Black Australorp thoughts and opinions

[ForFlocksSake]

I’m putting together an order for this summer and I like to add 1 or 2 prolific layers since I’m getting some breeds that don’t lay as often. I’ve had my eye on black australorps for a while. To those who keep this breed, how do they lay? how early do they come into lay? How is their behavior? My birds are always confined so they would need to do well in a very large run but without access to free range.
Thanks!

 

[Sally PB]

I have 3 Black and 2 Blue Australorps. They are good layers. I'd say the first year, I got 5 eggs/week from all of them.

The timing of when you get chicks will have some effect on when they start to lay. I got my first batch in March, and they began laying in August, at 19-20 weeks. I got the second batch in June two years later, and they started in December.

One of my Blues is the most chatty of my birds, but not loud. The 3 Black ones are very quiet.

 

[cubalaya]

the black australorp is almost the perfect chicken. great all around

 

[Australorpfamily]

Hi! So I did see you ordered two. Last year around this time we got 14 straight run, 8roos/6hens, will definitely do things differently in future... bUT we love our BAs. They each, we have 8, have unique personalities.

We are in Indiana and our summer's can get brutal for a bit, they did very well as long as shade. We do have a covered run for them so shade was easy. We don't free range due to location. They love leaves and veggie green we can give them but seem happy and content.

We had a fan for our Brahmas during the summer and our BAs were soso for it. The Brahmas would lay in front of it while the BAs would do walk bys.

They are very good egg layers we've noticed. Ours started laying 16weeks to 18 weeks. With the exception of winter due to molting and cold. And haven't had any even remotely entertain the idea of brooding (our buff Orpington is on her second batch now lol)

And while they are the oldest they do seem to be top of the flock. We also chose breeds that would be good with our BAs having read several threads where BAs could be bullied by some(RIR for example--just what I've read)

Their green sheen in the sun is beautiful

Good luck with them!

 

[Chicken Heel]

I’m putting together an order for this summer and I like to add 1 or 2 prolific layers since I’m getting some breeds that don’t lay as often. I’ve had my eye on black australorps for a while. To those who keep this breed, how do they lay? how early do they come into lay? How is their behavior? My birds are always confined so they would need to do well in a very large run but without access to free range.
Thanks!

In my experiences with them, the hens are very good layers with little to no tendency for broodiness. In flocks of mixed breeds hens, they have tended to be higher up the pecking order as well due to their dominant personalities. The BA roosters I have had through the years skewed towards being human aggressive. I would recommend hens but not roosters for this reason. Both sexes are quite beautiful.

 

[Chicken Heel]

My Black Australorps have handled both hot and cold weather with no problems and I have lived in the foothills of NC, the mountains of SW VA, and now along the central VA/NC border with them in my flocks.

 

[Sally PB]

My summer heat is much different than your summer heat, but my birds did fine. I make sure that they have shade and water.

A nice treat on the "stinking hot" days is some watermelon. I eat the melon, leave about an inch of flesh on the rind, and they love it. I store the pieces in the fridge, so they are a cool treat.

 

[gtaus]

Im working on a colorful egg basket. I already have 3 green layers, a white layer, a blue layer and some light brown layers. In addition to the Australorps I just ordered

That was my idea when I got my first flock. I loved getting all kinds of different colored eggs. If it was up to me, that's what I would still do.

However, Dear Wife sells our excess eggs and the people she sells the eggs to only want large brown eggs. You would think a green egg, a speckled egg, a blue egg, or a dark brown egg would be more valuable, but they are not to the people we sell our eggs.

As I replaced older/dying hens of the different breeds, I have settled into getting ISA Browns which are a brown egg production bird. Everybody loves their large brown eggs and that is our best seller. I truly miss having all kinds of colored eggs, but the brown eggs we sell cover the feed and maintenance cost for my flock. If my chickens were pets, that might not be a concern. But I got a backyard flock with the idea that they should pay for their keep, more or less, from egg money.

I also factor into our egg income how much I sell eggs "to myself" as if I was a customer. So, for the few colored eggs we still get, or a smaller egg, or the occasional cracked egg that gets cooked up immediately, I count those as egg income as well even though I am not selling them to others.

When I got my first flock, I was only interested in eggs for us. But it turned out to be a good deal for us to sell our excess eggs and cover our costs for having a backyard flock. It's really hard to beat the value of the production birds in that respect. Our goals with the backyard flock changed over time and the egg income we get from selling our excess eggs has been able for me to justify keeping a backyard flock.

My main "income" from my backyard flock comes from all the compost they make in the chicken run. I save hundreds of dollars every year from the black gold compost I harvest from the chicken run composting system that I don't have to buy at the big box stores. I have doubled the number of gardens I built and maintain now that I have access to so much chicken compost. I tell people I have composting chickens and get fresh eggs as a bonus!

People have all kinds of reasons to keep a backyard flock. All I am saying is that our goals changed over time, and I had to find a way to cover the costs of keeping chickens. They are not our pets, so they have to add value in other ways.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

I have 3 Black and 2 Blue Australorps. They are good layers. I'd say the first year, I got 5 eggs/week from all of them.

The timing of when you get chicks will have some effect on when they start to lay. I got my first batch in March, and they began laying in August, at 19-20 weeks. I got the second batch in June two years later, and they started in December.

One of my Blues is the most chatty of my birds, but not loud. The 3 Black ones are very quiet.

Thanks!

How do they do in the summer? I’m in North Florida and it can get quite hot here. Of course I do what I can to keep my girls cool but I know some breeds do better than others.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

the black australorp is almost the perfect chicken. great all around

Thank you! I have a really great feeling about them. So much that I ordered 2. They will be my ONLY multiples of a breed in my soon to be flock of 15 (currently have 9). Still in my first year of chicken keeping and basically sampling breeds