Hey, everyone - I picked up two 2.5 year old hens about 9 days ago and the woman I got them from (who had to move and get rid of most of her flock) said they were black Australorps. My plan was to take just her 2 blue Australorps, but the one black hen was quite strikingly beautiful with her glossy black iridescent feathers and since she needed homes for several of her birds, I ended up taking all four Australorps. I'm loving them (well, her, really - the other black one is in a full-on, ugly molt - and is not laying, of course); however, I'm puzzled about a few things on these Australorp hens:
1)
feathered legs: I have read that black Australorps do NOT have feathers on their legs; these girls both do - not a LOT of feathers, but they are there down the sides of their legs like a black stripe. Note: the blue Australorps (who are about a year younger) have no feathers on their legs.
2) VERY large,
dark, dark brown eggs: I've read the black Austra's tend to lay light brown eggs, and these are Maran-colored eggs (see pic). Not to mention the egg size is huge; normal size of egg is around 2.275. I've gotten 6 eggs since I picked her up about 9 days ago, and yesterday's egg was
3.5 ounces!! (Clearly, a double yolker at least). She is the only one laying out of the four hen-pack I got.
Anyway, I suspect that if these ARE Australorps, they may be crossed with Marans. Like other Australorps, they are very large bodied (they are easily the largest birds in the flock), and they have very large eyes as well. Perhaps they were sold to her as straight black Australorps, but the feathered legs and egg color are puzzling me and make me think they are crossed with something else. No complaints here, just genuinely curious what others thoughts are. What do we think?
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