CSU - Chicken State University- Large Fowl SOP

[thedragonlady]

OK, I'll bite. Here is a photo of 2 of my Buff Orp males. The C in front is 1 year old, and is an English import. The one in the rear is just 6 months old, and is his son out of a US bred hen. The C has tremendous width and depth of body with great under color. I wish his comb had fewer points, but I like the way his comb follows the line of his skull, instead of having a leghorn look. Though this Cock's comb is not perfect, he has been a miracle worker on reducing size and numbers of points, and improving shape on his offspring's combs.

The K is still growing in body and fore chest. He has the same depth of color with a topline that conforms to the SOP. He is going to be very large. Look at the improvement in comb shape and number of points.



The cockerel. I particularly like the length of the attachment of his comb to his skull. Wattles could be a tad shorter on both males.



Both birds have very good wing carriage , and no sign of shafting in their flights.

The cockerel's mother is my avatar. Here is a shot of his sister , The Pest. She just hopped up there. I love her type, color, and tidy 5 pt. comb. She has good stiff main tail feathers. She is 6 months old in this photo , and will finish out a very large hen. She started laying at exactly 5 months old. Just for Walt...look at the tightened up underfluff !



I'd love to see comments.

 

[normanack]

Dragonlady, I believe the technical terms for your birds are
FLOOFY! REALLY FLOOFY!
and WOW THEY ARE GORGEOUS!

("Floofy" is a variant of "fluffy" and means really, really fluffy.)

Ahem. I"ll go the the back of the classroom now. Carry on.

 

[thedragonlady]

Dragonlady, I believe the technical terms for your birds are
FLOOFY! REALLY FLOOFY!
and WOW THEY ARE GORGEOUS!

("Floofy" is a variant of "fluffy" and means really, really fluffy.)

Ahem. I"ll go the the back of the classroom now. Carry on.

Thank you. If you look at the mother of the K and the P on my avatar, you can see that my cock bird, Monty, has actually shortened the skirts to conform to the SOP. The English birds who conform to the British standard are very useful.

 

[aveca]

I get curious about things, and I begin to dig. So I took this and ran with Xanthophyll. Seems like pigmentation in poultry does derive from Xanthophyll pigments Zeaxanthin and Lutein. Found this article a neat read and figured I would share since it has levels of the pigments in foods. http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/10/2/128.pdf


But... then I found this and figured this would be WAY more practical for our use.

http://www.poultryscience.org/ps/paperpdfs/01/ps01320.pdf






This is a study based on production meat birds. But that is probably a good start for maintaining yellow coloration in most birds. There is even a section toward the end of the study titled Color which confirms results. It states that their T-2 Ration gave the best results. Now off to the internet to procure materials!

Fantastic info..every year as soon as they are able, the babies are out grazing like cattle..the feed I buy has greens in the mix..

 

[aveca]

OK, I'll bite. Here is a photo of 2 of my Buff Orp males. The C in front is 1 year old, and is an English import. The one in the rear is just 6 months old, and is his son out of a US bred hen. The C has tremendous width and depth of body with great under color. I wish his comb had fewer points, but I like the way his comb follows the line of his skull, instead of having a leghorn look. Though this Cock's comb is not perfect, he has been a miracle worker on reducing size and numbers of points, and improving shape on his offspring's combs.

The K is still growing in body and fore chest. He has the same depth of color with a topline that conforms to the SOP. He is going to be very large. Look at the improvement in comb shape and number of points.



The cockerel. I particularly like the length of the attachment of his comb to his skull. Wattles could be a tad shorter on both males.



Both birds have very good wing carriage , and no sign of shafting in their flights.

The cockerel's mother is my avatar. Here is a shot of his sister , The Pest. She just hopped up there. I love her type, color, and tidy 5 pt. comb. She has good stiff main tail feathers. She is 6 months old in this photo , and will finish out a very large hen. She started laying at exactly 5 months old. Just for Walt...look at the tightened up underfluff !



I'd love to see comments.

All I can say is Wow.....Pastor Romig was smitten..he said so many common problems in US version erased here, no white over the shoulders even color ..and one of the most over looked feature ..the comb..He told me it had been many years since he had seen a perfect 5 point comb nice clean serations not points crammed together on a pullet like yours that is here at my house..he said its a subtle thing but still important and the brits kept it as it should be..he agreed with walt that the fluff needs toned down..but anyone who says they arnt as good as it gets , needs some new glasses..

 

[armorfirelady]

I'd love to see comments.

Stunning birds......thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures

 

[fowlman01]

All I can say is Wow.....Pastor Romig was smitten..he said so many common problems in US version erased here, no white over the shoulders even color ..and one of the most over looked feature ..the comb..He told me it had been many years since he had seen a perfect 5 point comb nice clean serations not points crammed together on a pullet like yours that is here at my house..he said its a subtle thing but still important and the brits kept it as it should be..he agreed with walt that the fluff needs toned down..but anyone who says they arnt as good as it gets , needs some new glasses..

Vickie has done a good job in the matings. Still a bit of extra fluff, but overall very good results. The pullet in her lap has a bit of a cushion, but not much. All could use a little more width to the heads. Overall a very good representation of buff Orps. The buff Orps out here have bad wing carriage in the females and marginal combs. Bad wing carriage is usually not seen in females, so I don't know what happened in the breedings out west.

Walt

 

[thedragonlady]

Vickie has done a good job in the matings. Still a bit of extra fluff, but overall very good results. The pullet in her lap has a bit of a cushion, but not much. All could use a little more width to the heads. Overall a very good representation of buff Orps. The buff Orps out here have bad wing carriage in the females and marginal combs. Bad wing carriage is usually not seen in females, so I don't know what happened in the breedings out west.

Walt

Thanks Walt ! Now here is a cushion. !00% English BO 5 month old pullet by Monty x Mrs P....



She will be bred to the big cockerel, Moose , to keep the rock blood at bay. Monty did put stiff main tail feathers on her though.

 

[aveca]

walt..so glad your taking part..your knowlege and eye for detail are going to be a huge help to all involved..

its intereresting about the dropped wings even in females..was it because breeders became too focused on one thing and overlookedwhat was happening? it was one of the first things i noticed a while ago..another thing that was pointed out to me that i didnt notice is the tail angle on us version is wanting to drop too low..when viewed from thd side ,tail should be approx same height as head..manyare dropping to level and in some cases lower....the bird in your avatar is exactly how they are supposed to look..

pastor thinks i need to add 1 more sop hen to my group..she is big. minimal fluff very good, but washed out color..she is a show bird andhas won good awards.. i have seen her but going to look again...it would be a lease or borrow sort of thing.

 

[fowlman01]

walt..so glad your taking part..your knowlege and eye for detail are going to be a huge help to all involved..

its intereresting about the dropped wings even in females..was it because breeders became too focused on one thing and overlookedwhat was happening? it was one of the first things i noticed a while ago..another thing that was pointed out to me that i didnt notice is the tail angle on us version is wanting to drop too low..when viewed from thd side ,tail should be approx same height as head..manyare dropping to level and in some cases lower....the bird in your avatar is exactly how they are supposed to look..

pastor thinks i need to add 1 more sop hen to my group..she is big. minimal fluff very good, but washed out color..she is a show bird andhas won good awards.. i have seen her but going to look again...it would be a lease or borrow sort of thing.

It only took a well known breeder out here a couple of years to lose the wing carriage in the females. He should stick to bantams, he does a much better job with them (oe's Leghorns, Moderns). Other folks are rasing them now, so I think they will be improved. I may get back into them in a year or so, Orpingtons are nice birds.

Walt