Chicken Coop Chatter©
Altsteirer chickens are a dual purpose breed and are a very ancient and rare breed found in Austria and Slovenia Styria region. This breed can be traced back to the 13th century, but may even be many times older, given that the region dates back 250,000 years. It is believed that the Alsteirer is the foundation breed for other Mediterranean breeds and particularly the Sulmtaler, which bears a resemblance. The Sulmtaler is also an ancient breed but not nearly as old as the Alsteirer breed.
The Altsteirer mature earlier than many breeds and hens lay a large number of white eggs, while the roos, though medium in stature, make an excellent table meat. This breed is hardy, calm by nature, but alert and ever curious and rarely go broody. They are family friendly and easy care and take well to free range or confinement. UPDATE: Our Altsterier Pullets, hatched February 23, 2015, began laying on May 24, 2015 and laid an egg each day thereafter at the age of almost exactly 3 months.
Our line of Altsteirer was acquired from a generous donor and is from the direct importer,
Greenfire Farms and though there are several color patterns, ours are the Black Breasted Red variety. The birds are crested, and attributed to royalty with their austere posture.
Through observation, we have found the Altsteirer to be very alert and protective. They are friendly as chicks and with handling they would be great pets or exhibition birds, and even at a young age they are great foragers. In addition at 8 weeks, they are larger than most 8 week old chicks and not as gangly and awkward as other chicks of this age. At the age of almost 12 weeks they are looking very much like mini-adults, and should start laying in the next few weeks.
Our Altsteirer hatching eggs (for shipment and local sales) and chicks (local sales only, no shipping of chicks) are now available in limited quantity.
PLEASE NOTE: CHICKS AND HATCHING EGGS ARE CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. THEY WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PERUSE THE INFORMATION ABOUT BREEDS, RECIPES AND CHICKEN CARE ON THE WEBSITE. OUR FB PAGE IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR QUESTIONS THAT WE ARE ALWAYS HAPPY TO ANSWER. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AS WE REPLENISH OUR FLOCKS FOR THE FUTURE. 4-20-2021
$50.00 per dozen fertile hatching eggs. Plus $17.90 Shipping.
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Julie D
Oh I LOVE them. They are smart, social (they stick with their breed mates loyally and one of our girls mourned the roo leaving), a little less likely to let me hold or touch them, but they are super inquisitive and play. They are less aggressive than all our birds except our Marraduna from JFA (we have a orpington, 2 wyandottes, a rhode island from JFA). They seem to be exceptionally hardy and not one of them came down with the cold the rest just had. I love them. Really. I'll be getting more from you in the future for SURE.