Australorps breed Thread

[plantcityhomestead]

I finally got in touch with Duane Urch. I didn't expect him to pick up so I sounded like a complete idiot.

Anyway, I found out his chicks cost $7 apiece.
Can anyone tell me what a 'normal' price for Australorp from a breeder is?

That sounds like a fair price to me too.

cindy

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Aveca, I'm just now finding out that there are standards for birds and that hatchery chicks are the equivalent to the puppy mills of the dog world. But I will love my chickens just the same and next go-round maybe I'll upgrade. Interesting about the points on the combs, I'll look for that. Anything else to look for? Soooo much to learn.

Finally got my coop finished up because we are expecting rain and I wanted it done before. I'll have to wait a little longer to put the girlies in for a visit. However, they are going into the garage tomorrow. I like having them in the house where I can see them but they're starting to have a little, shall we say, odor.

 

[aveca]

i have both..i know i sounded rather harsh on the hatchery birds, but i also keep them...the origional purpous of the australorp was egg laying ability..a long time ago, several australorp hens set records ....no artificial lighting..someone with deep pockets in US imported those birds...like many other us breeds, over time they kind of dissappeared fell into disrepair ..storys still out there how unhappy aussies of that day were that the record egg layers were sold to america..one thread long time ago had an opinion that said ..if you want to ruin it, send it to america......sadly in this case , came true...the record layers dissappeared..they were angrey that such poor records were kept, and no one knows why they just evaporated..no one had any answers..but the hatchery birds still carry those bloodlines..there was a story years ago that early on some of the hatcheries bought up most of the remaining stock from the record layers.....we keep records ..i have 1 hen that laid 340 eggs one year..after that she went into broody or molt and never repeated that.... a daughter of hers never goes broody one year 324 eggs...so people wonder why i keep those...that is why...they have one feature that the show birds do not have..in the dead of winter..they just keep churning out eggs..i have kept them going for many years now...i got the comb points down to around 7 from 21...but with them i start watching and recording eggs..i was only trying to improve them looks wise and keep that jan - feb egg a day thing going on..might seem strange to some people..but to me , that was the origional intention. the hatchery breed for fast delivery to your door not sop....i did notice the show birds do have very few if any spotty eggs . its a casual observation . im a pain in the rear about details like that..notice every single thing.want to keep hens like those going....

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I have some of stans chicks. They are 8 1/2 months old. I must have gotten some amazing birds. They started laying early. Two of the hens went broody at 7 1/2 months old. One is still at it and the chicks are due to hatch this week. I hope she's a good mom. All 3 roo's still get along, although it's becoming a problem with the hens. I'm looking to rehome 2 of them. I do have to say their laying ability is not the best but at least they don't eat as much as my Orpingtons and lay better. I'm waiting to see how they do this winter. The last two years the only ones that kept laying were the Leghorns. To put the icing on the cake. They are HUGE.

 

[KnobbyOaks]

.we keep records ..i have 1 hen that laid 340 eggs one year..after that she went into broody or molt and never repeated that.... a daughter of hers never goes broody one year 324 eggs...so people wonder why i keep those...that is why...they have one feature that the show birds do not have..in the dead of winter..they just keep churning out eggs..

That's so interesting; thanks for the history lesson. I was looking just to produce eggs for personal use and that was one of the reasons I picked this variety. I got 8 chicks and my son's family, who lives next door, got an additional 8 Australorp from the same hatch. They've had chickens before but they let me pick my choice. The Australorp sounded great and keep going in the winter. We've got a wager going who whose hens produce the first eggs. :!

How do you tell who lays what egg to keep track of?

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
Some people use a thing called a nest trap. It is a one way door so the pullet cannot get out after the egg is laid. you need to be there to get her out though unless you have a nest box for each layer. With my hens I would probably have three of the stuck in there. It is funny to see two or three of them in a nest at the same time.

Silly chickens.

 

[aveca]

I have some of stans chicks. They are 8 1/2 months old. I must have gotten some amazing birds. They started laying early. Two of the hens went broody at 7 1/2 months old. One is still at it and the chicks are due to hatch this week. I hope she's a good mom. All 3 roo's still get along, although it's becoming a problem with the hens. I'm looking to rehome 2 of them. I do have to say their laying ability is not the best but at least they don't eat as much as my Orpingtons and lay better. I'm waiting to see how they do this winter. The last two years the only ones that kept laying were the Leghorns. To put the icing on the cake. They are HUGE.

Stan has some of the classiest aussies out there..they do start laying early too..if the roosters are raised together they seem to do pretty good, but boy if you take one out to go show, then try to put him back...not good..we used no artificial lights just mom nature..it was pretty amazing, almost like a cartoon with hens in there churning out eggs..we used trap nests , eventually a critter cam, they tripped the beamand took 2 pictures of themselves..we had a couple of pages printed out of the pics lined up like thumbnails with camera date stamp ..so that was pretty cool..plus when your doing something like that you get to know whos eggs belongs to who, buttercup always a pale pinkish brown, her daughters were same but with some freckles..there was butter cup in laying an egg, 340 days, not in a row..my sister wants to write a book called in search of the record holders..it takes tons of research..and she may be on a flight to australia befor too long..no easy task..most of that is lost to the dustbin of time..but shes searching out obscure old articles and interviews..you can set up your own personal trial..but it just depends on how you want to set it up..if you have long work hours, might not be easy..i happened to do a lot of work from home during that time, so i had time to mess with it....started noticing certian birds were in more often, so seperated those ..several of the pics have mom and daughter in same box same time..flipped the switch off when i was in there cleaning ect....

they based australorps on the old black orpington , thats a head scratcher thou..cant figure out how they knew that such a poor egg layer crossed with this and that could produce record holders...yet it worked..i know when you start crossing birds production goes up..but never dreamed blk orp would figure into that..

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Some people use a thing called a nest trap. It is a one way door so the pullet cannot get out after the egg is laid. you need to be there to get her out though unless you have a nest box for each layer. With my hens I would probably have three of the stuck in there. It is funny to see two or three of them in a nest at the same time.

Silly chickens.

Heee, I want to see the 2-3 chickens in one nest thing. That's got to be funny.

 

[KnobbyOaks]

eventually a critter cam, they tripped the beamand took 2 pictures of themselves..

Ahhh, that would work for me, though that does seem like a bit of "hole in the bathroom wall" sort of thing. No privacy, no privacy at all!

 

[ronott1]

Quote: The crazy thing is, I have 6 nest boxes and 14 layers. They only lay in 2 of them. They have slowed down now from molting, but last month I would find 7 eggs in one nest box, 2 in the 3 roll out boxes and 1 in the nest box in the little coop. No Broody hens yet though.

Ron