Julie (BamaChicken), Do You Still Have....

[speckledhen]

.... a Rhode Island Red rooster in with any of your Buff Orpington hens? I know that you have the son of your Red, that sired my Meg, but I didn't know if you had him any golden girls. My DH adores Meg, the RIR/Buff Orp cross girl from your crew and he said he wouldn't mind having more of that cross. Meg is a very large girl, larger than my RIRs or my hatchery Buff Orps, either one! She's the most flaming, glowing red with white legs, much more like a Buff Orp than RIR, in general. And she's full of personality, too.
Just wondering if that would even still be possible if I got some Buff Orp or RIR eggs from you at some point. Thanks so much. My pure RIR girl, Scarlett, went to live with rooster-red so she could be reproduced with his RIR rooster-it was a shame to just have her be an egglayer when she was so gorgeous and so unlike any hatchery RIRs these days!
Here is Meggie-these pics don't show how truly large she is, tho:

 

[EweSheep]

If you keep having this kind of breed, SpeckledHen, you might have started on the RED Orpingtons

. Since she got pink legs, lets try getting the eyes darker and see how it fared out in the second generation!

 

[speckledhen]

She sure leans much more toward the Orpington side, this one. Julie's Orps are exhibition size and it really shows in Meg here. DH commented on it today, that she was larger than our two Buff Orp girls, and certainly larger than our three hatchery RIRs. She likes to be picked up and held, too, and sometimes, I think a forklift is in order. Good layer, too. She began by laying a double yolker about every other egg-the lines she came from are predisposed to laying doubles, Julie said.

 

[BamaChicken]

I have a few buffs in with Reds just waiting for my mother to be able to get them. They are not the largest ones. I am actually going to probably not keep any buffs and just work on the black, blue and mottled colors in Orp. I am not going tokeep my Rosecomb RIR either or my one hen although they are show quality. I will just be keeping the Big Red jr and the other girls for eggs layers. I have got to downsize because food is just so expensive. I am spending way to much on food. Just waiting to feel better and let the cold snap pass a little. I am going to try and downsize by about 30 adults. My mother getting most of them as she lost her whole flock of over thirty mostly RIR's to a pack of dogs ripping her pens open and just having a freefor all.

 

[speckledhen]

I so understand that! Sometimes we just need to make the hard decisions and concentrate on the few things that really make us happy. That's one reason I decided to let my Ameraucanas go for now and concentrate on my laying/breeding flock of Barred Rocks and of course, my sweet Suede and his ladies. Well, I want you to know how much we enjoy Meg around here anyway! She's a doll.

 

[BamaChicken]

She is mighty pretty. My mother had some of that same cross I hatched for her and they loved being talked to and petted. She was just sick when hers were killed. She is going to be 80 in Feb and they were her pets.

 

[speckledhen]

That's so awful for her. I sure hope she never has to go through anything like that again!