"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

Regardless... those standards are still useful. They confirm to you
that your birds aren't pure breds.


They confirm my birds are not up to standard. Are you saying there are no
pure bred birds that don't meet the standard?

it's just that you're describing the standard looks of a commercial
australorp-cross, not an australorp :-))

I am looking for what is described as a utility bird. Meat and eggs and
easy to raise, so some outside blood is no big deal. These girls will
live out their days (they have names already for bog's sake) but their
sons won't.

whilst you could expect some broodiness, you probably can't expect it to
happen constantly with these ones.

i have found it a little exasperating, the things that happen while trying
to breed up some babies to eat - from lack of broodiness to less live
hatchings that you'd hoped for, the heedlessness of small chicks that leads
to their loss, weird accidents (we just lost a chick last week in the
weirdest way imaginable) and so forth.

not to mention that problem with attachment. it's sad to eat a chook you
used to know. my plan for this current crop was we'd kill them all at 10
weeks & then freeze them - so we wouldn't know which one it was. after our
share of the abovementioned problems, we've only got one chick so s/he gets
to live anyway!!!

good luck. i like chooks - they're very win-win. even without edible
offspring you get lots of eggs, manure, & entertainment. all of which come
in very handy.
kylie