Lemon Cuckoo Orpingtons

[dldolan]

I am just about to hatch my first batch of Lemon Cuckoo Orps, so I am not the expert! However, think of what "cuckoo" means in Chicken-speak. It refers to a muddied type of barring, like a Cuckoo Marans. Crosses and crosses and selective breeding later, you get the pale buff color ("lemon"), with barring. That is the simplistic but easy explanation if you are just starting to look into breeds. There are so many neat breeds, and colors within breeds. It is fun, fun, fun!

 

[sparkles217]

thanks that did help, my family have been raising chickens for a while but i was away and not really interested, but i am back now and i do know we have some buff orpingtons. we have dominickers (sp?) and that is about all i can recognize. i am not really able to get out and do alot with the chickens but i do enjoy watching them eat all those nasty bugs. i like variety and will have to just start branching out on the breeds and get some variety going so our yard is nice and colorful. my aunt who is the real chicken ranger in family has trained the guineas to go into the chicken house at night. if not we can't keep them, the chicken hawks or whatever gets them. as it is we have had quite a bit of trouble with bobcats getting anyone who wanders off too far. this is one of the ones that were caught, i think they caught 2 and killed 2 we will have to see how many are around this year. wouldn't you hate to be that rooster?

 

[dldolan]

That is the funniest looking chicken I have ever seen. Looks mean!

Yes, that poor roo has clearly got good genes...otherwise he would have fallen over dead from a heart attack at having the bobcat as a room-mate in the next cell over1 Can you just hear him telling his buddies? "So, I thought I was being brought in on a DUI, but they locked me up, and brought in this wild gangster and put him RIGHT in the cell next to mine..."

thanks that did help, my family have been raising chickens for a while but i was away and not really interested, but i am back now and i do know we have some buff orpingtons. we have dominickers (sp?) and that is about all i can recognize. i am not really able to get out and do alot with the chickens but i do enjoy watching them eat all those nasty bugs. i like variety and will have to just start branching out on the breeds and get some variety going so our yard is nice and colorful. my aunt who is the real chicken ranger in family has trained the guineas to go into the chicken house at night. if not we can't keep them, the chicken hawks or whatever gets them. as it is we have had quite a bit of trouble with bobcats getting anyone who wanders off too far. this is one of the ones that were caught, i think they caught 2 and killed 2 we will have to see how many are around this year. wouldn't you hate to be that rooster?

 

[sparkles217]

too funny

 

[Mingming]

My avatar has my 8 week old lemon Orpington. I'm still trying to figure out if it's a he or she... Does anyone happen to have a pic of their known sexed Orpington at that age that they wouldn't mind posting for me? I would really appreciate it, as if it's a he I've got to make plans for him to live elsewhere

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Hi Mingming! I may have a pic that I can post when I get home. For now, from my phone, I can tell you what I've read because I too was having a tough time sexing my Orps. I hear that the waddle is the 'tell'. My alpha boy has been crowing since at least 8 weeks and bossing everyone around since he got out of the shell. I had another LCO that I thought was a too, reddened comb, dominant behavior... I just couldn't be sure. So far, no prominent waddle, so I'm going with pullet, still waiting on an egg for final determination, she's only 13 weeks though.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Hey again Ming Ming, did you get it figured out? I can't see very clearly from your avatar, but I was thinking boy. Here is my boy at I think 8 weeks, actually, maybe 10 weeks:

 

[Mingming]

Thanks for posting your picture for me, Blarneyeggs. I realy appreciate it!!

I think my baby must be a boy..... but he's always been so docile and sweet

I hope this picture is clearer.... but our boys could be twins - huh? How old is yours now? I had thought that the baring was more evident on males, and since mine had very light baring, that perhaps it was a she. About 2 weeks ago the waddle just appeared - overnight it seemed! I can't keep him where I live

 

[Mingming]

Here's the parents.... if he was a she - wouldn't she (maybe? hopefully??) look like her momma? Her momma's got a big waddle, no?

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Okay, now I am confused, looking at the larger picture at first I thought, yup, boy. Then I looked at the legs and they are not nearly as large and thick as my boys. Oh, and apparently the light/dark color is random and does not determine gender. Kind of funny because I thought the opposite was true boy=dark girl=light as that's the way it ended up here!

Beautiful pics by the way.