Calling All Orpington Gurus!!

[CrazyClucks]

I currently have English Blue, Lavender, Jubilee, Mottled and Splash Orp hens and a Lavender orp roo! I’m picking up a Black orp hen to breed back to the Lav to maintain the feather quality but I’m also in the market to get another Roo that could possibly make some interesting coloring and patterns in the offspring! I’m wanting to start a project breed but I can’t seem to figure out which roo I should get that would work with the colors I have currently!! Please help with ideas!!

 

[Faraday40]

My orps are normally very round. BUT When a big 10lb hen goes broody - LOOK OUT!

This is Jewel. She's a good mama AFTER the chicks have hatched. Because of her size, she may accidently break some eggs. We solved the problem by letting her sit on rocks then give her some 1-2 days old chicks when they're ready.

Normal Jewel:


Broody Jewel: (looks like she swallowed a helium balloon)



Our roosters are also BIG. Here was our beloved boy. He was cuddly for the kids, never bothered by pets, always alert for predators, and gentle with his hens. He never ate treats for himself. It all went to his hens.


Here's a pullet.


Blizzard: Blue silver laced project.

 

[black_cat]

@OneHappyRooster

You beat me to it.

 

[The Happster]

My first and best Orpington cockerel was pretty puffy. I got him roughly eight years ago.

He was a nice boy. The expression on his face indicated that he was perpetually drunk on peach juice.

 

[Faraday40]

Thanks for the invite to the debate. My vote is Orpington all the way! Cochins are cute but I don't care for furry feet. My orps are round like big basketballs with a head & feet. I got @homeschoolin momma addicted to them as well.

I also have one bantam version. My little Cookie is the best mama. When broody, she will adopt everything that peeps. She has raised most of my very large orps, many misc bantams, turkeys, ducks, and even some quail from time to time. She once went broody about 5 days before my incubator was due. I slipped one egg under her and then slipped new chicks under her as they hatched. I think there were about 25 chicks in this pic. Cookie thought she was 'SuperHen' 1 egg + 5 days = 25 chicks. Thankfully she can't count.

As far as color patterns..... Have you thought about laced or penciled? (Just 'cause I think they're pretty.) This is Crystal and Mr. Wonderful.


BUT
For more practical reasons, I would suggest adding a double barred rooster so you could make a wide variety of new color combos. If you saved some of his barred females, you could breed them to a solid roo for sexlinked chicks.

A lavender laced Orpington will look cool.

I agree!
@ColtHandorf has some lav laced.....

 

[ColtHandorf]

Recommend checking out the English Orpington thread. Also will tag @faraday and @ColtHandorf

@ColtHandorf has some lav laced.....

She beat me to it. He has a quite pretty little gal.

I've been summoned? lol

A lavender laced Orpington will look cool.

I do have a pair of Lavender-laced Orpingtons. I'm very fond of the pullet. I'm hoping the cockerel looks as handsome as his dad when he grows up some more and molts into his big boy plumage.

I’ve always wondered if there is a standard to eye color when breeding them or if the darker eyes are more/less wanted in them?

The UK Standard for English Orpingtons says black or very dark brown eyes are preferred.

For the record, I have Bantam Lemon Blue Cochins and Large Fowl, English Orpingtons in Blue, Black, Splash, Mauve, Silver-laced, Recessive White, Chocolate, and Lavender Silver-laced. I am working on some project Blue Silver-laced birds and my first F1 pullet is laying eggs. I also have a couple of American-type Lavender Orpingtons. I'd love to get some Lavender English-type though. And of course I'm still sweet talking @Faraday40 and @homeschoolin momma into letting me hatch some of their Blue Silver-laced eggs next spring... The bantam Cochins are adorable, but the English Orpingtons have my heart. Here are a few pictures of mine.

Recessive White Orpingtons; Derek, Anne, Odette, Elizabeth, Diana, and Eleanor

Blue, Black, Splash, and Mauve Orpingtons; Suede II, Agatha, Agnes, Maud

Black Orpington; Dahlia with a few Silver-laced girls and her brother Suede I.

Silver-laced Orpingtons; Hollywood, Mel, and Sue; not pictured are Duchess, Victoria, Charlotte, Mary, Martha, and Matilda

It always seems like they are in a terrible molt anytime I want to get pictures of them for anything.

If you follow the website linked to this profile, I'm fairly certain it will take you to my Facebook business page where I have many more pictures of them. The Imported English Orpington thread on here is full of our trials and tribulations and some nice photos as well.

To the original question of pretty colors:

I have to be careful or I'll have every color and nowhere to put them. lol I already need to build several more breeding pens but my eventual goal is to have two pens of Silver-laced, one Blue Silver-laced, one Lavender Silver-laced, a Blue/Black/Splash pen, the Recessive White pen, and the Chocolate pen. If I can ever find some quality English Lavender birds I might be convinced to build another pen. Of course I love Partridge and the Red Orpingtons. There are several gorgeous variations of them out there. There are a couple of really good Orpington groups on Facebook with some knowledgeable people on there as well. If you have a pretty base understanding of genetics then you know how BBS and Lavender work. The same principle applies to me with the Blue and Lavender Silver-laced as the original SL are based on black. Mine do carry recessive White which is where that flock came from. The mottled gene that you have can be put over nearly any solid color with minimal effort. Mixing it with other patterns can get cool or messy and @The Moonshiner or @nicalandia are some of the best poultry genetics folks that come to mind nd can help you with that venture.

 

[JadeFarms]

@OneHappyRooster

 

[black_cat]

Are y’all summoning the Orpington guru of all gurus funny how y’all both thought of the same person! I’m so excited to talk about this!! I’ve been thinking about it for over a month!! I just recently joined and thought to ask!

Happy is definitely an orp guru. I don't know how much experience (he? HAPPY WHY WON"T YOU TELL ME YOUR PRONOUNS) has with the fancy breeding though. @The Moonshiner mainly does leghorns, but may have mentioned orps? I think? there's kinda a thing going on where a bunch of us think that cochins are superior and a bunch think that orps are superior so we're having a friendly debate.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Really depends on what youre wanting.
Blue, black and splash all breed together as does lavender and black. Those are all colors and then you have mottled which is a pattern. You can put mottling on all those colors.
Idk but if you can find something of one of those colors thats barred you could bring in barring and put it on all those.
The jubilee is such a different pattern all together I would look to crossing it without expecting just a messy mixed pattern.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Breed the LC to the jubilee. He has the barring gene. She has the mottled gene. Besides that theyre fairly close. LC has a dilute gene that changes red to buff and a gene to remove the black tail.
You can get some interesting varieties from crossing that pairs offspring.