Hi Sandi, Here is another possibility. First have a good plan of what you actually want and a way to get it. There is a strain of chickens [not a breed because they are not recognized by the APA] called Braggs Mountain Buffs. See link below:
http://www.braggsmountainpoultry.com/
These chicks cost a little over $4 each not counting postage. The original intent of the person who developed them was to have a large hen that laid very big brown eggs consistently. He also selected the Buff color because they dress out cleaner and because the Buff Orpingtons have held a steady following for many years in America. Read what he used to develop these birds on the site link I posted.
One good mix I have used several times is White Cornish males over White Wyandotte females. This produced fryers that were almost
round they were so fat and meaty. [Meat cross only] I have also made the same cross using bantams of the above breeds with even better results. Before the Cornish crosses came along the Wyandottes were the #1 broiler chicken in America followed closely by the White Rocks and RI Reds. Just want to add that the offspring you get will only be as good as the birds you use to make this or any other cross.
Over on BYC I saw a cross another person had made. I later saw the same cross at a poultry auction. They had crossed Black Australorp cockerels over Dark Cornish pullets and produced large coal Black chickens with super smooth and tight fitting plumage. They had medium pea combs and looked for all the world like a Black Buckeye would look if there was such a thing. The people who were selling their extras said their Black hens were decent layers.
By crossing a good Black Australorp male over Production bred Barred Rock females you will get coal Black pullets and Barred males. These pullets can be mated back to some of the cockerels showing blurred and indistinct barring in the F2 cross and create a decent line of Black Plymouth Rocks. Also being out of egg laying stock they should shell out eggs like a slot machine.
I have yet to own an Australorp that went broody. This breed may be called Australian Orpingtons [Austral-Orps] but they were bred and selected to be a laying chicken. When egg laying contests were a popular past time a pen of 5 Australorp hens averaged over 340 eggs each and one hen in the group laid 364 eggs in 364 days beating out all other laying records for any breed up to that date in time. And this was also before they started using artificial light to increase rate of lay...................
Britta, The majority of RI Red chicks you buy through the hatcheries are all crossed up to create production Reds which are more closely kin to a Leghorn than a RI Red.
About 10 years ago I posted on a poultry site that I was using cable ties as cheap alternatives to buying the more expensive spiral bands which have a tendancy to fall off. I got the idea from an Emu breeder in 1992 when I purchased 2 pair of grown Emu at an exotic sale. They had large cable zips on their shanks to mark them as the ones he wanted to sell.
The next time I went to Walmart I bought a few plastic envelopes of various mixed color small cable bundle zips to mark my birds as to specific strains etc.. When you use these things make sure to leave a little room for wiggle and not to get them pulled down too snug. Once that is done take toe nail clippers and snip off the excess tail on the zip so a curious chicken doesn't grab it and pull it tight on the other bird's shank.
I have tried to make leg bands out of every substance available to poor folks and nothing worked or didn't work for very long. I have tried twist ties, garbage bag closures, small PVC pipe ring sections cut to size, quest pipe rings, tape bands made from cardboard liners and every kind of tough tape I could find and it didn't work for long.
The Zips and regular numbered chicken leg bands are about all that really work. The steel bands work well as do the metal wing bands. I have a few different sizes of the spiral poultry leg bands. They are flimsy and they don't stay on for long. Nail polish would last about 24 hours at best. Dean
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"sandi" <sandi_ruscetta@...> wrote:
I have australops, among several other species, may I say they make the greatest pet chickens. Good egg producers, they do go broody.
I am contemplating getting buff orpingtons this spring, to mix in with the white rocks, barred rocks, RIR's , Maran, Sex Link, and australops.
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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