Australorps breed Thread

[teaton]

I finally got some Black Australorps! 6 pulletts and 1 cockeral they are cute chicks, look like little penguins! And they have gotten big fast!!!

 

[apryl29]

I have the 12, & the most I've gotten in a single day was 9 eggs. I have 4 eggers and I've gotten 2 green and 2 blue eggs, but not all on the same day so I know I have 10 birds laying for sure. What I don't know is if I have ladies who aren't laying everyday, or if I have some that just aren't laying at all. My little sebright bantam hasn't laid in a week so she's done for the season. I've been told about putting food coloring on the vent to figure out who is laying, but I'm not that concerned that I'd consider that just yet.

 

[apryl29]

Wow, those are some amazing photos! Beautiful birds!

 

[bruceha2000]

My 5 Y/O BA is moulting and has never been a winter layer so she is done until March ... if she starts up again, she isn't a spring chicken any more!

One of my 2.5 Y/O BA's is moulting, based on last year she's done until February. Last year she didn't start her moult until about 'now'. The other 2.5 Y/O is still laying, don't know when she will shut down for moult. Last year she didn't moult until Mid December, if she follows the other one and goes earlier this year, she'll start moulting in a couple of weeks.

 

[apryl29]

I've been seeing more feathers around the coop lately. My sebright bantam stopped laying and I'm seeing a bunch of her feathers, and I noticed some feathers from what I think is one of my eggers. My leghorn has been shedding feathers for a couple months already. Why would they molt when it's getting so cold? I'd think would have done that when it was hot. I worry about them getting too cold. Last night I peeked in on them and it was 50 degrees in the coop, but 42 outside. I'm sure it got much colder. I have a thermocube on a heat lamp that will turn on ~35 degrees. I noticed my leghorn has a black spot on his comb already. I didn't expect him to start having that problem until much later.

 

[ronott1]

I finally got some Black Australorps! 6 pulletts and 1 cockeral they are cute chicks, look like little penguins! And they have gotten big fast!!!

View attachment 1170875 View attachment 1170876 View attachment 1170875 View attachment 1170875 View attachment 1170876 View attachment 1170878 View attachment 1170879

They are very cute!

 

[ronott1]

I have the 12, & the most I've gotten in a single day was 9 eggs. I have 4 eggers and I've gotten 2 green and 2 blue eggs, but not all on the same day so I know I have 10 birds laying for sure. What I don't know is if I have ladies who aren't laying everyday, or if I have some that just aren't laying at all. My little sebright bantam hasn't laid in a week so she's done for the season. I've been told about putting food coloring on the vent to figure out who is laying, but I'm not that concerned that I'd consider that just yet.

chickens don't usually lay every day. The closest for me was a trader joes chick that I hatched that layed an egg nearly every day for the first year. She has now molted and it back to laying but not every day now.

Black Australorps will usualy lay 5 eggs a week on average. If you have 12 and get 10 eggs a day you are doing better than average!

 

[apryl29]

chickens don't usually lay every day. The closest for me was a trader joes chick that I hatched that layed an egg nearly every day for the first year. She has now molted and it back to laying but not every day now.

Black Australorps will usualy lay 5 eggs a week on average. If you have 12 and get 10 eggs a day you are doing better than average!

I didn't know Trader Joe's sold chicks!
Oddly enough, my sebright bantam would lay 5-6 days a week. Someone else lays about every day, but IDK.. I just recognize the weird coloring on the eggs. I have 4 that are supposed to be 'production layers', 2 amber browns and 2 tetra browns. They will lay big double yolk eggs and I wonder if the day after they lay the double yolks if they skip a day b/c they don't have a yolk ready. If so then that would explain it. I also had people tell me that they need more protein. I tried giving them feather fixer and meat bird feed, but I haven't noticed a difference. I had 2 eggers that laid blue eggs stop laying for at least a month, now they've both started back up. I just get worried that if someone isn't laying b/c something's wrong. I mark on the calendar # of brown, egger, and bantam eggs I get each day. We normally get 7-8 eggs a day now since Ash isn't laying, but I know that 10 birds have laid for sure b/c of the egg colors. I'll have to start marking when Loki lays. I felt bad b/c the one day I went to collect eggs & the usual daily coop stuff. She wanted to lay her egg, but I kept interrupting her. I finally had to sit outside and wait for her b/c she couldn't lay w/ an audience. That's how I finally figured out which egg was hers.

 

[ronott1]

I hatched fertile eggs from Trader Joes!

chickens are very sensitive to light amounts. This time of year They will slow down in laying. Australorps are winter layers so they do not completely stop laying eggs but still slow down a lot

 

[BlueBaby]

My 5 Y/O BA is moulting and has never been a winter layer so she is done until March ... if she starts up again, she isn't a spring chicken any more!

One of my 2.5 Y/O BA's is moulting, based on last year she's done until February. Last year she didn't start her moult until about 'now'. The other 2.5 Y/O is still laying, don't know when she will shut down for moult. Last year she didn't moult until Mid December, if she follows the other one and goes earlier this year, she'll start moulting in a couple of weeks.

My Australorps lay all through the winter, but our winter's down here aren't as cold as where you are at. I don't see any snow here.