Dixie Chicks

[Mahen100]

@ambergem My English orps certainly develop slower than many other breeds, and certainly slower than some of the production birds bred to mature early and lay in about 4.5 months. I don't have experience with American SOP orps...but I will be keeping an eye on the Australorp and hope it doesn't develop too much faster than New Hatch. When I hatched and raised a red star rooster and an English Orp together, the red star really did everything faster, and treated the orp he was a chick, and Star a dad, rather than a sib. He showed the orp where food was, etc.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

My old Nikon digital camera had a " white color correction" update that I never got installed into my camera. Here is "blue snow and background" for a very white- appearing chicken. The photo was not subsequently doctored or enhanced prior to upload. It is just what the camera lens "saw."

I see gold and black. I could not stop laughing as I wrote this.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

@ambergem My English orps certainly develop slower than many other breeds, and certainly slower than some of the production birds bred to mature early and lay in about 4.5 months. I don't have experience with American SOP orps...but I will be keeping an eye on the Australorp and hope it doesn't develop too much faster than New Hatch. When I hatched and raised a red star rooster and an English Orp together, the red star really did everything faster, and treated the orp he was a chick, and Star a dad, rather than a sib. He showed the orp where food was, etc.

Absolutely, my English Orps were late Bloomers, but worth the wait. Australorp started laying between 16 weeks and by 20 weeks they were laying.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

gold and white and a crappy picture... At first I thought @vehve was talking about paining his rabbit hutch because at first he was finishing it up and talking about painting it later... Then the Gold and White discussion started so I really didnt care about rabbit hutch colors.... so I glossed over the whole discussion. I dont see brown I dont see blue ... just Gold and White. The crappy picture part is the photo has a bright white back ground which washes out and darkens the rest. If the brightness of the picture was adjusted it would be gold and white. Also the background light is sunlight the photo that was taken was with a cool flash. close up of original pix Original dress with back ground removed same closeup\ deb

I see Red and Green.

 

[minihorse927]

has anypone noted that orpingtons seem to grow slower then other chicks?

my English do!

 

[minihorse927]

I know I always find myself watching my Orpingtons for the year when they are around 4 or 5 months old, & I am always really disappointed in the way they look. have to tell myself to keep waiting it out and by the time they are 7 or 8 months old they are really coming into their prime. Mine usually start laying between six and eight months of age depending on what time of year they were hatched. I've got a little black pullet that I hatched out back in October and I have been so disappointed in the way she was growing up until this past month, she's really starting to look like an orpington.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

I know I always find myself watching my Orpingtons for the year when they are around 4 or 5 months old, & I am always really disappointed in the way they look. have to tell myself to keep waiting it out and by the time they are 7 or 8 months old they are really coming into their prime. Mine usually start laying between six and eight months of age depending on what time of year they were hatched. I've got a little black pullet that I hatched out back in October and I have been so disappointed in the way she was growing up until this past month, she's really starting to look like an orpington.

Dinosaur chickens. They reach an age that I refer to them as dinosaur chickens refering to the drawing of what they were supposed to look like way back in dinosaur days. They are juveniles and they are little boogars at that age. Arent they something? I have seen mine stretch a snake with the one juvie in the middle and one on each end pulling and tugging. As they RUN with the snake and their heads held up high. They always want what the other has in its mouth. Funny little guys and gals. As they get older they become above all that playing. Once in a while they might bat at a cat toy strung up for them to play with. Instead they prefer to walk around and scratch in the garden or play in the creek, always above the actual playing of the juveniles,.. Until,... One sees a lizard or frog or snake or tadpole or tiny trout and then they are off...... Once again a little kid in them pops out. Whatever they found they have to run with it and that running catches the others eyes and the chase is on once again.

 

[Amberjem]

guess that works out to my advntage then with these guys they are so tiny and arent growing nearly like the others were and have..plus I did notice my new years orpington hatchlings are slow as heck also....I kept everyone inside longer just because of them.........

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

guess that works out to my advntage then with these guys they are so tiny and  arent growing nearly like the others were and have..plus I did notice my new years orpington hatchlings are slow as heck also....I kept everyone inside longer just because of them.........

small? English Orpingtons get bigger than American Orpingtons. I see people buying Buff Orpingtons at TSC. I have seen these as Adults. The American production Orps look nothing like mine. Mine look exactly like those pictured at the Angry Orchard, Ewe Crazy, The Fancy Chick and all those on the otherside of the POND. Big, fluffy & friendly. And I mean Big, Fluffy and Friendly.
I mostly feed back the eggs to my chickens.
I give away those not perfect or with what I am working/looking for. I refer to that as my way of culling. Separating them from mating with the perfects or that look I am working towards.

I really should not work on too many project birds at one time it gets expensive, note taking must be perfect.
So mostly I am very selective in breeding.
Feed back eggs in feed.
Give away those not perfect or do not have that look I want.
And sell even fewer.
Mostly rehome what is not what I am looking for.

My two projects, one is going to come to a close real soon. I have given away Too many Cochin Bantams. A friend has a grown daughter and she has a barn for her horses, she has wanted and taken home many Calico Cochin bantams to her barn to let free range and eat up plenty of feed during the winters. She locks them up with the horses at night and releases them when she opens the barn doors in the morning for the horses. If the Calico Cochin bantam had too much of a color, Like mostly Black, it was not a good canidate for breeding so she would take them. I can not imagine eating them! They are all feathers and they lay the cutiest eggs.

 

[Mahen100]

OK, BYC is being stingy with forking over posts here. I cannot retrieve posts later than 5:20 my time, and I even posted one laughing at
aviary's post. has yet to show here. So if this is a double post....it wasn't initially.


Maybe laughing so hard at ApiaryandAviary's "I see black and gold" jammed up some gears.


Aviary,