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- #11
Dreammaker
Songster
Great info. Thanks for sharing your experiences with these breeds.OK - first, ignore any confidence you may infer from my typing. I am NOT a breed expert.
Australorps and Buff Orps are both good winter weather weather choices. Large birds, the Buff Orps being larger, with moderately early maturity Start of lay is probably in the 22-26 week range.. Buff Orps tend to lay more, larger, and paler eggs than the Australorps - but if you want eggs more brown than creamy tan, the Australorp would be the better choice. Looking at eggs in the 3 days out of 5 range +/- from either breed. I don't have either myself, but they are both very popular. Full grown, you are looking at birds in the 6.5-7.5# range, most likely, with the Buff Orp favoring the heavier side.
Golden Comets, I do have. These are hybrid birds "built" for egg laying. Mine pop out a large, brown, egg almost every single day, and they start doing it early. Mine began at 17 weeks, though there are reliable reports of laying beginning at 15 weeks (or of course, "late starts" in the 19 week range. They are relatively small birds for the size of the egg they pop out, and are known for having high incidence of reproductive problems in later years (3+) and relatively short lifespans. Commercially, they often aren't kept as layers beyond about a year and a half. I brought mine on 14 months ago, they've been steady layers, moderately "low key/middle of the road" type birds, and are starting to look like a little ragged (molt in a few months). Undecided if I will keep them, likely not. They were less than 4# when they started laying, a couple of mine are unusually heavy at 5# and an ounce or two now. 4.5# is about the average hen.
I also have Silver Laced. Honestly, I think the gold are more attractive, but I do love mine. Energetic birds, excellent escape artists, predator aware. Grew fast, mine were outside full time at 6 weeks (Sept 29th) and could have gone out sooner, but like the Comets, they have stayed relatively small birds. Mine started laying around 19 or 20 weeks - late December, in spite of the shortness of the days. I'd have to check the calendar, medium eggs, pale cream, with a pinkish tint under certain light. I've not weighed any recently, but I'd "guesstimate" somewhere around 5#. Again, they lay about 3 days out of 5.
I have no experience with either the Barred Rocks or the Sussex, and recall only that they are relatively large birds which should be well suited to your climate, and of course the Barred Rock is half the genetics in a large number of commercially useful hybrid breeds - they are just generally good birds.