Hey Non Hatchery Australorp Breeders or Owners!

[huppfarm]

Howdy, Im looking to trade some Quality bred Black Australorp eggs with another breeder of quality black australorps here in America for my Blue Australorp Project. no hatchery bird eggs please, Im needing good bloodlines to enhance the project. Once I breed i will send Blue/black eggs back to you just for helping out. presently there are no Blue Australorps in the American Standard of Perfection, Im in the process of achieving this. Quality breeders welcome to join in and make this happen!

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Why don't you get some show quality Australorps from a fair or poultry show near you? I had a pair of exhibition stock and the hen laid the tiniest eggs only once a week. I ended up putting the cock over my hatchery Australorp hens to "breed up" what I had without losing laying ability. You could try that; then you'd know exactly the quality of your foundation birds.

 

[huppfarm]

howdy, thanks for the reply.
i can tell you that what you've recommended has been attempted several times. i am definitely full of experiences and tales to tell.
i had the best black australorps in Arizona back in the mid to late 90's. my line was very desirable and i sold my birds to folks that liked them, i had a name that was respected in the poultry community.

so now we are going to go to your recommendation and this is what has happened.
i dropped out of the chicken thing and went off on a new adventure! sold all my birds, incubators, brooders, poultry feeders, waterers, medications, and all hardware.
(bad move!)

so years later i get the bug to go back into breeding raising and hatching australorps. i make contact with everyone who bought my birds from me, low and behold no one wants to help me out................nice............why? because of fear of me creating better birds than what they have and they are correct in being afraid. they are the ones at the fairs and they are the ones at the poultry shows with my lines that took me several years to perfect, greed rides their backs.
so you can see why i am looking elsewhere because i have already been there and done that going on now for 3 years.

i see you have australorps? please tell me about them, where you bought them and how long have you been breeding them.

perhaps you have pics you would like to share?

looking forward to hearing from you

chet & berta
huppfarm, duncan az

 

[neftaball]

I bought some Australorp from Duane Urch this year, and some are turning out to be very nice. I think they will show well, I don't know what they will be like as layers though.

 

[BlackPanther]

Does Duane Urch have Blue Australorp?! I have been trying to contact him, and blue Australorp is definitely something I want to get!

 

[huppfarm]

Does Duane Urch have Blue Australorp?! I have been trying to contact him, and blue Australorp is definitely something I want to get!

He does not raise Blues only Blacks.
Blue is a variety that needs to be developed by folks that already have nice quality Blacks. Just because chicks or hatching eggs come from a well known breeder, that does not mean that every bird is a keeper or a winner. A good base is what you need to start with in order to develop any breed or variety.
You can breed to Blues with the Blacks to get 1/2 Bl and 1/2 Blk or breed to a Splash Orpington then breed out the Orp traits to get back to Australorp traits. We have been working on them for over 3 years and still are in the experimental stages. We purchased some Urch line BA chicks and find that a lot of culling has produced only a couple birds worthwhile keeping for breeding where as the other 23 were processed or just kept for table eggs. We are going to breed the 2 Urch birds to another breeder's birds we obtained and hope to develop a better bird to use for our next Blue Australorp attempt at the end of the month.
We encourage as many folks as possible to try to breed for quality first then color(Blue) last. Following the "Standard of Perfection" will be the only way to create quality in your flocks and the key is you must CULL out the undesirable chickens to obtain quality.

 

[huppfarm]

I bought some Australorp from Duane Urch this year, and some are turning out to be very nice. I think they will show well, I don't know what they will be like as layers though.

you will be o.k., they do fine as layers, ours lay nearly every day.

if you are going to show Duane's birds, then I have to put my 2 cents in here. Im sure he would and does feel the same way on the matter.

If you buy a custom car from some one who completely made it awesome and you take it to a car show and win the big trophy because of someone else doing all the work, is that really winning because of the efforts that was put in by another and none of your own?

My point being, We've taken years to develop very nice quality birds that have taken a lot of time and money to get where they are today. If someone buys my chickens and then takes them directly to a poultry show and wins Grand Champion Large Fowl, they have cheated by not bringing in THEIR OWN LINE of bird to compete with. That in my book is just dishonest and lazy.
If you want to be a proud breeder/owner of great birds, then develop your own line by using the Urch birds you have and breeding them with another line, hense the offspring are now your own specialty line and you can be proud to take them to a show and call them YOURS because you worked hard to make them what they are and now its YOUR LINE that people are seeing at the show and not someone elses.

Many folks buy, show and get the recognition of winning with other peoples birds. I have no respect for them.
Do the right thing and get my respect, you never know who you might want to trade or deal with in the future, when your in the "FANCY"

 

[BlackPanther]

He does not raise Blues only Blacks.
Blue is a variety that needs to be developed by folks that already have nice quality Blacks. Just because chicks or hatching eggs come from a well known breeder, that does not mean that every bird is a keeper or a winner. A good base is what you need to start with in order to develop any breed or variety.
You can breed to Blues with the Blacks to get 1/2 Bl and 1/2 Blk or breed to a Splash Orpington then breed out the Orp traits to get back to Australorp traits. We have been working on them for over 3 years and still are in the experimental stages. We purchased some Urch line BA chicks and find that a lot of culling has produced only a couple birds worthwhile keeping for breeding where as the other 23 were processed or just kept for table eggs. We are going to breed the 2 Urch birds to another breeder's birds we obtained and hope to develop a better bird to use for our next Blue Australorp attempt at the end of the month.
We encourage as many folks as possible to try to breed for quality first then color(Blue) last. Following the "Standard of Perfection" will be the only way to create quality in your flocks and the key is you must CULL out the undesirable chickens to obtain quality.

If I had a blue Orpington rooster and black Australorp hens, would that get me on the path to create blue Australorp?

 

[huppfarm]

Yes, you would breed with him, hatch out the offspring wait for them to mature and then start breeding them with another line of Black Australorps to breed out the Orp traits and keep from inbreeding. Document all the breeding females by legbands, keep the hatching eggs marked accourding to the female. separate the eggs in the incubator, separate the chicks in the brooder until the 3rd day when you can feed them but toe punch for I.D. to keep tabs on them as they mature. cull out the undesirable traits like squirrel tails and too many points on the comb. Document everything and keep a record, you will be glad you did.

 

[BlackPanther]

Do you know of anyone who may be willing to sell & ship a blue Australorp rooster?