Chocolate Orpingtons

[bramblefir]

Okay, I know it's been a while and I desperately need to put up pics, but had a question, comment, and question. The chocolate Orpington 8 day-old chicks I bought at auction in May were indeed chocolate...yay! Ended up with two hens and two Roos...boo! I already have one too many Roos...so sold the youngsters.

So because I refuse to part with my two original Roos, I set up separate harems for them. Chaunte (my blue splash) and Chapo (my black silkie) are both wonderful roosters, very calming to all the girls, and keep the peace well. I've also kept them because some chicks occasionally would be nice. So after it was all said and done, and seeing how everyone interacted, I have two small groups: Chaunte with the two chocolate Orpington hens, and Chapo with the black Dollie hen that came with him. I've since learned she's actually a "peacock" or "pheasant" Silkie (can't recall for certain) because of the rainbow of color on her breast along with the black.

*Sidenote: I have bred German Shepherds, Great Danes, and non-traditional colored Yorkies, so I'm a closet geneticist...always breed back to black to enhance the richness of pigmentation, otherwise the dilute gene will continue to weaken the color over generations. With chocolate you want a rich warm brown, with no modifiers that would lighten ideally.

I will confess to the reason I got the Silkies is because I wanted fluffy feet chickens. I rationalized that I would get eggs from the Orpingtons, since they are listed as being good layers, so no problem there.

EXCEPT, my chickens apparently failed to read the memo. Didn't look at the breed manual. Must have totally missed the class for it too. My Orpingtons, at 6 months old, have NOT LAYED A SINGLE EGG. These are full-sized, beautiful hens...and nothing. Nada. Zilch. My little Silkie? Laying her little heart out. Has missed a total two days ever since she started laying...and even then, she layed two the next day to make up for it. I've never left an egg in the nest, she's never been broody. I kid you not, I skipped a day or so this week and she had 5 (yes, five) ready and waiting yesterday.

What in the world am I doing wrong?!?! Everyone seems perfectly happy...the chelates are just not laying. They all eat the same food, water, etc. I feel kind of bad really, because the Orps are in the original coop which is pretty large, while Chapo and his girl are in the smaller run I had to race and cobble together when I realized I had a Silkie breeding pair instead of two hens.

I'm asking because I'm almost to the point of switching them out and putting Chaunte and 1 Orpington in the smaller run, and moving Chappell and his girl into the Penthouse with the 2nd Orpington to see if she'll start laying? I don't have a clue...

English Orpingtons are notoriously poor layers. They've been bred for size, fluff, and color without maintaining productive attributes. Hatchery quality are much better layers although not *good* layers (I consider their rate of lay to be *fair* at about 3 to 4 eggs/week). My Jubilee pullets didn't reach point of lay until 8-9 months old and currently squeeze out 4-5 per MONTH. That rate of lay should improve as spring approaches but I would still be surprised if they surpassed 150/year.

It will likely be around February when your girls start laying. The daylight hours will be longer then and they'll be around 9 months old. Of course, once the weather starts warming up in late spring/early summer it's going to make them all go broody which will put a damper on egg production.

 

[jeremy]

English Orpingtons are notoriously poor layers. They've been bred for size, fluff, and color without maintaining productive attributes. Hatchery quality are much better layers although not *good* layers (I consider their rate of lay to be *fair* at about 3 to 4 eggs/week). My Jubilee pullets didn't reach point of lay until 8-9 months old and currently squeeze out 4-5 per MONTH. That rate of lay should improve as spring approaches but I would still be surprised if they surpassed 150/year.

It will likely be around February when your girls start laying. The daylight hours will be longer then and they'll be around 9 months old. Of course, once the weather starts warming up in late spring/early summer it's going to make them all go broody which will put a damper on egg production.

How closely related are your lines? I know these are not the most productive birds, but I've never heard of them laying as terribly as 4-5 eggs per month (even in fall/winter...).

That said, as breeders, we choose which birds to breed, what traits to select for, etc. Production is always something I keep an eye on when selecting birds for the breeding pen.

 

[bramblefir]

How closely related are your lines? I know these are not the most productive birds, but I've never heard of them laying as terribly as 4-5 eggs per month (even in fall/winter...).

That said, as breeders, we choose which birds to breed, what traits to select for, etc. Production is always something I keep an eye on when selecting birds for the breeding pen.

They came from Papa's Poultry and I know he has a few different lines of Jubilee's. Like I said though, I do expect rate of lay to improve as day length increases.

 

[h2oratt]

My 4 month old orp are not laying yet. But the boys are crowing.

 

[Flock Master64]

Hello

 

[WVduckchick]

My 4 month old orp are not laying yet. But the boys are crowing.

Orps are notoriously slow to lay, I believe. Have you gotten any eggs yet?
Mine are 4 months old today and not even looking near ready. But the boys are crowing like crazy!

 

[knjinnm]

Jeremy
Your web page is not connecting to you.

 

[Flock Master64]

I have a Chocolate Cuckoo Orpington

 

[h2oratt]

Orps are notoriously slow to lay, I believe. Have you gotten any eggs yet?
Mine are 4 months old today and not even looking near ready. But the boys are crowing like crazy!

I don't really know. My year older birds are finally through their molt and they have starting laying again. I haven't caught any laying.

 

[h2oratt]

I have a Chocolate Cuckoo Orpington

Male or female?