308cc963_900x600px-LL-e69b2074_IMG_6870.jpeg
308cc963_900x600px-LL-e69b2074_IMG_6870.jpeg

Orpington

The original Orpington, the Black, was developed in England in 1886 and brought to the US in...
Overview Reviews (537) Gallery
Leave a rating

General Information

Breed Purpose
Dual Purpose
Comb
Single
Broodiness
Frequent
Climate Tolerance
All Climates
Egg Productivity
Medium
Egg Size
Large
Egg Color
Light Brown
Breed Temperament
Friendly, Easily handled, Calm, Bears confinement well, Quiet, Docile
Breed Colors/Varieties
USA APA: Buff, Black, White, BlueSplash in not recognized at this time.Also there are a few other colors of Orpington Projects under way in the USA as of today.
Breed Size
Large Fowl
APA/ABA Class
English
Color
The original breed colours/varieties are black, white, buff, blue and splash
bbee3a71_IMG_0942.jpeg

The popular Orpington breed originated from the town of Orpington, Kent, in south-east England, where the original black Orpington was bred by William Cook in 1886. (Mr Cook also created the Orpington duck breed). Mr Cook crossed Minorcas, Langshans and Plymouth Rocks to create a new hybrid breed, from which he selected to breed a black bird, that would also exhibit well, by hiding the dirt and soot of London.
The breed was shown in Madison Square Gardens in 1895 and its popularity soared. Its large size and soft appearance together with its beautiful colours make it very attractive breed and as such its popularity has grown as a show bird rather than a utility breed. Hens are fairly often broody and are good mothers. Although rather heavy, they are able to fly small distances but rarely do so.
The original breed colours/varieties are black, white, buff, blue and splash. Although there are many additional varieties recognised throughout the world, for example the Jubilee Orpington, only the original colours are recognised by the American Standard, the Buff being the most common colour. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Herman Kuhn of Germany developed a Bantam variety of Orpingtons and the Bantam retains the appearance of the LF Orpingtons, but in a smaller size. There is a large variety of colours in the Bantam version, including black, blue laced, white, buff, red, buff black laced, barred, buff Columbian, and birchen.

700.jpg
Orpington hen with chick

b4d5ef5e_IMG_8688.jpeg
Orpington chick

63214432_100_8039.jpeg
Orpington hen

bf3b8030_IMG_2057.jpeg
Orpington juvenile

75934c49_Orpington.jpeg
Orpington rooster

For more about Orpingtons and their breeders's and owners' experiences with them, see our breed discussion here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-orpington.1088559/
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: GirlsHuntToo, Ladies-Eight, BlueHorse17 and 29 others

Latest reviews

The Welch Chickens
Pros: Adorable and fluffy; easy to pick up and cuddle! Cold tolerant, pretty good layers. Calm and kind to their flockmates. Middle-bottom of the pecking order.
Cons: Prone to obesity and poopy butt feathers.
I have two Lavender Orpington hens. They are so sweet and pretty! They are big girls, though. Not overweight (though that happens often with Orpingtons), but a bit chunky! Lots of fluffy feathers. They are friendly (they love cameras and shoes!), and let us pick them up for cuddles. (One of mine is pecking at my boots as I speak!)

One con is that their fluffy butts often get dirty and need trimming or cleaning. Not too big of a problem if you don’t mind that, though.

Overall, a great breed (the Lavenders are, at least); I would recommend them!
Purchase Date
April 2023

Attachments

  • IMG_1909.jpeg
    IMG_1909.jpeg
    71.7 KB · Views: 7
  • IMG_4357.jpeg
    IMG_4357.jpeg
    629 KB · Views: 4
  • IMG_7853.jpeg
    IMG_7853.jpeg
    502.2 KB · Views: 6
  • IMG_7584.jpeg
    IMG_7584.jpeg
    267.2 KB · Views: 4
  • IMG_7598.jpeg
    IMG_7598.jpeg
    410.7 KB · Views: 3
  • IMG_7429.jpeg
    IMG_7429.jpeg
    441.1 KB · Views: 7
  • Love
Reactions: Addicted To Chickens
Jenbirdee
English chocolates are super floofy smart and sweet
Pros: sweet &friendly, good with kids, cold hardy, large eggs, smart, brave
Cons: so poofy floofy they get dirty easily (floof drags on ground, and poop can get on butt feathers) &not too great in very hot weather.
whats funny about my chocolate orps is how they boss my ducks around. only 2 hens and they chase off all 12 ducks. they are brave.
they understand duck-speak. when there are treats theres a special quack to call the ducks ,,and the chickens actually come running so fast theyre the first ones there., they are smart.
They are very sweet and friendly, even jump up on my lap sometimes. and gentle with children.
so super floofy - they look round like beach balls! beach balls with feet lol. I have to really watch and check them often for bugs because their floof feathers practically drag on the ground. they also need bottom baths every few months . theres just too much floooof for the poops to make it over and out without sometimes getting on those butt feathers,
Purchase Price
$40 ea for poults at pol
Purchase Date
summer of 22

Attachments

  • stella.jpeg
    stella.jpeg
    782 KB · Views: 12
GirlsHuntToo
Great article!
I love Buff Orpingtons and own 7 of them, very friendly and calm.
Great layers too!
Read more…

Comments

sssharon
My only complaints I had about my Buff Orpington is that it took forever for her first egg. She was almost 7 months old. She does lay an egg practically every day and sometimes she lays me a huge egg. Biggest I have ever seen. Everyone's chickens are evidently different. I feel your pain. I do agree with the fact that they are a very nice bird.
 
Dawna
I've had Buff Orpingtons for about two years now. They are average layers. One went broody a year ago and hatched two eggs in August. The following spring she went missing, I thought a predator got her, but she showed up in April with 15 babies.!! I've had to discourage their broodiness since I got rid of our rooster. We're in mid-Texas so don't have much freezing weather. I think they are a much calmer bird than most.
 
roosterlover897
buffs are very sweet birds and their feathers are very colorful compared to other chickens iv'e had they are huge! sadly they do not lay longer than 2-3 years for my neighbors
 
gingerz45
My Buff Orpington hen is my favorite of the flock. She is incredibly friendly and curious. She has flown up on my shoulder for her share of attention when I was holding one of my other hens. She always inspects my shoes and pants for anything interesting to peck at. She's a great layer too.
 
JustHenny
I love my buff hens! really sweet, not peckish, calm even around my guinea fowl. However, my buff Veena is the youngest hen i've ever had go broody. She's only been laying for three months and she's sitting 13 eggs. Average layers, but if you want chicks, go with the Buff Orpingtons!
 
Naser
A few weeks ago I bought two of them to hatch chicks. I read they are good mothers. which breed is better than them in that?. thanks
 
Lilorp14
do you have to get them in the pool or do they jump in and i agree they are amazing
 
brummie
So its been a year since I had the last 2 orps that made me give orps a half a star rating. I did get another 2 orps soon after I left my review here just to try them again after all the feedback and somewhat unhappy people I got here (I had no intention of upsetting anyone). A nice large blue orp and a lavendar one. My opinion has changed a little about them. I would probably give them about 2 stars now. They are big and cuddly with big white fluffy butts causing them to be referred to as sheep by some local kids that saw them. Eggs were only average, about 4 a week which is nothing compared to my better DP layers such as Light Sussex and RIR. They still do stand around a lot, and are a bit boring in that sense, not as active and amusing as the others. Blue was about the quietest, calmest chicken I have ever had and lavendar was a warmongerer always trying to work up the pecking order but never getting very far. Blue was the poorer layer probably about 3-4 small eggs, lavendar about 4 medium to large eggs per week.

Lavendar finally after 6 months went broody (the main purpose I got the orps for as I am not a fan of silkies). It is the worst broody I have ever had or even read about. I had to consantly show here back to her nest box every time she came off, she did'nt seem to remember where her eggs were. She finally half hatched a few of the eggs under her. A true warmongerer if ever there was one. The first chick she hatched she abandoned it and started pecking it. Poor thing was crying for it's mommy, and all she could do was peck it, I did what i could for it, but it did not survive. A few of the other eggs started hatching, but by the time I had seen them half hatched she had killed the chicks still in their shells some of the eggs were smudged here and there with the blood of the babies.

That was the last straw with lavendar. Once she had got meat back on here after her broody period the pot was the only thing I had for her.

In the meantime I was not too happy with the poor egg laying rate of blue, for the amount she was eating and she had not gone broody either. So in the pot she went, and as someone mentioned here, they are all feathers and fat. there is not really any extra meat on them than any other DP breed and the excess fat was just annoying to remove.

So my opinion this time around, nothing special with the meat or the eggs for a DP bird, but good as cuddly pets. I certainly would not use them as broodies (although I know they can make good broodies), as I have come to realise that silkie crosses (or even dorkings and game hens) are the best thing for a broody (don't like pure silkies, they just seem so flimsy and weak), these 2 were a bid hardier than my first 2 orps. As someone said half a star is probably a bit harsh for any breed, so I'd say now, I'd probably give them about 2 stars tops.

I guess Orps and I were just not meant to be.
 
CherrysChicks
You must have bought poor stock. My orps are awesome as are my BCMs, silkies, and mean ***** cream legbar.
 
hellbender
Sorry, but I have a good friend who is a Master Breeder of Buff Orps and I think she would reject every one of your assertions...as do I. Without proper husbandry, no breed can stand a chance of living at all, much less living up to unrealistic expectations.

You say you only gave 2 stars. Even the 'system' refuses to accept the validity of 'review'.
 
MsPoultry
Well I'm sorry this is just what I have observed my flock is extremely well cared for and I spend at least an hour a day feeding/watering/cleaning so I believe their weak flock members compared to much hardier breeds like barred rocks and wyandottes oh and not to mention their run and coop is gigantic so their is no crowding not even slightly and I know the raccoon was on me but the other two deaths were very strange I just found dead chickens with no injuries or signs of sickness completely unexpected and I believe my sick hen now has been drinking rain water that was muddy so that's not my fault so before you go and judge maybe ask some questions first
 
danieljblais
I run 20 buff orpington hens with 2 roosters. They have been healthy and hardy for me. They even fair our cold Saskatchewan winters, in a coop. They lay all winter ans only really slow down during the molt. Having said this, all my birds have been purchased from breeder and never from hatcheries. I also introduce new genetics stock every year and cull the smallest, weakest birds. Sorry to here about your bad experience Ms Poultry:( I love my buffs!
 
MsPoultry
I think I just got unlucky and it's a coincidence that those were the unlucky hens but that's ok I'm not going to give up on them
 
hellbender
I'll just say one last thing...if muddy rain water kills chickens, I'll have about 450 dead chickens tomorrow....

That's it, I'm through...
 
misfitmorgan
Wow....people get ticked when you try to give your own personal review of a breed i guess. i will say the buffs we had/have had were very hardy, good layers and took cold in northern michigan very well. However the lavender's we had were not very hardy and all 6 died within about 5 months of getting them as week old chicks. I'm not saying all Lavs are sickly or bad layers or have a poor immune system i'm just saying that was my experience with them but it could have been just been poor breeding practices from the breeder. i dont know personally i just know i doubt i will be breeding/owning them in the near future. The OH loves buffs is has been breeding buff barreds which great success and great egg production and very hardy. So if buffs over all were a weak breed i would think the offspring would come out weaker then normal barreds, since they dont i'm inclined to think maybe MsPoultry just got some bad genetics. Now before the Lav people jump up on their soap boxes asi said i dont believe all lavs are weak...just mine were and yes ive raised other birds off and on for years, hatched my own etc. i know how to care for chickens.
 
Beekissed
I agree with the review whole-heartedly. I've had BOs down through the years in various flocks and each and every time they were a vast disappointment. Ate too much, laid too little, didn't forage well, were not hardy, too eager for breeding though little egg return for all those hormones...so the eagerness just means they run around with a bare back and none of the other hens get breeding opportunities. On top of that, they have poor feather quality, which also contributes towards the broken feathers on the back. They are prone to prolapse, laying issues, reproductive cancer and underneath all that fluffy, loose feathering their carcass doesn't justify all the feed they consume. I would never recommend this breed to anyone for any purpose...it's a big money loss.
 
Robeenop
I will say I got most of mine from Mcmurray. And the rest from my local feed store. Who buys from Cackle. I do give mine omega3; ground flax seed; and use an organic vitamin supplement. I guess mine are extremely spoiled. I get advice from my father; who grew up on a farm in Indiana; with 100's of chickens; and other livestock. He did have to cull 40 hens to a disease; that brought came in from a stray Brahma that had been quarentined. All buffs and RIR...Just recently. I will be buying a dozen or so more Red Stars and Welsummers this Feb. Was not my intention to bash anyone. But I have a few people that are clueless raising chickens. One is a person who lost a whole flock to dogs and hawks! No security. I think my Brahmas are the toughest. Beautiful Roosters; lousy egg layers!LOL
 

Item information

Category
Chicken Breeds
Added by
Super Admin
Views
181,819
Watchers
95
Comments
710
Reviews
537
Last update
Rating
4.48 star(s) 554 ratings

More in Chicken Breeds

  • talkinboutchickens
    White plymouth rock
    With a super kind temperament and 4-6 eggs per week, you really can't go wrong with this breed!
  • Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies
    Showgirl Silkies
    A showgirl silkie is a silkie with no feathers on their neck.
  • shelbyw
    Olandsk Dwarf
    Bright, social birds. Beautiful Plumage with speckles covering the body. Roosters rarely fight...
  • ChickenWhisperer101
    Wyandottes
    These birds are usually overall friendly, are good layers, and are very pretty.
  • Capto Veritas
    Australorp
    The Australorp is a docile, friendly, and easy going chicken. Several people find them great for...

More from Super Admin

Share this item

Back
Top Bottom