Okay Tadkerson and Krys, Breeding Red Orps, Info needed

[BamaChicken]

So if a person wanted to start a project of breeding a Red Mahogony colored Orpington where would they start. What colors would be your first cross?
Thanks in advance for your help

 

[Katy]

I'll be waiting to hear the answer too!

 

[KKluckers]

Julie, I can find the link but will look for it. It said a RIR hen crossed with a buff Orpington roo. It said something about having the roo on the darker side. I'll go search for the link.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

It seems that if you bred a dark RIR with a darker buff orp that you would get rust colored bird with white legs. Breed that back to a dark RIR. Then take the darkest birds that are looser feathered with white legs and breed that back to dark buff orps. I have seen some buff orps from hatcheries that are pretty dark so if you could find some of those it woild be best.
I have seen some buff orp x RIR cross birds on here before and I think on the-coop they talked about red orps and how they almost went extinct or did go extinct. It would be awesome to see a good red orp in time.

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
What variety of birds do you have to work with?

Tim

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I have a hen that is crossed using a Buff Orp rooster from great stock and the hen was RIR, who was a hatchery chick...she does have white legs ....looks are all RIR but on the slim side since the hen was hatchery was my thinking... maybe that is the foundation, will be interesting watching this post....

 

[DawnSuiter]

I have RIR hen X Buff Roo eggs in the bator now. When I saw someones red orp on here, I also thought WOW, how lovely!

I just got lucky with these actually, the farmer guy I bought my original buffs from brought me replacement eggs (cuz i got all boys the first time) and there are some crosses in there. I can't wait until they hatch...

 

[BamaChicken]

Tim, I have some buff Orp, some RIR deep mahogony and Black Orps, I have Blue / black / and Splash but wouldn't think they would be considered in the mix.

 

[hinkjc]

Julie, I played around with this some years ago and was not happy with the results of the RIR/Buff Orp cross. They are very dark orange in appearance and not true to deep red like I wanted. They did pass on the white legs and even got typy, but my concern was putting them back on red again to darken the plumage would bring the yellow skin back in. I am anxious to get Tim's insight on this as well. I wish I would have stuck with it, but I sold off my mixes to pet homes quite some time ago. I'm going to dig around in my backup picture disks to see if I can find any pics to share. I will note that keeping the cross on the buff orp roo produced more that looked like her (dark orange) - they did not revert back to buff, as you would expect. I would love to see someone take it further and how they accomplished it in the end.

Jody

 

[shortcake1806]

Just curious what if you used a Buckeye instead of a RIR? What would that result in?