The first time I decided to buy chickens I did a lot of research into all the different breeds and picked what I thought seemed to be the best. Back Australorps. While they might be the best breed for some people they weren’t really the best for me…here’s why.
My biggest priority was LOTS OF EGGS. I’ll tell you right now if that’s your biggest priority I don’t recommend getting Australorps. Now everyone has a different experience so keep that in mind I’m not speaking from everyone’s experiences just mine.
Black Australorps are beautiful and sooo friendly + they have such amazingly chill roosters. I really do love these chickens but I think there are two reasons you should buy these.
- If you are looking for some pretty chickens to add to your backyard flock
- If you want delicious BIG meat birds, keep in mind you do have to raise them for at least 16 weeks before butchering them otherwise they will be too small.
The first time I bought Black Australrop Chicks I bought 40 and they were straight run (unknown gender) which is normal. We had a good turnout though and about half were hens and half were roosters. Queue is one of my biggest mistakes… the regular rule of thumb for butchering is at 8 weeks old. So at 8 weeks, I sent about 20 of my roosters to the butcher only for them to come back VERY small with barely any meat on them. After a little research, (that I should have done beforehand) I realized that Black Australorps are a heritage breed of chicken and you have to leave them longer before butchering them. So even though they looked big and beautiful and ready to be butchered they were most certainly not.. In the end, it was okay though we still ate the chickens and they still tasted delicious!
I hope this gave a little insight into what having Black Australrops looks like and if you have any questions feel free to ask!
– Jess
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