*Buff Orpington Thread!*

[ladyjey]

Here are a couple of new pics of:
Gentleman Jim and Jane, they are 11 months old. Jane lays JUMBOS.


And a nice rear view of Jim's tail. Please note I did give him a bit of a "haircut" around/below his vent - he had so many feathers I think they were getting in the way of his important rooster business!


Here is a pic comparing Jane, on the left, to one of my original hatchery hens, right. You can see the difference in the width of the breast. and the color.

One of my broody hens just hatched my first batch of Jim's chicks. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

 

[thedragonlady]

Here are a couple of new pics of:
Gentleman Jim and Jane, they are 11 months old. Jane lays JUMBOS.


And a nice rear view of Jim's tail. Please note I did give him a bit of a "haircut" around/below his vent - he had so many feathers I think they were getting in the way of his important rooster business!


Here is a pic comparing Jane, on the left, to one of my original hatchery hens, right. You can see the difference in the width of the breast. and the color.

One of my broody hens just hatched my first batch of Jim's chicks. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

You are started on the right path !

 

[aveca]

A lovely pair ladyjey

 

[mcurry]

I had a chick sneeze the other day everytime I picked her up. It threw me off. I started yelling for DH because I had never heard a chicken sneeze lol. It ended up being I was wearing perfume. She only sneezes if I'm wearing perfume and handle her. If I don't have it on she won't sneeze. I'm not saying that's your situation. It's definitely something to look into. Can chickens have allergies like humans?

 

[suzicq]

I love the BO's! I'm wondering if it's ok to keep one or two standard size BO hens in the same run & coop with bantams? About 10 - 12 bantams, mostly silkies & brahmas. Would they get along ok?

 

[jessicaroo]

I love the BO's! I'm wondering if it's ok to keep one or two standard size BO hens in the same run & coop with bantams? About 10 - 12 bantams, mostly silkies & brahmas. Would they get along ok?

I have two silkies in with 12 standard chickens, 6 of them are BOs, they were all raised together and get along fine. I think you just need to be cautious, as with any introductions, if you are introducing new chickens to chickens you've had for a while

 

[BrendaJ]

I have a mixed flock but here is my new baby buff & her friends

 

[jessicaroo]

Cute! Aww, they grow too fast

 

[Clucksworth]

Hi suzicq

Your BO cockerel and females would probably be better off in their own group, the BO cockerel may try to mount your silkies and damage their backs and legs (as they're rather large). Previoulsy I've had problems with out BO cockerel mounting smaller hens, the hen's started to limp a bit and lost alot of feathers on their backs.

However if you have alot of room and 2 or 3 BO hens your BO cockerel probebly wouldn't cause to much damage to the your smaller hens and will probably leave them alone

 

[ladyjey]

Thank you aveca and dragonlady for the kind comments. I have only been keeping chickens for 3 years and it's really been a learning curve! I very much want to be working towards having a flock of really SOP lovely, but also (and perhaps more importantly) dual purpose, hardy, strong and savvy free ranging and self sustaining (broody raised rather than incubator) Buff Orpingtons. I really love so many of the qualities of this breed...

And so far so good; the hawks seem to have failed to catch one enough times that they've given up, plus I think they haven't wanted to deal with my various roos (my current big guy is at least 2 1/2 feet tall and while I can just pick him right up he won't tolerate even a squirrel or a robin in his territory). They were out on their porch even during the blizzard all casual watching me shovel like "Hey, what's up?". Thought I'd lost 5 after dogs got in my yard and bit them up terribly or scared them off but they all came back and/or healed (so fast, they were laying again a mere 3 weeks after being practically torn open!). Now that spring is here they don't seem to want to eat the organic pellets I provide, too busy with all the fresh spring food. They lay lots of beautiful big eggs. The first generation of my own breeding has just hatched! Every night I take a good look at the chicks and even though mom has just about ignored the food I've got out, their little crops are full to bursting with bugs, seeds and what not she's dug up for them.

My starting gene pool is pretty varied so I'm thinking I won't really see the fruits of my labors for at least a couple more generations. And dragonlady I must say I've noticed your Orpingtons are very big and beautiful! Perhaps in a couple of years (once my line becomes more fixed) we can exchange some hatching eggs?