Orpington

Very pretty bird. I will be keeping them in mind when I order new birds! I am looking for friendly, good layers and they sounds like the bird I need!

These birds lay great in all weather, are super friendly and are beautiful.

Buff, Black, Blue, White - we have a real mix of them. The buffs are the babies we bought after picking up the others at a farm in Montpelier, VT. They wanted to get rid of them because the thought the flock was "spent"... interesting enough they are still laying for us.

Included with the VT chickens were a couple of Sex Links. Very aggressive compared to the Orps and remind me a bit of the RI Reds we had years ago.

The Orp Rooster is very passive w/people unlike our RI Rooster who use to attack us if we went anywhere near the eggs.

Great breed for New England as they don't seem to mind the cold and lay through the winter. They follow us like puppies around the yard and love their "treats" which is how we get them back in at night.

My experience with Buff Orpingtons was a mixed bag. The hens were very calm, quiet at laying time, and did a decent job hustling their own feed (free range). Being so docile does make them low on the pecking order, and they are very receptive to repeated breedings, so they end up with bald backs (rooster to hen ratio was 3:35). Their production was average in the flock, with the black stars, barred rocks, and rhode island reds out-laying them, and the BS and BR's producing larger eggs.

The primary reason we added the BO's to the flock was to get natural, broody hens who would hatch eggs for us, and it was a bonus that the breed is known for its good temperament. We were disappointed to see that in 3 years, none of the 12 hens went broody even once...they had no interest in hatching any eggs. And two of the cockerels we kept back as relacements were unpredictable as to temperament. One we had to cull when he took to launching sneak attacks on any men on the place. Overall, the BO's just could not justify a place in my homestead flock. We had far better production, as well as the most broody hens, from our black star girls, with the black australorp a close runner up.

Goldie is my snuggle girl. She doesn't even mind my loud, goofy 5 and 7 year old boys' attention. She'd probably plop on my lap for hours if I let her. When my 4 girls were attacked by a hawk (through some team work and a very persistent Golden Sex Link, they are all fine), Goldie's feathers were everywhere. It looked as though several chickens had been de-feathered all over my lawn and my living room (that's a funny part of the story). The amazing thing was Goldie didn't look like she lost a single feather at all. There is something to be said for a chicken with a snugglie personality and oodles of snugglie feathers to back it up. She's a charm.

I had 15 Girls and 1 morning woke up to a slaughter by a family of coons that got into my coop and brooder and trapped and killed 10 of the 15 girls. After 2 days 3 more died from injuries and the 5th went a few days later now all were gone but my 1 Buff Orpington, BLONDIE. She jumps into my arms and lets me pet her and love her and runs around most of the day with me as I work outside. Well it got crazy having a 6 month old BO have no one other than me so we, my grand baby and I bought a flock of assorted chicks. Blondie got PI$$ED and killed of the largest of the group we ran to go get a box to separate them and then when we were ready to get them in a box to separate them all the other 2 week old kids where under Blondie and she took them in and went Brodee and raise all the kids. Why with the other? Blondie became a mommy in a matter of minutes. Why she killed 1 and took in the other 9 is beyond my understanding or do I want to try and figure it out. Well 8 months have gone by and she is it at the top of the pecking order when it comes to the leader of the pack but her and her kids is a wonderful story.

So this is a nice breed, we have one, shes very nice but is a little flighty, we got her as an adult though so we dont know if she was handled a lot. They go broody a lot which can be good or bad. Our orpington has a bad butt so i dont know if its cause of her or the breed gets poo butts easy. I would recommend this breed for a begginer or someone who wants a cuddler breed

Love this breed, very hardy, not too picky about food. Great egg layer! Although I notice that when she gets stressed in any way she will not lay an egg for that day.

Not the greatest picture but this is Honey above...she's so nice!

This is by far my favorit breed of chicken. Ive been through many breeds and yet i keep getting more of these girls because theyre so fluffy and loveable! I do have to admit that the egg size does vary from bird to brid but they run on the smaller side even though this is a bigger chicken.

I bought hatchery Buff chicks almost 4 years ago and still have 15 of them and most of them are still laying. At the present time I have Buff, Lemon Cuckoo, BBS Orpingtons growing out that are about 8 weeks old. I also have Buff Orpington (Clevenger/Coulter lines and a few Jim Hall lines in incubator right now due to hatch out in March 2012. I also have one pair of the Imported Blue English Orps. I really do like the Orpingtons.

Last year I decided I would like to own chickens again. I no longer live in Florida were I originally had chickens in the early 80's. I currently live in a suburb of the Chicagoland area, called Ottawa. I researched the county ordinances as well as the city and found that there were none about chickens. I then proceeded to ask my neighbors how they felt about me having some chickens, and to my suprise my immediate neighbors gave me the thumbs up. I checked with my local Farm and Fleet strore and they also informed me that I could indeed have chickens in my back yard, so I ordered six: 2 Buff Orpintons, 2Australorps and 2 Araucanas. Of the six chicks, who are now grown layers, the buff orpintons are my favorites. They like to be pet, follow me around and run to me when they see me coming

They are doing real well and I get about an egg a day from my hens. We have had a mild winter here this year and they have gotten out a lot this year when the weather permits. I did my research and found that the breeds I selected are hardy and can tolerate cold winters fairly well and tend to not be aggressive. I keep my hens in a coop I purchased and then added heat lamps for the winter.

If you are new to raising chickens I would recommend reading the book "Chick Days" by Jenna Woginrich. It is light hearted and an easy read with good starter information. I found it to be fun and helpful as it shows all the growing stages of your birds.

In closing I can say... keep your coop clean, give fresh water daily ,provide a variety of foods and your chickens will be happy to produce eggs! PS...they do like to get out and dust too!

Best regards to all
Debra

Nice Calm Young Birds!

My Buff girl is a sweetheart. She is not aggressive, but does not like to be held, either. She is a dependable producer of about one large, dark brown egg a day. Drumstick (her name - long story), is a good example of an easy going hen who is low maintenance.

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!