't want to lose any to semis or fast drivers(I live right on a curve) but I'm gonna order 17 black Australorps hens, 3 roosters and 5 white leghorns from Mcmurray Hatchery...I'm gonna try to keep around 50 large birds later on and hatch and sell babies all year long...we have a huge Amish sale here in April every year and want a lot to hatch a sell then so I'm going to have to use my incubator and broody hens to meet my goal...I've had other breeds before( wyandottes, RIR, Partridge rocks, barred rocks and buff orpingtons) but I wanted something new and that fitted what I needed...I love orpingtons but everyone has them around here so I wanted something different but with a lot of the same qualities plus with the leghorn hens I can get the Austra White and have those in a separate coop and raise them too. I'm excited there ain't nothing like ordering chicks and wait for them to get here!!

So what state do you live in? You run your flock together or will you seperate them?

 

[Vamvakas]

I have around 14 BA and there 5 weeks old. I noticed some have black legs, some have dark grey legs, and some have a blackish green feet. Will the leg color change to jet black when they get older?

 

[ocap]

Wow...your gonna have a chicken coop full then lol...I'm wanting to go in that direction myself I want a cold and hot hardy dual purpose breed especially living in Southern Kentucky! I'm hoping I can free range my birds some...I have a huge coop and run but I love seeing them out foraging just live on a small farm but its located on a very active road and don't want to lose any to semis or fast drivers(I live right on a curve) but I'm gonna order 17 black Australorps hens, 3 roosters and 5 white leghorns from Mcmurray Hatchery...I'm gonna try to keep around 50 large birds later on and hatch and sell babies all year long...we have a huge Amish sale here in April every year and want a lot to hatch a sell then so I'm going to have to use my incubator and broody hens to meet my goal...I've had other breeds before( wyandottes, RIR, Partridge rocks, barred rocks and buff orpingtons) but I wanted something new and that fitted what I needed...I love orpingtons but everyone has them around here so I wanted something different but with a lot of the same qualities plus with the leghorn hens I can get the Austra White and have those in a separate coop and raise them too. I'm excited there ain't nothing like ordering chicks and wait for them to get here!!

So what state do you live in? You run your flock together or will you seperate them?

State? Missouri
separate? yes, one large run, one large coop and currently one chicken tractor
There are several on this thread that live near you and will have Australorps to sell or trade. I suggest you start reading https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/732985/csu-chicken-state-university-large-fowl-sop
also to help understand what the "perfect" chicken looks like then when you need to buy a rooster to compliment you flock you will know what will help. I have been reading Chicken State University every day, then go out and look at my chickens then read it again

 

[Flowerbh]

Wow...your gonna have a chicken coop full then lol...I'm wanting to go in that direction myself I want a cold and hot hardy dual purpose breed especially living in Southern Kentucky! I'm hoping I can free range my birds some...I have a huge coop and run but I love seeing them out foraging just live on a small farm but its located on a very active road and don't want to lose any to semis or fast drivers(I live right on a curve) but I'm gonna order 17 black Australorps hens, 3 roosters and 5 white leghorns from Mcmurray Hatchery...I'm gonna try to keep around 50 large birds later on and hatch and sell babies all year long...we have a huge Amish sale here in April every year and want a lot to hatch a sell then so I'm going to have to use my incubator and broody hens to meet my goal...I've had other breeds before( wyandottes, RIR, Partridge rocks, barred rocks and buff orpingtons) but I wanted something new and that fitted what I needed...I love orpingtons but everyone has them around here so I wanted something different but with a lot of the same qualities plus with the leghorn hens I can get the Austra White and have those in a separate coop and raise them too. I'm excited there ain't nothing like ordering chicks and wait for them to get here!!

So what state do you live in? You run your flock together or will you seperate them?

Have you ever thought about getting some Easter Eggers? They are super fun because you never know what color they will end up being, (come in all colors) and you never know if you will get blue, green or pinkish eggs until they start laying! My EEs give me large bluish eggs and I have some green and olive green egg layers that are at POL, too! Just fun to add color to your egg basket!

 

[PrairieChickens]

Fun vid of your "Mr. Carson". He certainly is a handsome guy and was lovely to see him enjoying your attention. Thanks for sharing.

~Dee~

lol Thanks! I tried cuddling the other roo, Mr. Mosley, but he didn't care for it as much. Mr. Carson looked a little hurt that I was trying to snuggle someone else, too. XD

 

[starlingdaly]

Congrats on your 600th post, Vamvakas!
Hopefully someone will have the answer to your question. I am not experienced enough with Australorps yet to have that answer.

I have a question for everyone! Has anyone bought Australorp babies this year from a hatchery in the US and at 1-2 weeks of age notice the chicks start developing underbites and eventually lead to possible scissor beak problems? I have bought 4 chicks at two different times from a local feed store and didn't think that the underbites could be genetic until I noticed they were all getting them.
Anyone know which hatchery might be at fault here?
And also, I've noticed as my chicks age (I've lost two to random deaths and a third is acting suspicious) their heads start looking like they might be a big misshapen, or perhaps too small for their body. Very strange. Never experienced such a high incidence of problems with any other type of bird in any previous season.

 

[PrairieChickens]

I haven't had any problems so far with the four I got from Orscheln's this year, knock on wood. They've all been very healthy birds.