Orpington

I bought a dozen straight run chicks. I ended up with mostly girls (yay!).I bought mine from an excellent breeder (heritage strain, not hatchery birds) and these are from a good line. They were slow to mature, laying after 30 weeks old. Their feathers are loose, fluffy and gorgeous. When they started laying it was very infrequent. Even a few weeks later they are giving me eggs that average about 55 grams. I had ducks first so that is small to me (my ducks lay 70 gram eggs on average). But now they are laying almost every day.

They are very chill birds. Mine do not allow you to lean over and pick them up (we weren't snuggly with them to start with) but once caught are generally very calm. Outside they are pretty placid. Mine actually forage rather well for such a large bird- but they are my largest feed consumers. But they make up for their eating habits with their gorgeousness. Seeing a half dozen of their fluffy butts ranging on my property makes me smile.

They get along well with other breeds. They are generally non-aggressive but did establish themselves over my Easter Eggers. I never see the pullets/young hens squabble amongst themselves. They are very very noisy layers. They announce to the world before they lay, during their lay and after their lay. We live in the country and do not mind this.

My pullets actually begin laying very beginning of October. In twos they started. Dropping them outside -wherever at first. They quickly began laying them inside though. We were getting like 2 eggs a week maybe for each pullet. Now into December we are getting nearly an egg a day.



36 weeks old.








26 week old cockerel.



24 week old pullet.


These ladies are 36 weeks old.

Love Orpingtons!

ETA 1/13/2013: After experiencing their laying a bit longer. For my non-hatchery stock they lay well. Average about 4-5 eggs a week each and all of them began laying in Fall and Winter. Their eggs for me are running medium size. No large eggs here. I think hatchery strains have had Leghorn introduced at some point to increase laying and egg size so that could be why my eggs are running at about medium. We don't mind. Very chill chickens. The rooster is a little less chill and sexually a little aggressive to the ladies. We are hatching this year and will look for a less aggressive cock.

My family is a big fan of orpingtons.

We got a Buff Orpington from a friend that couldn't keep him any longer because he was very aggressive towards the kids and the wife. When he got to out house he was bottom boy & we are weeding out roosters so he is head man. Would like more off springs from him. We need something in the yard that will fight for the girls when the raccoons, skunks, & hawks venture our way, we were told he is a good breed for that.

I have had two Buff Orpington hens and they both were the broodiest hens I have ever had. One went broody when I added some 8 week old pullets in with the 5 month olds.. She wasn't laying yet and she went broody and took over care of the 8 week olds. She then procceeded to start laying at 7 months old and by 9 months old was broody again she was a very determained broody she was loosing weight because she didn't want to get off the eggs I had to go in and take her off once a day to eat. She hatched 36 babies by the time she was 2 1/2. Wonderful mamas not so great at laying but a large hen great for dual purpose or if you want a broody hen for hatching Orpingtons would be your hen!

We love our Orpingtons! They are such friendly, inquisitive, lovely birds who enjoy being held. (Sometimes we're not sure if they're chickens or puppy dogs...)

Buff Orpingtons are big beautiful golden-colored birds. Good mothers. Spicy personality. Good at solving crimes (Google: Gertrude McCluck)
My only complaint is the Egg production: low when laying; none when broody.

These are nice chickens, but they appear to take a long time to mature. I have the buff variety, and my oldest Orpington should be about six or seven months old now. She appears to be about the correct size, but none of my roosters are interested in her, and I haven't seen a single egg.

Orpingtons are said to like to be held. In my experience, they don't care for it at all unless handled when fairly young and it is continued frequently.

Of the Orpingtons I've experienced over the years, they haven't been terribly hardy. If they're not the first to get sick, they often seem to get it worst when it comes around. They also tend to cower before the other chickens if they are not one of the first established. I even had some of my mixed-breed flock kill one of mine a few days after it was introduced -- it appeared to have been cornered and then relentlessly picked on. They don't seem to stand up for themselves all that well. The one rooster that was tried was almost instantly dominated by a sex-link mix and was even picked on by the hens.

Still, my oldest Orpington hen is a nice chicken, fairly high-ranking, gentle though firm when it comes to establishing the pecking order; and while she did pass a round of sneezing about to the rest of my flock, she appears to have stood up to it pretty well.
My youngest Orpington is undersized. She had a badly injured leg, so I got her for free at the same time I was buying other chickens of the same age. She recovered fully, apparently quickly, and is as sweet as the breed is reputed to be.

have two of them so nice.

I love my Orpington girls. They're large, friendly and quiet. They don't fly due to their large sizes, so I don't worry about them getting into the garden or wandering away. They're nice middle of the pecking order girls that even get along nicely with my dogs. Dependable layers and the cutest chicks around!

I'm especially fond of my lavender orp- it's a nice variety if you can find it

I have 7 Orpington's and they are the best chickens EVER! I have 1 Blue Orpington, and 6 little Lavender Orpington's that are now 3 months old! They are very sweet and gentle breed of chicken and give you nice big brown eggs! I personally love this breed!

I love orpingtons. Especially buff orpingtons. We had 2 but a dog killed them. We will certainly be getting some to replace ours lost.

they seem to be cold hardy and decently heat hardy. i have one who is docile and is pretty roughed up. they lay a lot. they are not broody so far and i'm glad right now because i have a wyandotte who is broody and one is enough for me. there feathering is cool. i was questioning whether to get these or barred rocks when i was at the store. i don't own barred rocks, but i doubt they would be better than my buff orpingtons.

I have one Buff Orp. named Lafonda, she loves to chase squirrels, rabbits, and cats...does not like being touched despite the fact i held all my chix (6) since day one..looking forward to her to start laying eggs!

Right from the start these birds were the friendliest. As chicks they were the only breed that would run towards your hand. All four of them have distinct personalities and physical appearances. They all lay very well too! One of the cons of this breed, that I've experienced, is that they often go broody. We own Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, Australorps, and Easter Eggers, but the only birds that ever were broody were the Orpingtons. In fact we have one Orpington, (Pam), that is almost perpetually broody. For some folks this might be a good thing, but for us it's not because we don't even have a rooster! One of the other problems I've had is that they aren't very heat tolerant. We have very hot and humid Virginia summers (sometimes upwards off 100 degrees) so we need good heat tolerant birds. Unfortunately we expected the Orpingtons to handle the heat as well as our Barred Rocks, but they didn't and we lost our biggest Orpington (Bertha). Now we have invested in a sprinkler cooling fan that works wonders, but heat is definitely something you should consider before buying an Orpington. Overall they are a great breed, but having a broody streak and a lack of natural heat tolerance they would not be my first breed recommendation to new or existing flock owners. To end on a higher note, my favorite birds in terms of personalities are definitely the Orpingtons!

My buffs are my favorites! I have 6 girls and they all have a different but good personality. One is always trying to get closer and be petted anytime I am in the coop. Another is just so curious about my toes and polish that I can never go in the coop without closed shoes. They lay nice light brown eggs that start out small but do get larger as they become good egg layers. Two of them lay under the nest boxes on the floor which is a bit of a nuisance to retrieve the egg, but I'll put up with it since they give me an egg everyday. My only problem is that they are hard to tell apart so I call them all Penny.

I have 3 chickens total so I only have comparisons between the 3. My Buff "Cashew" is very sweet, loves to be held, will eat out of your hand, and lays almost every day. She is not the mother hen, but is a very close 2nd. Egg size could be bigger, but she is consistent with one almost every day. She is also the softest compared to the other two. If I had all Buffs in my flock I wouldn't be unhappy.

I only have one Buff Orpington out of my total of four chickens. See it definately the sweetest of the bunch, We just received out first egg yesterday, and I'm thinking it wasn't from her so I don't know how good of layers they are. They eat alot, usually she sleeps next to the food bowl and when I come in to say good night shes cramming her beak full of food. She is actualy some what smart too, she reasponds when I call her, but then again, all the chickens do....
So really cute and friendly, definately worth it.

Though pretty and sweet, the breed isn't much good for a utility flock of chickens. They eat too much and forage too little. Their propensity to overeat causes fat collection near the vent which often results in reproductive issues and poor laying performance.

They tend to be the only chickens in the flock with bare backs because they are either too fat to avoid the rooster or they are too docile and drop to be mated every time he passes by.

Too slow and docile to be good out on free range, they are always the last to make it to cover when the alarm is called and are rarely wary enough to notice danger on their own in a timely fashion.

Due to their reproductive issues and overeating, they tend to be not as hardy as other heritage breeds.

I wouldn't have another in my flocks. Though pretty, they just don't justify their feed usage.

Our Buf Orps were the first birds we raised. We bought 8 pullets, and there was a rooster in the bunch. These birds are pretty docile, they will sit in my lap, and they tend to be the more dominant birds, but they dont peck the other breeds we have to much. In fact, the BO's have adopted our 2 Ameroucana's into their roost, effectively elevating the status of these 2 birds (they were being pecked pretty badly by the other breeds in our 2nd brood).

I call them 'Treat Hounds' becuase every time I enter the coop or run they crowd around me expecting some kind of treat. And they are always first when I put out the scratch or apples, pears, veggies ect.

They are good layers of Med to Large eggs, and occasionally we get an extra large from them. They have been giving us 4-6 eggs a day for the past couple months.

After my experience with RIR's, GLW, SLW and Am - I think when I expand my flock it will be with BO's.

I would recommend this breed as a good bird to start with. They have been a fun mild mannered bird that accepts other birds easily. - not sure if that will bear out to be true in the future, but is very true about this bunch.

i have 7 they r very cool friendly loving i will sit out and watch the flock and my BOs come up and allmost set in my lap. the down sit is when we go outside and get into the cars they are right there.