Curious About Australorps?

[3KillerBs]

I'm curious,

Are there any varieties of Australorps other than black?

The black ones are, of course, absolutely beautiful. But with so many breeds having such a stunning collection of colors and patterns it seemed odd to have only one kind of Australorp, especially since everything I've read about the breed makes them sound so fabulous, so I was curious.

 

[faykokoWV]

I don't know if its a "recognized standard" but there are Blue Australorps.

 

[aveca]

There are white, and somone was working on some blue. Go to australorps australia official site. they give some good examples of whites, If I remember right they wernt allowed in australian shows , maybe they are now.

 

[blackdotte]

In Australia the colours found are Black,Blue, Splash & White. The last 2 are not currently in the Standard (being reprinted currently) and all except Splash are shown
David

 

[Chris09]

In the U.S. the only color that is the Standard for the Australorp is Black..

Chris

 

[aveca]

That is correct. I havnt seen any splash's yet, have you? seen some blues & a lot of whites. If you find the spash post them for us. Interesting color for them.

Here are the australian standards update , check out the roll of honor and show ages for pics of winners there are some whites. outstanding birds.

. ...I wish someone with a ton of money would go import some and start breeding operation , but there is a waiting list there. I think its on the links page or message board

http://www.australorps.com/4.html

 

[aveca]

jeepers creepers, our magnificent birds indeed, look at this blue.
Lordy I would LOVE to bring them home.

here is a link to some of thier champs.

http://www.australorps.com/18.html

Its just a casual comment , but it seems like the birds there lean toward thier buff orps ancestors, the birds here , at leat a lot of them lean a little more toward the leghorn ancestry. I have some of both, some of our hens are getting that real round puffy bum, I dont have my standard out at the moment but I remember it said long neck. some of these birds are bantam but even standard size also have shorter necks. There is a new book out called the australorps by one of the worlds formost breeders. That will be a Christmas present in this house this year. he goes into great depth about this breed.

 

[aveca]

Heres my crappy looking hen, shes good but not like those birds. her got a little more filling out to do, shes 5 &1/2 months It was raining out off and on, I ran out and snapped this pic. Boy Im liking those blues a lot, I didnt really pay attention to them till you brought it up.

I didnt really need to put the band on her, she has the darkest metalic green feathers compared to the others, so shes getting easier to tell apart for the breeding group. It was dingey weather out so you cant really see that color,

.

 

[faykokoWV]

so how do they get from the standard black to that beautiful blue? Are they crossed with something along the line or is it just years of selective breeding of lighter colored australorps? If crossed, do the blues breed true or is it blue, black splash offspring?

 

[aveca]

I would love to know that also. Blacks and whites I suppose could create the blue, but splash? ?not sure, maybe someone who knows will help out here.

I had a hard enough time eliminating any slight purple hue. I dont have any of it now but have some dull black almost charcole little if any metalic but great feathers, just dull , then I have bright metalic , developing splash , might be best to talk to somone who really knows, who here has decent whites to work from? if thats what it takes. somone will read it and have a formula.

doesnt it just seem like black and white = blue greay like the bird above? Im just wondering where to get whites.