Orpington

I've had my pair for almost a year, about to become hens. I have around 25 birds give or take in all, and my orpingtons (buff) are by far my most favorite two. Always the first to come and see me, always following me around, love to be held, lay large brown eggs nearly every day. They're the sweetest birds I've ever owned, I recommend them to anyone just starting to raise chickens.

The orpington were my 1st egg layers. They are easy to care for and I get between about 4 eggs per hen a week out of the 2 ladies. They are older hens. I am a newbie and they were a good start.

she is my sweetest girl,the most friendly with the sweetest chirpat this point,i don't even care if she lays eggs or not.

we have had many dual purpose breeds over the years on this property. we like a calm flock of well adjusted birds with little daily drama in the cliques. our buff orpingtons are among the best birds and this is one breed we replenish with new stock and breed. we have two types currently larger ladies who are good layers and small ladies who lay more often. bigger birds were cackle hatchery chicks sent through mail. smaller birds ideal poultry chicks from feed store. birds we have bred with our ameracauna rooster for meat have produced excellent chicks. broody birds are great sitters and i have not had one abandon a nest yet.

I love my BO rooster. He protects the girls well with his huge spurs but has never hurt any of the hens during breeding. He also never comes after me. Both reasons for me deciding not to cut his spurs. He is the most people friendly chicken I own. He is noisy but I do not see that as a con. It is what roosters are supposed to do. His crow is a little strange though. I will defintly get another Orpington rooster after him.

These are my favorite birds, and I hope to have many many more soon. Everyone loves them as well, therefore selling my chicks is going to be easy!

I love my Orpingtons. My Bonnie Blue lays these huge brown eggs. They have been a very pleasureful breed, very sweet and friendly.

These are the cutest breed ever! My two are sooo friendly like giant cushions, and they are always willing for a cuddle! They lay huge eggs even in the winter and make really sweet noises as they strut around the garden!! Would recommend to anyone!

I have blue, black and splash Orpingtons and they are great. Love to be handled especialy if they are raised by hand and their fluff gives them a resemblance of a walking pillow. Great layers nearly every day even through winter. Very talkitive with huge eyes.

I have the buff orpington bantams and most of them were MEAN. We only have one sweet hen. She is very skittish and fast, but once you catch her, she doesn't mind being held. They don't like to be held, nor touched.

I loved my Orpinton hens more than any of the others. I had a mixed flock of hens, but my Orpington hens were quite docile and they seemed to cope with the the extreme cold of South Dakota's winter. I chose them for another characteristic though -- their broodiness. I want a breed that would become my off-the-grid incubator and so I have decided to always have a few Orpington hens as well as bantam hens for hatching out other breeds of birds.

I love Orpingtons! We lost one of 2 to a bobcat, the one left over is quiet and likes to be a lap chicken.
Turns out the other hens and roo's don't like her color and pick on her.

We have 4 buffs rescued from a flock that had been over-roostered and over-crowded. Eventually they began to get comfy with us. For several months they were pitiful looking, half their feathers missing, low weight, etc. After they molted last fall, all their feathers grew in and they finally looked like the photos we'd seen online of fluffy, soft poultry. And they even acted like they knew how pretty they'd gotten! They follow us around in the yard like puppies, are very curious, come when called, and we get 3 to 4 large/extra large eggs a day. They don't use the nest boxes as the bathroom so their eggs are very clean. Ours eat layer mash, cracked corn, oyster shells, enjoy a flock block and love the kitchen detritus. I recommend them to anyone getting chickens for the first time or who has never had this breed before. We can't pick ours up but i think if we'd had them from chicks we'd be able to do that.

I have a pair of lavender orpingtons and they are both very nice.They will fly up onto my arm,head,or shoulder and will follow me around wherever I go. They are getting big and I wanted a big bird! I don't know about egg production though since the hen hasn't started laying yet.

The Buff Oropingtons were one of my first chickens and two years later I still have them. They are gentle with the children and great layers. Below is my rooster:

Orpingtons have become one of my favorite breeds of chickens. They are ideal for a home stead and even ideal for that family that wants to try something new. They are very friendly birds and rarely get angree or sparatic. My hens will eat anything and everything you throw their way so I must be careful. Over all, best bird I've raised.Although they to fall in second place right behind the Buff Brahma!

Every year, my elementary school would have a hatching project with chicken and duck eggs. It is one of the only things I remember from such a tender age. My sister, three years behind me, also got to experience the hatching project, and won a buff orpington chick out of it.

Knowing what I now know about chickens, I would never have raised her the way we did, but back then we knew no better. She had no coop, no flock mates, and no nest box. She DID have a 45lb dog for company and protection though. In the winter, Sandy (the dog) would snuggle under warm blankets. "Stupid Bird" as my dad called her (who was not so dumb as her name suggested), would climb up on top of the dog, and snuggle down in the blankets for warmth.

She was an absolute joy to have around. She came when she was called, knew all kinds of neat tricks, and was a fantastic egg layer. She lived in that yard for 9 years before my dad got a job with the state department, and we could not take her with us. By age 9, she had developed quite the set of spurs, but she still gave us a couple of eggs a week.

If you want a big, fluffy, beautiful bird with an absolutely charming personality, and wonderful propensity for egg production, Orpingtons are the way to go!

Just remember, different lines of birds will be different in personality, build, and egg production! I still keep orpingtons in my flock, and some of my most memorable birds are my wonderful buff orptingtons.

We LOVE our buff Orpingtons. Mine are only hatchery birds, but they are so beautiful, sweet and friendly, they have won us over for sure. As long as I keep a layer flock, Orpingtons will be on the top of my list. I love their big fluffy bodies, my kids love to hold them and hug them. I get lots of perfect brown eggs from them. My Orpingtons have not gone broody in two years, but I don't get a lot of broodies in general. I think they all have too much fun ranging in the yard to want to sit for 3 weeks. If and when I'm able to expand my layer flock, I'd love to get some quality Orpingtons from a breeder.

I will say, though.... My two Buff Orps, are my wanderers.... They are fenced in the backyard, but they have an escape route, and I regularly find them on my front lawn. I think they've recruited my little Old English Bantam rooster too, as an accomplice and bodyguard. At least they are staying on my property...

Buff Orpingtons are very good layers of large light brown eggs.

They go broody often and make excellent mother hens. My Orpington hens have hatched chicks, ducklings, poults, and keets with very high hatch rates (100% is not uncommon). The Orpington's large size and profuse feathering allow them to incubate many eggs at once.

Contrary to what I've read, my hatchery Buff Orpingtons have proven to be my best foragers, voluntarily foraging widely in search of bugs and seeds and other tasty tidbits, thereby cutting down on feed costs and producing healthier eggs compared to hens fed a higher percentage of grain. I've seen them foraging as far as a 1/3 of a mile away from their coop, though typically they're not more than five hundred feet away from their coop.

They do well in many climates with their heavy feathering and light coloring.

They don't have feathered legs, which can track mud and dirt into the nest boxes, dirtying the eggs. They also don't have crests, which can limit a chicken's vision and their ability to free range.

Extra roosters grow out very well for meat, Orpingtons are one of the biggest and meatiest of the dual purpose breeds.

Buff Orpingtons do have white skin, instead of the traditional yellow skinned chickens Americans are accustomed to seeing at the grocery store. This doesn't bother me, but for those who want a traditional-looking chicken, this may be a negative. Then again, a butchered Orpington will never look like a Cornish franken-chicken anyway.

Buff Orpingtons are also fairly common and easy to find, with many hatcheries selling them at an economical price.

As an extra bonus, Buff Orpingtons are also beautiful, with their large size, glistening golden plumage and big fluffy butts!

I bought 4 - 3 days old chicks. They lived in my kitchen until old and large enough to move outside with a heat source. I live in Vancouver Canada where the nights are cold even in the summer.
Of the 4, 3 have survived. The runt lived for about 4 months then just quit eating and died. She was just feathers and bones when she died but had no other symptoms. ??
I think one of the survivors is a roo as his comb is much redder and his tail is shaped different. He hasn't started crowing yet. If he does I will have to sell/trade him as we can't have roos in Vancouver. Yes, silly, I know.
They are such affectionate chicks. Very soft and fluffy with pale lavender gray feathers. Truly beautiful girls. If you are going to have chickens you may as well have beautiful chickens!
They are very intelligent and affectionate. My 11 year old grandson carries them around tucked under his arm.
They have not yet started laying, but it is Feb. so very cold and the days are short. I have my coop on a timed light. 12 hours on, 12 hours off. My other older hens have laid all winter.