This is a fun thread I love English Orpingtons (my favorite breed in the whole world), but agree about the hatchery buff ones. I have a couple of these fluff balls:
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and it's a little annoying when people look at them and say "OMG your Buff Orpingtons are gorgeous!" or when I post a picture somewhere and somebody asks what breed that is, and before I have a chance to respond on my own post, somebody else jumps in thinking they know better, and says "it's a Light Buff Orpington"... um WHAT. It's not a buff, and since when are there light ones and dark ones?
Yeeeah, some people want to be helpful, but they just really don't know what they're talking about and probably should like back off... Light Buff Orpington makes me think of the White Buff Orpingtons from earlier in the thread, though.
I just saw a post on another site this morning where someone asked what breed their chicken was (a blue-colored mutt with mulberry skin on his face and either silver leakage or Birchen markings, I didn't look terribly closely) and someone else spouted out something about them being a dominant white mix with a lot of black leakage, so they must have been a first-generation cross. That's... That's not at all how those genes work...
I have issues with posting in a lot of places because of severe anxiety that I've been trying to work through, though, so I just wasn't feeling up to arguing how wrong that person was and didn't correct them.
I accidentally stopped getting notifications for this thread but it cracks me up to read. I will say though... I think I may have a new least favorite hatchery Orp... The lavenders bother me so much. They have the same awful body type as the buffs plus the shredder gene No thanks!!
I loved my Lavender Orpington from Meyer Hatchery, but she did have a tiny bit of shredding. Her personality was amazing and she was larger and shaped differently than most of the hatchery Orpingtons I've seen. She was from either their first or second year of having them, though, so it really wouldn't surprise me if they've bred them to the typical hatchery Orpington shape now.
I like the lavender gene in mixed varieties or when it's done properly without shredding like UK Wyandottes. Apparently they've been able to eliminate shredding completely. I have to say, lavender columbian is one of my favorite colors though!
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Yeah, I mostly agree with this. Lavender is a bit too plain for my liking on its own. It definitely needs an underlying pattern of some sort for me or it toes the line on being just blah like solid buff and white.
question!
What is the "shredding gene" I've seen mentioned? And how does it affect the bird's looks?
I'm a complete newb to chicken genetics, so please explain it to me like a 5 year old. Thank you in advance to whomever can enlighten me.
I'm not sure if it's a gene or multiple genes, but Lavender is strongly associated with shredding of the feathers, or in other words feathers that don't quite hold together like a normal feather would so they end up looking ratty or worn out. I don't have a great picture to show it, but here's one from google that shows it pretty well (despite being a small image, sorry about that, it was the best one I found) :