West Virginia Flock Talk

[torilovessmiles]

Mine hate confinement as well. So much so, that when I attempted to pen one particular heirloom WR hen for breeding with the male she generally went nuts, started pacing all day and looking for a way out and then stopped laying altogether, which kind of defeats the purpose of penned breeding situations. As soon as I turned her loose she went back to laying, so now I'm trying to figure out just how one is to do specific breeding over a wild, free range flock of birds without having to incubate a lot of mutts and culls.

I don't do heritage breeding like that, but I know what you mean about the lack of/crazy laying! We use to lock them in an old steel rabbit cage at night, for protection. They made a nest in there with straw, rather than using the nesting boxes. They simply refused to lay eggs when I first move them to the proper chicken coop, and the following days, they all had defects, from a powdery calcium film to shell-less eggs. On top of that, they would not lay in the boxes. They laid them whilst sitting on the roost, so any edible ones cracked.

I let them out for a couple of hours to reduce stress and moved their old nest to their new coop, and I'm getting normal eggs again. Picky little things, they are!

 

[Roan]

Wow, so I just got back from Morgantown. While in Morgantown, we found out that there was a killing spree underway. The man suspected of killing 4 people is Jodi Hunt. The people he has allegedly murdered are a co-owner of the towing company that he owns, the owner of a rival towing company, Jodi's ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

My daughter knows him and all four people that he allegedly killed. He also posted a long suicide letter on facebook prior to the killings.

Needless to say, my daughter called us in tears from worrying about our well-being because she knew we were in Morgantown and all of the places except Tractor Supply, that we had visited today had at one point been locked down because he was believed to be in those specific areas. She was also upset because she knew everyone of the aforementioned people. So this really hit close to home for her, and thus, for the rest of us.

So needless to say, today has been a very surreal day in Morgantown.

 

[Roan]

I agree! What kind of birds do you keep?

As of right now, (because my brother and I just started with chickens a couple years ago and didn't really know of any breeds out there except for RIR's and BPR's) we have a variety of types.

1. A Australorp Rooster
2. Rhode Island Red Hens
3. Barred Plymouth Rocks Hens
4. Ameracauna Hens
5. Ameracauna Pullets
6. Ameracauna/Rhode Island Red Pullets
7. Ameracauna/Barred Plymouth Rock Pullets
8. Ameracauna Cockerels
9. Ameracauna/Rhode Island Red Cockerels
10. Ameracauna/Barred Plymouth Rock Cockerels
11. 4 brand new Astralorp and Above mentioned breed chicks we hatched out 3 days ago.
12. 1 duck of some breed that I have absolutely no idea

All in all, we have 40 birds and we're hoping to get some eggs for the hatch-a-long. Our plan is to buy some Australorp hens for our rooster and slowly start culling the flock of the other breeds. Although with the younger ones, we may sell them so that we can make the room for the new hens when we buy them.

 

[Beekissed]

Love the Australorp breed...can't say enough good about them!

They are my second fave breed of all time. Will you try to introduce some breeder quality birds into your flock so as to bring up the quality from hatchery genetics or will you stick with hatchery stock? If just wanting production, hatchery stock is pretty darn good, IMO....it's hard to mess up a BA.

 

[Roan]

I'm not sure what BA is. Nor do I quite know what you mean by "introducing breeding quality birds." Remember, we're pretty new to this so can you dumb it down for me? lol

Right now, we just want to get a nice breeding flock started. Then, we'll probably get into selling eggs and/or chicks. After that, we'll more than likely get into selling meat. But we'll need a butcher shop to do that and of course a license. But that will be on down the road. Right now, we're on step one. lol

BTW, you said that this is your second favorite breed, so what's your favorite?

 

[Fred's Hens]

These are Bee's favorite breed.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm not sure what BA is. Nor do I quite know what you mean by "introducing breeding quality birds." Remember, we're pretty new to this so can you dumb it down for me? lol

Right now, we just want to get a nice breeding flock started. Then, we'll probably get into selling eggs and/or chicks. After that, we'll more than likely get into selling meat. But we'll need a butcher shop to do that and of course a license. But that will be on down the road. Right now, we're on step one. lol

BTW, you said that this is your second favorite breed, so what's your favorite?

BA is short for Black Australorp. Breeding quality birds are those that have been bred and developed over time to meet the breed standard as put forth in the SOP(Standard of Perfection). Sort of like if one is going to breed a certain breed of dog they start with dogs that are closest to the breed standard or origin and breed from there, trying to always keep the integrity of the breed as it was intended. Some people do that with chickens and have obtained and kept going old strains of heritage breeds and kept them to that same standard.

If you are trying to develop a breeding flock and are going to ever sell chicks from that, you'll want to have birds that most closely resemble the actual breed. Hatchery stock Australorps do not much resemble the original Australorps in body type, feathering or broodiness traits. They have been bred over the years to be good at laying, so they have had other breeds introduced into their line to develop that particular trait.

Here's a pic of an actual, breeder quality BA in the first pic....next to a pic of a hatchery quality BA hen. The one on the left more closely resembles the actual breed and breed standard of perfection; she has quality feathering, good length of back and width of tail, she has a deep chest and roomy abdomen, her wings are set high on her body where they should be and her tail is at the correct tilt. The hen on the right has what is called a "squirrel tail", her back is short, her wings too low, her feather quality is poor, her chest is shallow, her stance is too upright, her thighs are small...well...the list can go on and on.




If you are going to start a breeding flock and sell breeder stock, you'll most likely want to be able to offer stock that is true to the breed. Anything else is just hatchery stock raised on someone's farm from hatchery sources, with hatchery qualities. That's okay if you want to stick with that and many people do, but the problem comes when you advertise yours birds as a breeder or as heritage breeds as many do and one answers the ad to find they are just hatching out chicks from parent stock obtained at the hatchery and that have not been developed in any way to improve their quality. Quality birds bring more money, have more meat, lay more eggs and can even hatch out their own replacements.

You can see that the bird on the left is going to breed a meatier carcass, have more room in her abdomen for a larger egg and easy egg delivery, and all her offspring will demand a higher price than the bird on the right. She is a goal to shoot for and a thing of beauty, she is a true Black Australorp.

My first favorite breed for eggs and meat is the Plymouth White Rock, which delivers more meat than the BA but slightly less stellar laying. Only slightly. I love both breeds and if I could find someone nearby who had breeder quality BAs I'd buy some.

Some very kind people sent me breeder quality WRs(White Rocks) last year and I am currently working to develop a flock of those into a good laying flock. It's a long, slow process but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Some folks don't want to fool with all that and that's okay too...I've had hatchery stock for most of my chickening life and have been content with those for production and meat, so it's no bad thing to have them and cull them down to get the best of their best. But imagine how much you wouldn't have to cull if you started with something a little better to begin with. That's what I want to find out with these WRs.


ETA: Here's a good place to start if you are interested in breeder quality BAs..... https://www.facebook.com/groups/AustralorpFanciersInternational/?fref=ts

 

[Roan]

Thanks for the info. After reading your description of their characteristics, I've been studying our rooster more closely and he's not really breeder quality. I'll post a picture in a day or two so you can see what I mean. But it's amazing how he towers over all of our other birds including our cockerels (which will turn a year old in a few months. I don't know exactly though because I didn't keep records with them. <sigh>

A funny story though, my neighbor, who practically grew up at our house but is terrified of chickens came to visit recently. We were standing on the porch watching the chickens when out of the blue, he asked me, "do you want a rooster?"

"No," I answered, "we already have those two Ameracaunas over there and five more to get rid of when they're a bit bigger."

"Oh," he said, "it's just that my father-in-law got rid of all his chickens except his rooster so he's trying to get rid of him too. He said it's called a Austral or Austran or something like that."

"An Australorp," I exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's it," he agreed.

"Yes! We'd love to take him!"

The next day, our two adult Ameracauna roosters were in the freezer and our new Australorp was charming the ladies. We almost missed out on this guy and I would have kicked myself if we had. lol

 

[Beekissed]

Are you sure he's not a Jersey Giant? Jersey Giant on the left, Black Australorp on the right. Very easy to confuse the two, but the JG will be a bit taller of the two breeds and he won't throw as good egg laying genetics. He'll provide meat genes but this breed has a very slow grow out period for meat. If the bottom of your rooster's feet are sort of yellow in color, it's likely he's a JG, but if not, he's a BA.

 

[Roan]

Wow, thanks for that info! I'll definitely check his feet when I lock them up for the night.

Okay, I just checked the bottoms of his feet, they are the same color as his legs only paler.

So, just to be sure, I took him into the interrogation room, put the bright light in his face and played good cop/bad cop. I accused him of being an imposter. I then faked having evidence that he was lying.

He denied it.

So, I tried a different approach, I suggested that he had been lied to; that his previous humans had convinced him of being an Australorp when he was in fact a Jersey Giant. I even proposed that his parents had an identity crisis.

He insisted that he is an Australorp, going so far as to recite his family record all of the way back 273 generations!

At the end of the interrogation, I have to say. I believe him. He must truly be an Australorp.

wow, okay, so back to reality...

My 3 yo grandson just came in and saw the pictures of the two roosters. I pointed to the one on the left (the Jersey Giant) and asked him if that was our rooster. He said no.

I then pointed to the one on the right (the Black Australorp ) and he said, yep!

I didn't coax him or anything, so he definitely thinks the BA looks more like ours than the NJ! I'd say the evidence is pretty clear from the feet test to the 3 yo that he is a BA!