Hello from a new member!

[dootsie]

You're welcome. Black Australorps are my favorite standard breed; very hardy, calm and gentle, and the best layers of the standard, brown egg laying breeds.

just have to share this: i spent 11 years in west africa (now ex-husband was a supervisor for an oil company then) and i'd have the driver sneak me off to the villages which were known to have poultry/egg production. always curious, i wanted to see their practices.
needless to say, my showing up was not the norm and a bit of a shock for the villagers but they were always so enthusiastic to share what they were doing.
my favorite was a village where this elderly nigerian walked me into the bush where we came upon a clearing with a large cinderblock building. this was used to house the layers. compared to the u.s., it was not that huge an operation but inside that building he had about 500 hens in double decker cages. all big nice healthy looking birds and while i was expecting to see white hens, they were big black shiny AUSTRALORPS!
every one of the layers was an australorp!
cool, eh?

 

[Michael OShay]

LOL! That is cool! Either White Leghorns weren't available there, or else they must have preferred brown eggs to white ones. There are brown egg laying houses here in the US, but they typically use Black or Red Sex Links, which are egg laying machines, but in those confined conditions and under those lights 24 hours a day, only give them 1-2 years of laying before burning out. The African laying house may have actually been smarter for long term production.

 

[dootsie]

no lights...no electricity.
as for leghorns, laying houses closer to the more "modern" areas there, probably had them. at least by now, years later.
tickled me that this old guy's preference was the australorps.
speaking of eggs, most of the vendors who were selling on the streets, were selling guinea eggs they'd boiled which were robbed from nests in the jungle.

 

[drumstick diva]

Don't worry about talking a lot - most of us here love to talk and no one will say "it's just a chicken."

 

[dianalandaverde]

Good morning ! Its nice to meet everyone ! I'm glad to meet other people that enjoy chickens. I've REALLY enjoyed seeing pictures of all the different breeds. If I can figure out how to operate this tablet/computer thing I'll post pictures of my chickens ! They are pets. They think when we talk about having chicken for dinner that means they sit on a stool and get their own plate....ha ha ! (of course we don't give them chicken to eat. I know that thought went thru someone's mind. Ha Ha )