Orust chicken?

[Eps32]

My mom has been looking at chickens and she just found this breed on the Internet and is in love. I never heard of it till now. Does anyone own this breed or have any info on finding them for sale?

 

[Eps32]

Good mourning from eight little Orust chicks!!

 

[luvmigirls]

Hello! I have owned my Orusts for just about 1.5 years now. And this is what I have learned.

Males

The Males are aggressive against humans, hawks, neighbors kids and each other. I had 6 males and had to get rid of all but one due to the fighting. Right now my poor legs have two stab marks from his spurs that are healing because I ran to protect my child from the aggressive male. He instead attacked my legs. He displays territorial ground scratching. Conversely, i raised him with my Welsummer male, The wellsummer is the dominate one in the flock.


Personality

The hens I can mix and match easily with other chickens (red stars, Welsummers and Wyandottes) with no problems. Hens are nice, and curious, and EXCELLENT mothers. Their temperaments are wonderful. they let you handle them and wait paitently to be let go. Anytime I've had to clean them, or doctor them up (dog ripping our feathers or fox or hawk attacks) They rebound very nicely with no issues. They (males and females) will sit and allow me to Help them. Males are very attentive to females. locating food and setting up the nest box. They are the lowest on teh pecking order but are never bullied.(they also are teh smallest)

Free Ranging

They scourer the forests more than the feilds, digging up the old leaves, leaf clippings and obiliterating any tasty fauna. They actually ate my entire ruhbarb planet in the course of 3 days! I am still saddened. It was a 80 year old plant. :*( They dont wander! which was a surprize to me. They can forage 1/2 acre (1/4acre big 70ft trees) without any need to explore further.

Plumage

Not sex linked. Their size slowly grows and finally biggest at just a year old. Also the feathering was slow. They will hold onto the mottled penguin patches for quite some time. I feel around 6 to 7 months the adults black and white balanced plumage is fully in. The shanks are yellow or white. the black spots on the legs will not be there at birth but will come in starting around 3 months. The males comb will get frostbite. Hens dont seem to have this problem with frost bite. Chicks needs considerable care. First round of hatching I incubated, but this year, I let the moma hen do the work. The chicks all seem much less stressed.

Eggs.

First year lay the eggs are definitely Small. They lay at about rate of 4 a week. More during summer and less during winter. Color is white/offwhite/light tan and I had a hen that laid a PINK colored looking egg which could just be a very light tan also. I was able to hatch out some crossbredss with the Orust breed. And any crossbreeds will only lay Brown eggs. So, their eggs (or genetics) are not a true white I suspect. They go broody every spring after their matured. And will stop laying for just a month long recess in January/Feburary

Happily I noticed a considerable change to MEDIUM around 12/13 months of age. Very pleased. The yolks can be yellow to orange and very healthy looking and firm, and whites are never runny. Are very tasteful as well.

Size

Just a step up from a Bantam. Their feathers seem to come in more white as they age and with each molting it seems its mainly white feathers replacing.

Confinement/Roosting

They confine well. Hens and roosters will treat each other nicely on extended days in the coops. Mine primarily free range. But during the winters windy cold weather, I will keep them in the coop. They seem anxious to get out, but do not hurt each other if they don't.

They roost on the highest branch or bar. They will find a little notch in the roofing and balance it. The nesting box they enjoy is always the one which is the highest, and most hidden.

Funny story... I worked 2nd shift for 3 months, and in that time, I built a new coop. But even after a week of confineing them to the coop to reorient them to the new structure, they would try and roost 25-30 feet up the pine tree next to it. So, I would come home at 1130 at night, and have to climb that pine tree to collect my chickens! So dangerous! I did this for awhile till I figured the coop perches were not high enough. A couple scews and some forest branches fixed that problem.

Overall i enjoy the breed. Very pleasing to the eyes. And temperment is very good for the females. confines well, great mothering skills, and eggs are delicious!

 

[Alexandra33]

Although I don't own an Orust, I practically covet the breed!

Try looking on Greenfire Farms' website, because they offer straight run Orusts. Another thing you could do, if you either don't currently have the money or don't want to spend what they offer their pricey birds for (who does?

I sure don't.), you could always check on rarebreedauction.com for a good deal on a few Orust chicks. Hope this helps!

P.S. If you do end up getting some, you're REQUIRED BY LAW to share pictures with us!

Just kidding.

-Alex

 

[Eps32]

Two out more to come!!!!

 

[Ron Skekel]

I have them they are neat birds. I just started hatching chicks. They are easy to incubate. My breeders came from green fire farms. If anyone is interested p m me. I have eggs, chicks, some juvinels . I have extra roosters direct from my original green fire farms order they are 9 months old.
The fertility has been 100% in the three hatches I've had. The last one which hatched last night had one quiiter. I very happy with them. I have to mention how beautiful they are. The Hans are super sweet too. Pam

 

[Ron Skekel]

...

Small eggs?  About how many per year per hen?
[/quote
Mine aren't full grown. They started small and are getting bigger as they age. I think they will be med. in size when full grown. I'm getting 5 to 6 eggs per hen each week. Super sweet pullets. Very beautiful birds. The rooster doesn't pull there feathers out during mating too. If you are able to free range them your feed bill will be very low. I like saving these birds from extinction too. Pam

 

[ericinga]

The legs can actually be white or yellow. According to GFF, the more white/pink is more desirable. But I have heard from numerous different breeders across the U.S. saying that you want to hold on to a few of the yellow leg ones because they will add stronger/hardy genetics to the other ones which are lacking that. Here are some of my Orust chicks from GFF and most have white legs but some have yellow.


Out of 10 I think I have two with yellow legs and both are roosters. I actually have 5 roosters until I get some sold.

 

[jla0499]

Orust

 

[Swedish Orust Fowl]

A few young Orust chickens I picked up this weekend.