Black Australorop-- is this a rooster?

[soydo]

Another vote for the bird in question being a roo.

It could be 'pure' hatchery stock australorp. I've seen more than a few hatchery buff orpingtons with the same type. Not that easy to keep solid light buff and clear white legs with outcross in their ancestry. So I can easily believe them being 'pure hatchery stock australorps'.

 

[soydo]

I'm told that my hen is probably a Black Australorp mix. It's good to hear everyone say that they have a good disposition so maybe the chicks will not be as nutty as their mom (was wild free ranging). She is a very good mom though, very devoted to her chicks.

BTW - My two cents worth, your chicken looks to be a rooster. Just young and still filling in. It's the comb that makes me think it's a young roo.

If you're talking about the hen in your pictures.. I don't think it's an australorp mix- I would say that's a simplistic guess based on color only. It could pass for a pure American game or Game mix- it lacks any dual purpose type. Possibly from a line I can't say the name of here(racist slang) Roundhead.

 

[OwlandBear]

My "help" wasn't up yet, so this is the best I could do by myself this morning;

GROUP SHOT 1



GROUP SHOT 2

BIRD IN QUESTION 1:

 

[Leilaht]

I vote rooster. With that comb and wattle...

 

[Chris09]

• Michael OShay, TaraBellaBirds

Just about all of the hatcheries out there breed there Large Fowl "breeds" to be feather sexed at birth, in order to do so they have to breed in the fast feathering gene that comes from a Mediterranean or Contanetal Breed.If I take a Black Minorca Male and breed it to a Australorp Female all of there First Generation (F1) offspring will be Sex-Links and Pullets have longer faster growing wing feathers at birth than the Cockerels.

As for earlobe color there have been a number of studies that show that when breeding a White earlobe breed to a Red earlobe breed you will get both White and Red earlobe offspring.


Link to sex-links and feather-sex sex-links;
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information

 

[soydo]

• Michael OShay, TaraBellaBirds

Just about all of the hatcheries out there breed there Large Fowl "breeds" to be feather sexed at birth, in order to do so they have to breed in the fast feathering gene that comes from a Mediterranean or Contanetal Breed.If I take a Black Minorca Male and breed it to a Australorp Female all of there First Generation (F1) offspring will be Sex-Links and Pullets have longer faster growing wing feathers at birth than the Cockerels.

As for earlobe color there have been a number of studies that show that when breeding a White earlobe breed to a Red earlobe breed you will get both White and Red earlobe offspring.


Link to sex-links and feather-sex sex-links;
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information

How do you know feather sexing is the primary means?

How do you know they don't maintain slow and fast feathering lines in various breeds?

You even admit some white will show up in earlobe color crosses. Does this happen with red earlobe breeds from hatchery stock?

 

[Chris09]

How do you know feather sexing is the primary means?

How do you know they don't maintain slow and fast feathering lines in various breeds?

You even admit some white will show up in earlobe color crosses. Does this happen with red earlobe breeds from hatchery stock?

First,
Did a lot of calling one year looking for hatchery stock bird that haven't been tampered with yet.

Second,
They could maintain a fast feathering males in each of the slow feathering breeds BUT that male had to get the fast feather growth somewhere, that is where the Mediterranean and Continental Breeds come into play.

Third,
Not sure what your referring to in your third question but I think your talking about this post of mine,

Quote:
If so here is what I was say,
The one study bred a Black Giant Male to a White Leghorn Female and out of 94 chicks hatched they had :
3 birds with White earlobes, 37 birds with predominantly White, 51 birds with predominantly Red earlobes and 3 birds that had Red earlobes.

 

[Michael OShay]

First,
Did a lot of calling one year looking for hatchery stock bird that haven't been tampered with yet.

Second,
They could maintain a fast feathering males in each of the slow feathering breeds BUT that male had to get the fast feather growth somewhere, that is where the Mediterranean and Continental Breeds come into play.

Third,
Not sure what your referring to in your third question but I think your talking about this post of mine,


If so here is what I was say,
The one study bred a Black Giant Male to a White Leghorn Female and out of 94 chicks hatched they had :
3 birds with White earlobes, 37 birds with predominantly White, 51 birds with predominantly Red earlobes and 3 birds that had Red earlobes.

Those stats are true in general (and with Jersey Giants which are an American class chicken) but we are not talking general stats (or Jersey Giants) here, we are talking about breeding Australorps (which are English class breeds) with white lobed Mediterranean breeds. I myself have crossed them before and know others who have and have never seen an Australorp x Mediterranean breed with red earlobes. Furthermore there are a number of commercial hatcheries that breed thousands of Austra Whites, which are Australorp x White Leghorn (a white lobed Mediterranean breed), and none of them have red earlobes (see the example in the picture below).

 

[Chris09]

The Austra Whites is a very good example of a breed that show a predominantly White earlobe [they are not a fully White earlobe].

The thing you have to remember is that when it comes to genetics it really doesn't matter if the fowl is a English breed a American breed or any other class off fowl.
Also (not that it really matters) remember that the Australorp is said to be made up of English, Mediterranean, Asiatic and American breeds.

ETA-
If you look at the body type of the Austra White and the Black fowl of the OP, they have very similar body types.
I would love to see a good picture of the OP's birds, one that is clear and up close of the earlobe. In the one picture I think there is some White showing through.

 

[Michael OShay]

The Austra Whites is a very good example of a breed that show a predominantly White earlobe [they are not a fully White earlobe].

The thing you have to remember is that when it comes to genetics it really doesn't matter if the fowl is a English breed a American breed or any other class off fowl.
Also (not that it really matters) remember that the Australorp is said to be made up of English, Mediterranean, Asiatic and American breeds.

ETA-
If you look at the body type of the Austra White and the Black fowl of the OP, they have very similar body types.
I would love to see a good picture of the OP's birds, one that is clear and up close of the earlobe. In the one picture I think there is some White showing through.

My point was that the Jersey Giant study does not apply here. Though they may superficially resemble Black Australorps, underneath the feathers, the resemblance ends (other than the fact that they are both chickens). Even the skin color is different (Australorps are white skinned, Jersey Giants are yellow skinned). If someone can authenticate a case where an Australorp x Mediterranean cross has red earlobes, then I will admit the possibility that these birds in question could have some Mediterranean class breed in them (it still doesn't prove they do). But my personal experience and many other cases that I have seen with Australorp X Mediterranean crosses says that they do not have any Mediterranean breed in them.