Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. Congratulations. It's always so exciting getting that first egg. Black Australorps are my favorite standard breed. I've raised them for years and they are extremely hardy. I've raised them where winter temperatures reached 30 below zero and where summer temperatures frequently reached 117-118 F (123 F once), and in both climate extremes they came through like troopers. They are also very calm and gentle birds. My children, and now my granddaughter, made lap pets of them. And Black Australorps are the best layers of the standard, brown egg laying breeds. A BA holds the brown egg laying record with 364 eggs in 365 days, and while none of mine ever reached that kind of production (and likely never will), I had a few of them lay over 300 eggs in a year. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on the first egg! 
