Hello, Langshan people! Do any of you also have Australorps? We're debating which breed to add to our farm! Which do you think would handle Wisconsin weather best? Or would a different breed altogether be better? We're looking for something all-black to hopefully help prevent hawk attacks!
Hello!
I have both a Black Langshan cockerel with one pullet of his breed AND a Blue Australorp cockerel with both adult hens and pullets of that breed.
In re: the Black Langshans (from Ideal),
While there are never any guarantees with cockerels, at 9 months Ludwig, the Black Langshan, is the most mild-mannered cockeral imaginable. He moves out of my way when I walk around the coop and pen -- not fearful or flighty, but respectful -- and is so good with the ladies that fertile eggs began appearing without me ever actually seeing him mate (there were a couple episodes of me seeing him "hen surfing" with one of the more dominant ladies who were refusing him, but literally only two and only when he was first coming into his hormones).
He's a big boy, tall and solid already and, since they're known to be late to mature, he's still got a good bit of growing to do.
The pullet, lays a solidly medium egg -- 52g last time I was sure one was hers -- of a pinkish-brown. She was one of the last of my pullets to start laying (at the same time as the large-fowl Cochin), but wasn't unduly late.
In re: the Blue Australorps (from Welp),
They are crazy-early for maturity. The cockerel I kept had well-developed male hackles and saddles before he was 11 weeks old and the first of the adult hens to lay last year laid a week before the California White did.
If you can't be definite about a 9-month cockerel, it's even harder to be definite about a 22-week cockerel, but he hasn't given me any trouble and is mating with even the senior pullets with their apparent consent.^
The hens are calm, no-drama chickens who lay solidly Large and XL eggs of a light brown on a near daily basis. One of two adults when broody last summer, my others are just hitting POL so I don't know about them.
^Funny thing about this, Rameses the Blue Australorp, will be mating with one of the ladies and Ludwig, the Black Langshan will come over and watch the process -- not aggressively disrupting it, but as if he's puzzled by it. But when the hens protested while Ramses was younger Ludwig would break it up.
