This Chicken Laid 364 Eggs in a Year... So Where Did She Go?

365 days in a year, and there was a hen in this country who laid an egg on 364 of them. One day off. That's all she took. No modern hybrid. No fancy breeding lab. Just a big, plain, black Australian chook in an official laying test, where somebody wrote down every single egg by hand. And once she'd done it, this country more or less forgot about her. My old man kept them when I was a little tacker — big black girls with a green shine on them when the sun hit their backs. He called them his "black Orps". It was years before I found out those plain black hens in our backyard were the most famous laying bird the world had ever seen. So I went digging: old poultry records, breed histories, the lot. Some of what gets said about this hen online is true, and some of it's rubbish. I'll tell you which is which. And I'll be straight with you from the start: the Australorp you buy this weekend won't lay you 364. I'll tell you what she will do — and why I'd still have her in my backyard. WHAT'S IN THIS ONE • Where she really came from (she didn't start out Australian at all) • The little door that let them count every egg, every hen, every day • Six hens, one year, and the number the rest of the world couldn't believe • Why 364 is next to impossible — it comes down to an hour or two a day • The bit the breed websites tend to leave out • Where she went, and what's rubbish in the stories you'll read online • What one will honestly lay for you — and why I'd still pick her • The one question to ask a breeder before you hand over a cent • Looking after a black chook through an Aussie summer CHAPTERS 0:00 One day off in a whole year 1:05 G'day, I'm Jack 1:56 A pommy chook that came good 3:16 How you count every egg a hen lays 5:02 Why that number's nearly impossible 6:31 So where did she go? 7:38 What she'll really do in your backyard 9:34 A black chook in an Aussie summer 10:44 What my old man used to say If you've kept Australorps — or your nan or grandad did — tell me about them down in the comments. I'd love to hear how many eggs your old girls managed, and how long they kept at it. ABOUT OLD JACK G'day. I've got a few acres out past the town here, a mob of chooks that reckon they run the place, and a veggie patch that's kept me and the missus in tucker for more years than I care to count. I didn't learn any of this from a book — I learned it from parents who'd been through the tough years, when you didn't waste a thing and you grew what you ate. On this channel I pass on the old ways: growing food, keeping chooks, and making do. No fancy gear. No expensive nonsense. No chemicals. Just what works, same as it did a hundred years back. Subscribe and I'll see you back here next time. A note on what's here: the 364 comes from an official Australian trap-nest laying test. You'll see that hen given a name, a year and a town online — the sources don't agree on any of it, so I haven't made one up. What's solid is the number and the test. In a heatwave a black hen needs shade over the whole run by early afternoon and cool water in the shade. If she's standing with her beak open and her wings held out from her body, get her into the shade with water straight away, and get her to a vet if she doesn't come right. This is a lifetime of keeping backyard chooks, not veterinary advice, and my own place is temperate (think Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide) — shift things to suit your own climate. #backyardchickens #australorp #homesteading