Australorps

[Grahame]

Does anyone live in my area (i.e any where in the vicinity of Shepparton, Tocumwal, Yarrawonga etc) who has some fertilized Australorp eggs, or some chicks or something? Mine are getting a bit old and/or inbred. I'd be happy to swap some eggs or some such thing

Cheers
Grahame

[Adrian1976]

Nathalia has a poultry sale either once a month or every second month. Might be worth the trip

[eco4560]

I'm hoping you got some back in 2010 Grahame. Did you?

[Grahame]

I found a breeder nearby and bought two new roosters from him - 1 turned out to be a hen which is what I call 'the bonus plan'.

[Adrian1976]

nice

[deee]

Make sure you get the layer strain, not the show strain: the show birds are much larger and hungrier, but don't lay much. In Sydney, you can get good layers from Barters at Luddenham. Old Mr Barter kept the layer strain pure when everyone was shifting to show birds. Apparently they all thought he was mad. I'm sure they'd send you fertilised eggs.
D

[Grahame]

Interesting Deee, I didn't know that

[purplepear]

Barters looks great deee we would love some of their birds here at Purple Pear. Thanks for the info.

[deee]

No worries - we've had our girls for between 6 and 4 years. This is the first winter they've been off the lay. Because we've had Marek's disease here before, we bought the second lot as vaccinated day old females and slipped them under a broody hen one evening. She thought she was the cleverest creature alive, did a great job as mum and we didn't have to muck around with an incubator.
D