Fairy Tail Farms English Orpingtons

[EmmaRainboe]

Why sad, @KingB?

Because you chose vomit buff over incredible chocolate cuckoo....

 

[Faraday40]

Am I the only one drooling over this breeding coop set up? Wow, the idea of having the ability to breed that many orp colors.........

I'm truly maxed out at 2 (lav and silver laced) Maybe throw in an occasional blue & some blacks.

 

[Faraday40]

Because you chose vomit buff over incredible chocolate cuckoo....

I had chocolate cuckoo orps for one year. (2015) I thought my sex-linked orps in such a rare color would sell well. My cuckoo orps went through an incredibly long awkward stage from age 6 days to 6 months. Even though I could promise a pullet, customers preferred to buy the adorable straight run lavender chicks. (or offered me an insulting $3-5 per choc cuckoo female .... or asked me to sell them a black cuckoo female which were all males ) I ended up giving many away to friends. The next year I was given an opportunity to obtain some SLOs and switched to breeding them. I still have people calling me asking for "buff orpingtons". I think most people just consider it part of the name and are surprised when they learn orps come in other colors. I've owned a few different colors but never a buff. When I saw the size & shape of @ColtHandorf's new buff orp, I'm impressed.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

I had chocolate cuckoo orps for one year. (2015) I thought my sex-linked orps in such a rare color would sell well. My cuckoo orps went through an incredibly long awkward stage from age 6 days to 6 months. Even though I could promise a pullet, customers preferred to buy the adorable straight run lavender chicks. (or offered me an insulting $3-5 per choc cuckoo female .... or asked me to sell them a black cuckoo female which were all males )

WHAT! But- wow. And for sexed pullets too?? That's crazy.

I think most people just consider it part of the name and are surprised when they learn orps come in other colors.

Yes, they do. Just adds to my ever-growing bitterness towards buff orpingtons.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Yes, they do. Just adds to my ever-growing bitterness towards buff orpingtons.

I've heard someone semi-recently talking about their "white buff orpingtons."

 

[ColtHandorf]

Because you chose vomit buff over incredible chocolate cuckoo....

Their Chocolate Cuckoo aren’t laying yet. And I don’t like any of the Cuckoo patterns except in…Lemon. Lol

Am I the only one drooling over this breeding coop set up? Wow, the idea of having the ability to breed that many orp colors.........

I'm truly maxed out at 2 (lav and silver laced) Maybe throw in an occasional blue & some blacks.
View attachment 2875064

I also love it. The whole back opens under those windows. All the coops have automatic doors. It was a gorgeous set up. I was very impressed. And the whole set up isn’t really that big. They keep about six hens and a rooster in each of those pens. Extra cockerels are in their own coop. The bigger coops had 8-10 hens and a rooster.

WHAT! But- wow. And for sexed pullets too?? That's crazy.

Yes, they do. Just adds to my ever-growing bitterness towards buff orpingtons.

I had three month old sexed birds at the last sale I went to. Almost all of them were pullets. None of them sold. It was very strange.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Picked up some two more breeders. And shifted some birds yesterday.

This handsome fellow and the two pullets in with him are siblings. They are supposed to be split Mottled and Split Lavender. One pullet shows some Mottling. If I don’t get better Mottling, or Lavender birds, I’ll move the Mottled pullet to the Mottled pen and return the others back to the BBS pen.

Then this little handsome guy is the new Brown-red male on the Lemon Blue pen. He’s replacing the male that hasn’t produced a fertile egg in a year. He’s only four months according to the breeder but he was breeding all the girls and flirting with the Orpington pullets on the roost next door. Guess he likes them thicc.

And finally an Isabel Cuckoo Orpington that did not want to live with the bachelors and got moved to the kitchen flock pending some girlfriends for him.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Am I the only one drooling over this breeding coop set up? Wow, the idea of having the ability to breed that many orp colors.........

I'm truly maxed out at 2 (lav and silver laced) Maybe throw in an occasional blue & some blacks.
View attachment 2875064

No, I am too. I might have to steal this idea when I move

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Their Chocolate Cuckoo aren’t laying yet. And I don’t like any of the Cuckoo patterns except in…Lemon. Lol

I also love it. The whole back opens under those windows. All the coops have automatic doors. It was a gorgeous set up. I was very impressed. And the whole set up isn’t really that big. They keep about six hens and a rooster in each of those pens. Extra cockerels are in their own coop. The bigger coops had 8-10 hens and a rooster.

I had three month old sexed birds at the last sale I went to. Almost all of them were pullets. None of them sold. It was very strange.

I've had a hard time selling pullets lately too.

 

[Faraday40]

The above is not my photo, but I have the same same bald neck thing going on here.
My black orp pullet got patchy one day and bald the next . (bald from wattles to crop in front and a bit of the sides of neck.) I think it was excessive grooming from a flock member. They shouldn't be bored because they can still free range anywhere in the yard. It's not molt because there's no feather stubble and I think I'd see something growing in by now.

In my bantams, my little alpha serama rooster looks like a naked neck. Last year I blamed the turkeys (because I always blame the turkeys) but they don't have access to the seramas.

Has anyone else seen this? It's odd that only one bird from each flock has it.