Australorps breed Thread

[tigercreek]

Curled toes is an odd case. The most common cause is incubation problems. What is your incubator and were they shipped eggs?

Another cause is vitamin deficiency. If the feet start to curl, try supplementing with Vitamins, especially if you are using medicated feed.

Another thing to consider is the curled toes can be corrected and are not live threatening.

If it is Genetic, It is likely due to inbreeding and could be corrected by out crossing to a not closely related flock.

I have not tried it, but was told by a very experienced breeder that when the toes curl after a chick is on the ground it most likely is caused by a calcium deficiency and can be fixed by adding calcium in the form of ground egg shells. He said that he had never seen egg shells in a nest where the chicks were hatched naturally. Just don't overdo it.......

 

[MeanV2]

I have not tried it, but was told by a very experienced breeder that when the toes curl after a chick is on the ground it most likely is caused by a calcium deficiency and can be fixed by adding calcium in the form of ground egg shells. He said that he had never seen egg shells in a nest where the chicks were hatched naturally. Just don't overdo it.......

Kind of on a different subject. One your boys (kind of) is hopefully going to be a Daddy soon. Working on breeding pens today.

Dan

 

[tigercreek]

Kind of on a different subject. One your boys (kind of) is hopefully going to be a Daddy soon. Working on breeding pens today.

Dan

Glad you got a decent one.. I miss my Aussies.... stan

 

[MeanV2]

Glad you got a decent one.. I miss my Aussies.... stan

Stan,
I hatched one cock. He has excellent body type & color. His comb (before frostbite) had an extra point or 2. I am anxious to see what I can hatch out of 3 of my Gilbert Pullets & him.

I am also putting 3 other of the Gilbert pullets in with a Roo that would be a cousin

It will all be interesting and probably humbling as well.

Dan

 

[waynec1955]

Curled toes is an odd case. The most common cause is incubation problems. What is your incubator and were they shipped eggs?

Another cause is vitamin deficiency. If the feet start to curl, try supplementing with Vitamins, especially if you are using medicated feed.

Another thing to consider is the curled toes can be corrected and are not live threatening.

If it is Genetic, It is likely due to inbreeding and could be corrected by out crossing to a not closely related flock.

The rooster was a hatchery chick, don't know the ancestery. My incubator is a Brinsea Micro Mini. I kept the temp at 95.6 roughly. I will add some vitamins to their diet, I do feed medicated chick starter.

 

[tigercreek]

Stan,
I hatched one cock. He has excellent body type & color. His comb (before frostbite) had an extra point or 2. I am anxious to see what I can hatch out of 3 of my Gilbert Pullets & him.

I am also putting 3 other of the Gilbert pullets in with a Roo that would be a cousin

It will all be interesting and probably humbling as well.

Dan

It should be an interesting hatch with a combination of three different lines. Gonna take some serious culling there. Lol .. wish you the best, and glad to see that you have a project to keep you occupied. Might just be a magic comdo..... lol....stan

 

[MeanV2]

It should be an interesting hatch with a combination of three different lines. Gonna take some serious culling there. Lol .. wish you the best, and glad to see that you have a project to keep you occupied. Might just be a magic comdo..... lol....stan

Actually the one pen is pretty close relatives paired up. Parents are out of Gilbert's and Akers lines which both came from Kirk Keene's BA's. I would call them a solid line breed. Throwing your line in with a couple of Gilbert pullets will be interesting, but I will keep them marked where I can tell them apart.
I think a few generations out I could get some nice offspring, but time will tell. Actually I think I have some pretty nice BA's to start with. I was very pleased at the consistency of the Gilbert chicks. A solid 8+ keepers out of 20 chicks. I would think I will have a hard time duplicating that.

Dan

 

[tigercreek]

I have never seen his birds, but heard good things about Mr. Gilbert . A good solid line should give you pretty good consistency across the board. Not all will be show birds, but anybody would be happy with 8 breeders from 20 chicks. Says a lot about his birds. Should be more fun with the other parings!! Expect it will be a few years down the road before you get to keep 40% of those! Something to do in retirement??? That's what I am looking for now, just don't think that I have that much time left...lol

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Dan.
Same problem here with the frostbite. We are having a bad winter here in WV. 3 of my breeder cocks out of 5 have bad frostbite on their combs, and they are all from different pens, and different breed lines.

Stan,
Your babies have all grown up now and are doing fine. One breeding pen is still pure Tigercreek with "MOJO" and daughters. The other BA pen is "COAL" with my Duane Urch Line and TC. These I will call my Rattlesnake Ridge Line, and will all be pure black aussies. My other Breeding pen is a combination of the best that I picked from TC, DU, RR, and HF. This pen is starting to produce my Blue, Black,Splash Line of Australorps. I did not start my hatches until Jan so I am behind a little. We were sub zero for a few weeks on the MT. I have about 13 blacks and one blue right now with another two dozen in the incubator due to hatch next month that will be from the BBS pen that has HF blue cock and a splash HF cock in there.

I am real tired of plowing and shovelling snow on this MT.

Kurt

 

[MeanV2]

The time I have spent talking to Bob I have noticed the following. He is a Judge that judges all over the country so he should know what he is doing and obviously those requesting his services believe he does. He is working hard to continually improve his line and has a plan laid out.

He also gives a lot of credit in the development of his BA's to Kirk Keene, but like I said is and has worked to improve them. I know there are No perfect chickens!

Honestly the cross with your line has my utmost interest. The other cross is being made hoping to maintain what I have. Out of the 9 pullets I have 7 that are extremely close in every way. I have leg tagged them and still every month or so I change my mind about which are the best 3 or 4. Out of the 11 cockerels I had I still have 3 of them and would not be afraid to breed any of the 3. I am fairly sure I culled a couple that would have matured out very nice. The next couple months or so will be full of anticipation. It is likely to also have some feelings of accomplishment (hopefully) and some disappointment.

I haven't talked to Bob since his accident. I will try to touch base with him soon. I hope he will recover quickly, but it did sound pretty severe.

Dan