Australorps breed Thread

[aveca]

Thought I'd give you an enlargement of 'my' avatar. As it made the cover of our new Standards, it is generally regarded here as close to the perfect roo. Some breeds are not even illustrated in the new standards as good examples were not found and they won't put in pics of substandard birds.
Enjoy Geoff from Aus

 

[aveca]

that bird is as good as its ever going to get.. here is a news segment and film about master breeder ray connor..i swear your bird has to have come out of his line..hes identical to rays champion on the cover of his book....

starts off a little slow and where are we going with this but rays birds are worth a peek anyday... good story about ray and his multi champion birds.

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2012/s3491269.htm

 

[aveca]

here is a fantastic lg fowl champion hen from your neck of the woods to illustrate how beautiful they are..probably related to yours.



and ray's book , such a good read.

 

[aveca]

Aveca, You need to get one of stans birds and it just so happens I have two of his roosters available

i just wanted to say thank you by the way...i do appreciate that..i know what you have of stans is very good birds..we are building a bigger barn..more organization and heated ai room..i will get ahold of you when we break ground..just waiting for the rest of the equipment to be available..the roof trusses have been sitting covered up and ready for a couple months , but after the flooding here last year the backhoe was and still is tied up ..but they are closing in on finishing it up..

 

[lildinkem]

Hi lildinkem,
he's not a bad lookin' roo. Head is ok and I really like that he has pretty much the right tail, which seems a problem over there. His bottom half is not quite so good as his 'skirt' should cover a bit more of his fluffy thighs so he looks a bit better balanced. Don't worry about the different bloodlines, what's more important is that you choose hens which compensate for his weaknesses. In this case use girls with especially long skirts. That's what I'm told here anyway! Hope it helps. Enjoy these great birds!
Cheers Geoff from Aus

Hi Geoff
This boy has been in a breeding pen all summer. And likes to fence fight with a Cuckoo Orp alot. He has brushed away his better bottom half feathering on the fence. I had pics of him in the beginning of the season where his lower skirt was fuller. Lost them pics on my dead computer. The girls I have him with were sold to me on the cheap cause they have a unique gene that made them appear to be like an Exchequer. You can see them in the one pic. Their from a bird who who won Grand Champ at our Indiana State Fair Poultry Show 2 years ago. A 2,200 bird show. They have a bit stiffer tails. And after taking this fella to them the gene they carry has not passed down to their offspring. At least not visually. So I am growing them chicks out and we will see how they turn out.

 

[lildinkem]

Thought I'd give you an enlargement of 'my' avatar. As it made the cover of our new Standards, it is generally regarded here as close to the perfect roo. Some breeds are not even illustrated in the new standards as good examples were not found and they won't put in pics of substandard birds.
Enjoy Geoff from Aus

Yeah he's awesome!!

 

[groche]

Hi Aveca,
don't understand the "Billy Bob Joe..." bit, but I think I recognise Bill. Chook breeders seem to have more than our share of idiosyncratic/eccentric types, known over here as 'cantankerous old buggers!' You obviously know this one well enough to give him a serve on here. Given that, I'd be telling him that I was gonna borrow/lease/kidnap a trio of your chosing for a month during breeding season, so you can show him what he's bin hiding!
Good Luck! Geoff from Aus

 

[lildinkem]

Hi Aveca,
don't understand the "Billy Bob Joe..." bit, but I think I recognise Bill. Chook breeders seem to have more than our share of idiosyncratic/eccentric types, known over here as 'cantankerous old buggers!' You obviously know this one well enough to give him a serve on here. Given that, I'd be telling him that I was gonna borrow/lease/kidnap a trio of your chosing for a month during breeding season, so you can show him what he's bin hiding!
Good Luck! Geoff from Aus

I go by Bill. And have no clue to why someone would call me anything else.
I know you by these posts you have made and to agree that PHENOTYPE is how one breeds. I breed for what a bird looks like. Cross lines and still make some decent show worthy birds. The ones I generally show are young birds. And like the bird in my avatar I breed the heck out of them and only will show them in the beginning of the season.

 

[groche]

Hi folks,

On the breeding issue, I'd be hard-pressed not to be in agreement with what you seem to be doing, Bill, as I'm doing something a bit similar over here. I've had some experience with other breeds but I'm pretty new to serious Aussie breeding. I started with the Australian Standard, looked at a hell of a lot of birds, decided they were getting bigger/overweight standard! and fluffier, and winning major prizes! I want to breed my own line in the longer term which, in my opinion only,would be truer to our current Standard. Decided to get the best blood I could source. Started with a good, but not top SQ roo from the blood of my avatar. He was sold because he's a tad small for current taste. But he has no major faults and a really good head. Selected a couple of smaller, tighter feathered pullets from the same breeder. The two recent pullets are of unrelated but top quality blood. They have better colored legs and are better in the back than my roo but to my eye, even as pullets, they're huge. I'm not discounting also bringing in some blood from a good- laying strain as I believe that the Aussie should still be a good layer and not just pretty! So, generally I'm mixing lines to get the basic conformation I want.
However, some experts over here say that this approach ignores basic genetics. Put simply, they say that we are putting so many ingredients into the mix that you can't be sure of consistency for umteen generations and you'll never get 'pure lines' set. I get it, but figure if I'm putting good birds with good birds, I'm not gonna get huge variation. I'm only trying to tweak it here!
Thanks those of you who struggled through the ramble! Cheers Geoff from Aus

 

[lildinkem]

Hi folks,

On the breeding issue, I'd be hard-pressed not to be in agreement with what you seem to be doing, Bill, as I'm doing something a bit similar over here. I've had some experience with other breeds but I'm pretty new to serious Aussie breeding. I started with the Australian Standard, looked at a hell of a lot of birds, decided they were getting bigger/overweight standard! and fluffier, and winning major prizes! I want to breed my own line in the longer term which, in my opinion only,would be truer to our current Standard. Decided to get the best blood I could source. Started with a good, but not top SQ roo from the blood of my avatar. He was sold because he's a tad small for current taste. But he has no major faults and a really good head. Selected a couple of smaller, tighter feathered pullets from the same breeder. The two recent pullets are of unrelated but top quality blood. They have better colored legs and are better in the back than my roo but to my eye, even as pullets, they're huge. I'm not discounting also bringing in some blood from a good- laying strain as I believe that the Aussie should still be a good layer and not just pretty! So, generally I'm mixing lines to get the basic conformation I want.
However, some experts over here say that this approach ignores basic genetics. Put simply, they say that we are putting so many ingredients into the mix that you can't be sure of consistency for umteen generations and you'll never get 'pure lines' set. I get it, but figure if I'm putting good birds with good birds, I'm not gonna get huge variation. I'm only trying to tweak it here!
Thanks those of you who struggled through the ramble! Cheers Geoff from Aus

It won't take long to narrow down to what you want. As you said over there, here too our APA judges for a few years got away to breeding them for the correct look and size. Heck I went to a huge APA show in Ohio going on 3 years ago, and the Australorps were better to be called Black Orpingtons then Australorps. And the Black Orp shown were closer to the SOP of Australorps then Orpingtons. I think one of the reasons my girls breeder won the Grand Champ at our Indiana State Fair Poultry Show, is his male fit the description of what an Australorp should be then what has been seen for years here at our shows. Doug is his name, and he was shocked his Buff Orpingtons, which my avatar is 1/2 from his line, did not win Grand Champ yet alone Champ English. Doug's birds are tighter feathered.. My male, when he is not fence fighting, is a bit fluffier feathered. The combo should hit the nail on the head.