Uses: Dual purpose utility meat and eggs.
Eggs: 200 – 250 tinted / brown.
Origin: Kent, U.K.
Weight: Cock: 3.85 – 4.55Kg, Hen: 2.95 – 3.6Kg.
Bantam: Cock: 1.02Kg Max, Hen: 2.95-3.6Kg
Colors: Black, Blue, White (Standardized UK).
Useful to Know: Available in Bantam size, the Australorp is docile and a good choice to have around with children. They can be kept in behind a low fence.
The Australorp is frequently overlooked by many poultry keepers yet, it has so many good things going for it! It is a hardy bird that is happy free ranging, is docile and good with children (even if a little heavy to lift up, but does exist in a bantam version) and is a good egg-layer as well as being a reasonable size white skinned meat bird.
Being fast growers, Australorps reach point of lay at about 20 to 22 weeks of age. Like the Orpington, they will generally not fly very high, making fencing easier.
Orpingtons get their name from their origin as ‘Australian Orpingtons which had been called ‘Utility Type Orpingtons before that. They were essentially early Black Orpingtons that originated in Orpington, Kent, exported to Australia around the late 1880’s and refined for Utility purposes. The original Orpingtons were modified in Britain, and then the ‘Australian Orpingtons were imported back into the UK as Australorps in the early 1920’s.
