Buff Orpingtons and thier lifespan

[adcockfarm]

we had a buff orpington that died suddenly

(heat maybe? we live in southern california) and a friend had thiers die too.

(don't know how) are they not long living? (i mean, bad luck and that because ours was like a year

and the other was like still inside maybe

) or are they prone to sickness? heat? they are definetly fluffy and iv'e seen pics of them in snow. when our other 4 get old

land stop laying, we may get a new one, i like the breed. also, we have a dirt lot behind our fence with cyotes and hawks/falcons fly over

. we've never had any problems with it before but will the bright yellow be a problem? thx!!!

 

[Michael OShay]

In my personal experience Buff Orpingtons are among one of the longer lived breeds. However, they do not handle heat well. We raised Buff Orpingtons in Corning, CA, where summer temperatures soared well over 100 F and our Orpingtons really struggled in the heat (as did most of the dual purpose breeds). I don't know where in southern CA you are, but if you have similar summer temperatures I would suggest getting Black Australorps instead. They have the same calm and gentle temperament of the Orpingtons (not surprising since they were originally bred using Orpington stock) but are better layers and handle heat much better.