Awesome Australorps -- Because "Medium" Doesn't Mean "Boring"

We just hatch 9 eggs
 

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This is a little off topic but interestingly enough it is geographically relevant. I found a beer that I would classify as the most beeriest beer and I don’t mean that in a good way. Fosters is what I imagine beer would be in its purest form. Yes. Medium but not boring at all. I’d call it caveman beer if I was to give it a name. It is similar to how you describe australorps. Two interesting inventions of the Aussies. A beer that is the epitome of beer and a chicken that is the epitome of what it means to be a chicken.

Don’t misunderstand me. This totally not an endorsement of Foster’s beer. I’ll probably never drink it again. I prefer the flavored stuff or the watered down American stuff.

Interesting perspective. :)
 
This is a little off topic but interestingly enough it is geographically relevant. I found a beer that I would classify as the most beeriest beer and I don’t mean that in a good way. Fosters is what I imagine beer would be in its purest form. Yes. Medium but not boring at all. I’d call it caveman beer if I was to give it a name. It is similar to how you describe australorps. Two interesting inventions of the Aussies. A beer that is the epitome of beer and a chicken that is the epitome of what it means to be a chicken.

Don’t misunderstand me. This totally not an endorsement of Foster’s beer. I’ll probably never drink it again. I prefer the flavored stuff or the watered down American stuff.
Have you not heard the joke Aussies say about Fosters?

Fosters is like making love in a boat. It's f***ing close to water.
 
Another thing I love about these birds is how easy it is to sex the chicks. These are 4 weeks old less one day.

I didn't go through the entire hatch, but I caught a few of the obvious males and females just to get example photos:

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I've occasionally mistaken a fast-growing female for a male between 4-6 weeks, but I've not yet been wrong about a 3-4 weeks old.
 
And another thing about Australorps,

Of course there are always exceptions, but the males I've had so far are mild-tempered and laid-back.

I had let the cull cockerels out to forage because the power problem (the attack on substations you read about in the news), interfered with my ability to get feed. But the main flock also managed to get out due to a weakened bungie that didn't hold the door shut properly when I was changing their water.

I quickly reset and turned on the electric netting. One of the Australorp x Brahma's decided to attack his father through the fence. Knowing I was potentially in for a mess but not wanting Rameses to get hurt, I grabbed Flash by the tail, pulled him clear of the netting, and tossed him up the hill away from the flock.

After being herded away from the area they did come back, but there were no more conflicts and later in the day, after obtaining feed, I was able to herd them back to their pen.

No blood drawn, human or animal.

I really expected that grabbing a hormonal 5-month cockerel in the middle of an attempted attack on another male was going to result in being attacked (and I was prepared to cull him then and there if I couldn't get control of him otherwise). But he didn't.

I was also able to just scoop up Midnight (the pure Black Australorp, who would have made an excellent junior flockmaster if he'd have been blue instead of black), and put him into the brooder to show him that there was spilled feed in the bedding to clean up.

I don't handle my males regularly or make pets of them, but with 15 or so Australorp and Australorp X males I haven't had human-aggression issues yet and I've only had one who showed signs of potential trouble -- but he was the grandson of a known-aggressive Lavender Orpington.
 

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