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Has anyone any experience with Rhode Island Red cross Black Austrolop? Any thoughts on characteristics? I am interested to see if they have the same broodyness of the Austrolops or more of the "grit" of the Rhode Island Reds or the worst of both?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Background information.
Our flock is 50% Black Austrolop and Rhode Island Red. They are all Co-op specials so don't have any info on genetics or lineage. The chickens free-range in our back-yard, and we give them a different area every few weeks (we use electric poultry fish to move them around the yard, so they don't destroy everything. The chickens have access to oyster shells and
Anyway, out of 9 Austrolops we have has 6 go broody so far. The Austrolops are really cute, but they just don't have the same personality as the Rhode Island Reds. They also don't do as good a job free ranging (they are slackers compared to the Rhode Island Reds) and tend to camp out in the coop a lot more and are just generally more "needy" compared to the Rhode Island Reds. Egg wise they seem pretty comparable with maybe slightly more eggs (when they are not going broody).
Anyway, we have decided we prefer the Rhode Island Red's personality and are just a better fit for our lifestyle and are phasing out the Austrolops. To do this we tried giving some of the broody Austrolops some Rhode Island Red eggs several times and each time they destroyed them all (they are clumsy). We then bought a brooder and picked what we thought were 24 Rhode Island Red Eggs.
Fast-forward to today, we managed to hatch 3 Austrolop cross Rhode Island Red (mistakes) and 15 Rhode Island Reds and had a few that did not hatch.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Background information.
Our flock is 50% Black Austrolop and Rhode Island Red. They are all Co-op specials so don't have any info on genetics or lineage. The chickens free-range in our back-yard, and we give them a different area every few weeks (we use electric poultry fish to move them around the yard, so they don't destroy everything. The chickens have access to oyster shells and
Anyway, out of 9 Austrolops we have has 6 go broody so far. The Austrolops are really cute, but they just don't have the same personality as the Rhode Island Reds. They also don't do as good a job free ranging (they are slackers compared to the Rhode Island Reds) and tend to camp out in the coop a lot more and are just generally more "needy" compared to the Rhode Island Reds. Egg wise they seem pretty comparable with maybe slightly more eggs (when they are not going broody).
Anyway, we have decided we prefer the Rhode Island Red's personality and are just a better fit for our lifestyle and are phasing out the Austrolops. To do this we tried giving some of the broody Austrolops some Rhode Island Red eggs several times and each time they destroyed them all (they are clumsy). We then bought a brooder and picked what we thought were 24 Rhode Island Red Eggs.
Fast-forward to today, we managed to hatch 3 Austrolop cross Rhode Island Red (mistakes) and 15 Rhode Island Reds and had a few that did not hatch.
Watching, because I have a half-Australorp rooster, and several RIR hens (and BPR, a few Australorp, and assorted others). Their offspring are just now approaching egg-laying age, or still in the brooders. Personalities, I don't know yet. There is one BAxRIR hen from last year's hatch who's threatening to go broody. She bites like hell, just like a RIR.
