The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread - Page 788

Yep, I've paid a fortune in eggs for my American SOP hen and two part English ones, just the same way as above. Money's gone now but some day I WILL have pure English!

I've paid tons for nice breeder Delawares as well, only to have zero hatches. So for now I sit with a few nice Orps, a few hatchery ones, and a couple random hatchery hens. Your experience wasn't really so unusual. Eggs get a real beating in the post office.

That sucks. I've had some eggs shipped great and had high development rates and about 50% hatch rate. I also had bad packaging, broken eggs and cracked eggs. Not fun! Good luck with your hatch anyway. Local eggs would do much better I'm sure.

my first attempt at orps was two years ago. I paid a decent amount of money for some part english bird, one hatched and of course was a cockeral  .  I would rather pay $500 for some good birds instead of spending over a thousand to get a few cockerals (because when the hatch rate is low it is usually mostly, if not all, cockerals) when I buy eggs. I have been doing this for 5 seasons now and every year my hatch rate is dropping for shipped eggs and I know it's not my bator because I have at least a 95% hatch rate with my own eggs. My first year was excellent, my second was decent and now I don't have much luck with shipped eggs. I have some shipped eggs in my bator now. One breed is doing well and i have 8 growing(out of a dozen) and the other I think only 3 of 10 are doing anything. I was  hoping for a better rate and will probably have to buy more. The time and money that goes into it just doesnt' seem worth it to me. I really wanted to get some 100% english eggs but dh just looked at me funny when I told him how much they were, and I don't blame him

 

I really like my birds I got from Julie and Joy and am happy with them. Someday I will get some 100% eggs and hopefully add some more girls and maybe a nice roo.

 

 

 

I have come to the conclusion there are no "nice," Delawares out there. I decided to make my own. Let me tell you..... I am totally blown away with the results I am getting. I hope to have my F3s on the ground this summer. If they are all I hope they will be............ well, just sayin'...... building the barn is going well. Next will be painting it.

Here is one of the F2s, today.  I can hardly wait to see the F3s ! 

 

 

 

Edited by kathyinmo - 3/23/12 at 6:14pm

i know this is the wrong thread for this, but fantastic bird kathy...one of my freinds had a really good run with dels for many years but he never could find decent stock to add ..too bad he had a good thing going, it just dwindled..he isnt doing them anymore cause they were getting too imbred...

Looks like the painting is going pretty well too.

 

That is one of my black orps behind the Delaware. 

 

Wow, hes pretty nice too.
 

 

That black Orp looks like a big boy.