Orpington, English Silverlaced

[kurby22]

Here's my SLO cockerel at bedtime tonight. He is starting to look good.
Such an easy going personality. Has yet to make any crowing attempts.

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How dark is his silver? He’s very pretty! This is my Isabel silver laced hen Elinor (Dashwood) she’s a lot more light silver, and the Isabel sort of mutes the contrast, but she’s so pretty and does a good job keeping the younger pullets in line. I love it when my two Ameraucanas are fighting she always steps in and breaks it up.

 

[Faraday40]

He's white with black lacing. He will have 1 reg SLO hen (looks like him) and 2 blue laced SLO females. For now, he's just following their lead. No crowing or mating yet. Mine take a long, long time to mature. I doubt I'll see fertile eggs until at least June 2022.

Here's my young blue SLO pullet.

 

[kurby22]

He's white with black lacing. He will have 1 reg SLO hen (looks like him) and 2 blue laced SLO females. For now, he's just following their lead. No crowing or mating yet. Mine take a long, long time to mature. I doubt I'll see fertile eggs until at least June 2022.

Here's my young blue SLO pullet.
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Oh she’s a beautiful hen! The lacing on yours are so perfect and distinct!

I have been told to be very patient waiting for eggs from mine, because they are so slow to mature. Mine are about 8 months old, so I’m guessing spring before I see eggs? Elinor has filled out a lot more than Marianne, but Marianne has always been a bit more frail and sickly, so I’m not expecting much from her. She’s definitely not one I will want to have chicks with…she has an oddly shaped bone structure, she’s slow clotting when bleeds, and has a deformed toe. They’re both so very pretty though. I love how fat and floofy the EOs are, they have a very special quality about them that’s hard to describe. It’s very different from my American Orps.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Here's my SLO cockerel at bedtime tonight. He is starting to look good.
Such an easy going personality. Has yet to make any crowing attempts.

View attachment 2913749View attachment 2913752

How cute is he?! I love that face.

How dark is his silver? He’s very pretty! This is my Isabel silver laced hen Elinor (Dashwood) she’s a lot more light silver, and the Isabel sort of mutes the contrast, but she’s so pretty and does a good job keeping the younger pullets in line. I love it when my two Ameraucanas are fighting she always steps in and breaks it up.

She's a gorgeous thing. I had a pair. The pullet didn't make it to six months, and the cockerel about a year. I paid for two dozen + eggs and got three to hatch and they didn't make it. The breeder was supposed to ship me chicks and his male wasn't covering the hens well enough for him to hatch anymore than I managed to. He took most of the hens out and the male dropped dead and he just sold them all instead of putting a GLO over the hens and making splits. I have one GLO/Isabel pullet from my male, so we'll see what I get when I cross one of her sons to her.

He's white with black lacing. He will have 1 reg SLO hen (looks like him) and 2 blue laced SLO females. For now, he's just following their lead. No crowing or mating yet. Mine take a long, long time to mature. I doubt I'll see fertile eggs until at least June 2022.

Here's my young blue SLO pullet.
View attachment 2913958

I love her.

 

[Faraday40]

I love her.

Can't wait to see how she turns out!

It was a tough decision. I was planning to keep 2 black SLOs and only one blue SLO. Instead I sent a black SLO to my friend to the south and kept both blues. (That way I have some "back ups" in case of predators as well as trading opportunities.) My blue SLOs are bigger and hopefully I'll still get plenty of black SLOs.

 

[kurby22]

How cute is he?! I love that face.

She's a gorgeous thing. I had a pair. The pullet didn't make it to six months, and the cockerel about a year. I paid for two dozen + eggs and got three to hatch and they didn't make it. The breeder was supposed to ship me chicks and his male wasn't covering the hens well enough for him to hatch anymore than I managed to. He took most of the hens out and the male dropped dead and he just sold them all instead of putting a GLO over the hens and making splits. I have one GLO/Isabel pullet from my male, so we'll see what I get when I cross one of her sons to her.

I love her.

Oh man, sounds like he had some real issues with them! I wish I could have taken her whole breeder group, she decided to stop breeding and sold them all and I just didn’t have the space I need a good rooster to breed her to, she’s a nice healthy girl!

 

[ColtHandorf]

Oh man, sounds like he had some real issues with them! I wish I could have taken her whole breeder group, she decided to stop breeding and sold them all and I just didn’t have the space I need a good rooster to breed her to, she’s a nice healthy girl!

I've had a real hard time tracking down any more.

 

[kurby22]

I've had a real hard time tracking down any more.

Yeah they don’t seem to be real common. There are a couple people around here that breed them, so maybe one of these days. My other one was called an Isabel Mottled…but the pattern doesn’t look right for mottled. Looks more like the partridge diluted? Would you call it mottled? She’s really sweet but has lots of weird issues.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I think she's just poorly laced. Looks like mossy lacing which you can see in birds that are black and laced quite regularly. Definitely not Mottled. The only place I know with them now is Papa's Poultry. And I think they are like $40 a chick or something crazy.

 

[kurby22]

I think she's just poorly laced. Looks like mossy lacing which you can see in birds that are black and laced quite regularly. Definitely not Mottled. The only place I know with them now is Papa's Poultry. And I think they are like $40 a chick or something crazy.

Okay I’m glad I’m not crazy, I’ve seen mottled and knew it wasn’t that! Dang $40 a chick is steep! Mine were $30/each for 4 month old pullets—obviously lower quality but still happy with them. I thought that was pretty decent. Papas poultry is pretty close to me. Maybe one of these days I’ll get some fancy Orps from him. A lavender without shredded feathers would be awesome. He has some beautiful birds!