Hey all! Sorry for being away for the last week or so. I have been super busy around here and the weather has not been helping my health out much. But such is life. I hope all is going well with everyone. I finally found the most beautiful Australorp rooster from a guy down in Carson. The guy was actually selling hens for meat but I just took a chance and gave him a call to see if he had any roosters available and he had two but he was not really looking to sell either of them but I offered him $15 for one of them and that was a good convincer.
I never expected that he would be as beautiful as he was and I was instantly in love when I saw him. He was a little aggressive the first few days but after a week of babying him, hand feeding him and forcing him to be held by myself and the boys he has totally turned around and is just a big sweetheart. Here are a few pictures of him that I took this morning.
The boys named him Oscar. I tried to get a few with just him but the girls just hover over me so much it is pretty difficult to get those single pictures.
Here he is with one of the Australorp hens from the first set of chicks I got back in October.
I got him in the middle of a crow in this picture. He is just so huge and sparkles all over.
Crowing for the pictures.
I love this picture because it really shows off the green in his feathers in this pose.
This is his Fabio pose, he really does think he is the cat's meow.
Here he is with the SLW hens, they stick to him like glue. They are going to be so heart-broken when they are separated from him in the next few weeks.
Here are some pictures of the Australorp hens, they are around 16 weeks today and are already laying if you can believe that. At least I think they are the culprits, I will not know for sure until I get them separated out into their own pen and house. But I only had 17 laying adult hens and the last week and a half I have been getting 22 to 23 eggs a day. Which means that 6 hens from the first set of chicks has to be laying. I have 10 hens from that first batch and typically GLW do not start laying this early but Australorps have been known to start laying as early as 16 weeks old but it does not always happen.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the Australorp girls:
Jeeper, I read the posts you made about Australorps and ordering chicks. I got mine from Ideal and they let you put in smaller orders without it costing an arm and a leg. I have had no health problems with them and they have all been really hardy chicks. My first batch was an order of 15 and I only paid $48.31 for it. That included 6 Australorp hens and 1 Rooster, 6 Golden Laced Wyandotte Hens and 1 Rooster and one Silver Laced Wyandotte Rooster. I also got the Marek's Vax with that order.
My second order was 13 chicks, 6 silver laced Wyandotte hens, 6 buff orpington hens, 1 rooster and they threw in 6 Rhode-Island Red Roosters and 3 Silver-Laced Wyandotte Roosters at no extra cost because they felt 13 chicks would not keep it warm enough through shipping so they threw those roosters in for more body heat. That order was only $41.91.
So if you have not ordered yet, I would definitely recommend Ideal. They have awesome customer service, a great variety to choose from and I am really impressed with the stock they sent me. And you could not pick a better breed than the Australorps for a great dual-purpose bird in my opinion. As you know I am a huge heavy breed fan and Australorps, Orpingtons and Wyandottes lay the most, they handle the cold and the heat perfectly and they are very calm, even tempered and affectionate birds. Ok enough of promoting the heavy breeds. I am hoping to be able to start breeding and selling chicks late spring but it really depends on how things develop over the next couple of months.
Ok so I am off for now, you all take care. *hug*
I'm sure all the ones I have are girls!
