Orpington

I love my Orpingtons. My Bonnie Blue lays these huge brown eggs. They have been a very pleasureful breed, very sweet and friendly.

These are the cutest breed ever! My two are sooo friendly like giant cushions, and they are always willing for a cuddle! They lay huge eggs even in the winter and make really sweet noises as they strut around the garden!! Would recommend to anyone!

I have blue, black and splash Orpingtons and they are great. Love to be handled especialy if they are raised by hand and their fluff gives them a resemblance of a walking pillow. Great layers nearly every day even through winter. Very talkitive with huge eyes.

I have the buff orpington bantams and most of them were MEAN. We only have one sweet hen. She is very skittish and fast, but once you catch her, she doesn't mind being held. They don't like to be held, nor touched.

I loved my Orpinton hens more than any of the others. I had a mixed flock of hens, but my Orpington hens were quite docile and they seemed to cope with the the extreme cold of South Dakota's winter. I chose them for another characteristic though -- their broodiness. I want a breed that would become my off-the-grid incubator and so I have decided to always have a few Orpington hens as well as bantam hens for hatching out other breeds of birds.

I love Orpingtons! We lost one of 2 to a bobcat, the one left over is quiet and likes to be a lap chicken.
Turns out the other hens and roo's don't like her color and pick on her.

We have 4 buffs rescued from a flock that had been over-roostered and over-crowded. Eventually they began to get comfy with us. For several months they were pitiful looking, half their feathers missing, low weight, etc. After they molted last fall, all their feathers grew in and they finally looked like the photos we'd seen online of fluffy, soft poultry. And they even acted like they knew how pretty they'd gotten! They follow us around in the yard like puppies, are very curious, come when called, and we get 3 to 4 large/extra large eggs a day. They don't use the nest boxes as the bathroom so their eggs are very clean. Ours eat layer mash, cracked corn, oyster shells, enjoy a flock block and love the kitchen detritus. I recommend them to anyone getting chickens for the first time or who has never had this breed before. We can't pick ours up but i think if we'd had them from chicks we'd be able to do that.

I have a pair of lavender orpingtons and they are both very nice.They will fly up onto my arm,head,or shoulder and will follow me around wherever I go. They are getting big and I wanted a big bird! I don't know about egg production though since the hen hasn't started laying yet.

The Buff Oropingtons were one of my first chickens and two years later I still have them. They are gentle with the children and great layers. Below is my rooster:

Orpingtons have become one of my favorite breeds of chickens. They are ideal for a home stead and even ideal for that family that wants to try something new. They are very friendly birds and rarely get angree or sparatic. My hens will eat anything and everything you throw their way so I must be careful. Over all, best bird I've raised.Although they to fall in second place right behind the Buff Brahma!

Every year, my elementary school would have a hatching project with chicken and duck eggs. It is one of the only things I remember from such a tender age. My sister, three years behind me, also got to experience the hatching project, and won a buff orpington chick out of it.

Knowing what I now know about chickens, I would never have raised her the way we did, but back then we knew no better. She had no coop, no flock mates, and no nest box. She DID have a 45lb dog for company and protection though. In the winter, Sandy (the dog) would snuggle under warm blankets. "Stupid Bird" as my dad called her (who was not so dumb as her name suggested), would climb up on top of the dog, and snuggle down in the blankets for warmth.

She was an absolute joy to have around. She came when she was called, knew all kinds of neat tricks, and was a fantastic egg layer. She lived in that yard for 9 years before my dad got a job with the state department, and we could not take her with us. By age 9, she had developed quite the set of spurs, but she still gave us a couple of eggs a week.

If you want a big, fluffy, beautiful bird with an absolutely charming personality, and wonderful propensity for egg production, Orpingtons are the way to go!

Just remember, different lines of birds will be different in personality, build, and egg production! I still keep orpingtons in my flock, and some of my most memorable birds are my wonderful buff orptingtons.

We LOVE our buff Orpingtons. Mine are only hatchery birds, but they are so beautiful, sweet and friendly, they have won us over for sure. As long as I keep a layer flock, Orpingtons will be on the top of my list. I love their big fluffy bodies, my kids love to hold them and hug them. I get lots of perfect brown eggs from them. My Orpingtons have not gone broody in two years, but I don't get a lot of broodies in general. I think they all have too much fun ranging in the yard to want to sit for 3 weeks. If and when I'm able to expand my layer flock, I'd love to get some quality Orpingtons from a breeder.

I will say, though.... My two Buff Orps, are my wanderers.... They are fenced in the backyard, but they have an escape route, and I regularly find them on my front lawn. I think they've recruited my little Old English Bantam rooster too, as an accomplice and bodyguard. At least they are staying on my property...

Buff Orpingtons are very good layers of large light brown eggs.

They go broody often and make excellent mother hens. My Orpington hens have hatched chicks, ducklings, poults, and keets with very high hatch rates (100% is not uncommon). The Orpington's large size and profuse feathering allow them to incubate many eggs at once.

Contrary to what I've read, my hatchery Buff Orpingtons have proven to be my best foragers, voluntarily foraging widely in search of bugs and seeds and other tasty tidbits, thereby cutting down on feed costs and producing healthier eggs compared to hens fed a higher percentage of grain. I've seen them foraging as far as a 1/3 of a mile away from their coop, though typically they're not more than five hundred feet away from their coop.

They do well in many climates with their heavy feathering and light coloring.

They don't have feathered legs, which can track mud and dirt into the nest boxes, dirtying the eggs. They also don't have crests, which can limit a chicken's vision and their ability to free range.

Extra roosters grow out very well for meat, Orpingtons are one of the biggest and meatiest of the dual purpose breeds.

Buff Orpingtons do have white skin, instead of the traditional yellow skinned chickens Americans are accustomed to seeing at the grocery store. This doesn't bother me, but for those who want a traditional-looking chicken, this may be a negative. Then again, a butchered Orpington will never look like a Cornish franken-chicken anyway.

Buff Orpingtons are also fairly common and easy to find, with many hatcheries selling them at an economical price.

As an extra bonus, Buff Orpingtons are also beautiful, with their large size, glistening golden plumage and big fluffy butts!

I bought 4 - 3 days old chicks. They lived in my kitchen until old and large enough to move outside with a heat source. I live in Vancouver Canada where the nights are cold even in the summer.
Of the 4, 3 have survived. The runt lived for about 4 months then just quit eating and died. She was just feathers and bones when she died but had no other symptoms. ??
I think one of the survivors is a roo as his comb is much redder and his tail is shaped different. He hasn't started crowing yet. If he does I will have to sell/trade him as we can't have roos in Vancouver. Yes, silly, I know.
They are such affectionate chicks. Very soft and fluffy with pale lavender gray feathers. Truly beautiful girls. If you are going to have chickens you may as well have beautiful chickens!
They are very intelligent and affectionate. My 11 year old grandson carries them around tucked under his arm.
They have not yet started laying, but it is Feb. so very cold and the days are short. I have my coop on a timed light. 12 hours on, 12 hours off. My other older hens have laid all winter.

We have two buffs in our flock of nine, and they are the favorites. They lay as reliably as the RIRs, but are just so fluffy and beautiful and sweet-tempered that they have stolen our hearts.

I've had my Buff Orpington for about six months and love her! She was the sole survivor of a raid lasting 2 nights; we lost 5 other chicks and pullets those two nights. She then came to sleep inside until I could provide her with secure outdoor housing. She had perfect house manners (minus the pooping part), was gentle and loved to sit with us. My three-year-old regularly picks her up, carries her around and gives her hugs and kisses.
She's since proven to be a reliable layer, prefering her kitchen nest to lay in; fussing at the back door until I let her in to lay. Then she walks around the house making her little crowing noise until she spots me. That's her way of asking to go back out.
She's taught the rest of the flock to spot and avoid hawks and avoid other predators and to be 'chickens'. She's definitely the flock boss. No one messes with her. But they all still jockey to snuggle with her at night.
Ok, so that's the "pet" part. I consider her a pet. The others are production birds and aren't named. Someone else may know more about how the BO's fare as meat birds or just plain ole production. OH- before I forget, she came in at 81% for January and for Feb- well, today's Feb-1 so she's at 100%

I love these birds! They are amazing! I love how they bring color to my flock! I love to show off my coop becasue they make it whole! The only thing that I regret is not buying more! Every time I go up to my coop now I regret getting a rooster! hahaha Thankyou to the orpingtons!

I have 3 of these little ladies. They are great layers and good with my kids.

2 Buff Orp Hens got out sometime at the tail end of a big storm - foot of snow w/ up to 2 foot drifts. Glanced out the window and saw one pushing a path through the snow -- wind still high, temps abt 10 degrees, flurries. Ran out and got her, returned her to the pen - counted, and yep, another one missing. Tried to search but - nothing but a clear field of snow. Followed her tracks and they 'ended' half way between where I found her and the pen---- a hollow and wing marks--- looked like she was tired, bedded down, and while she rested her tracks obliterated and she was covered with snow, flapped to get free. Kept a patrol and an eye out, but no sign of the other hen all day. Next morning at dawn saw a golden blob on top of the corrogated plastic roof - 5 degrees, that roof was COLD. Ran out and sure enough, it was the missing hen, her feathers crackly with frost. In my other hand I had their hot oatmeal, and she gobbled it down as I carried her back around to the door and put her inside under the 3-sided straw bale shelter they use. Two weeks later and both are fine, they never missed a beat. I was looking for hardy hens, and it looks like they are! Hope they stay put, though, and don't try that stunt again. Clipped their wings, and they're staying inside now...

Update: 2/3/12 Hens are 6 month old today, and to commemorate it one of the Buff Orpingtons laid a 2.95 oz egg! At six months! Ouch! If a Large is 2.25 oz, a Jumbo is 2.5 oz, what do we call a 2.95 oz egg? That's almost two sizes bigger!

update: 5/27/12 The 2 biggest orp hens went broody together on a nesting shelf. In the beginning I limited them to a couple of eggs - then I got busy, and - there were 30 eggs of all ages in the nest, 3 orps and a wyandotte setting them. Wondered what would happen when they started the prolonged hatch....3 hatched, I snatched them and put them with same-age Java babies in a brooder. Then another 5, and the 2 Big Orps decided to mama them - they left the nest to the remaining 3 hens (now an orp and 2 wyandottes), who continue to sit the eggs. Together they tend the babies. They're adorable, very careful and loving, a bit skittish w/ me but not the least aggressive. (I saw one of the nesting wyandottes struck out viciously at one of the babies - this may be what drove the Mama Orps to vacate.) Once again - the orps win over the wyandottes - I really love these girls! When the wyandottes go I won't replace them, but the orps are high on my list to have forever. Might be nice to have some Isa Brown layers plus 2-3 Orps for brooding eggs when I need help.

I got these birds after the overwhelming hype I kept hearing. For the most part I would say that it was true they are great very friendly birds. I've only been keeping these guy for a couple of years but have noticed that they go broody alot. While most are friendly and will jump in your lap a few have been really shy.

Here are 3 about a year old