Orpington, RIR and Orloff egg differences

[savingdogs]

Hi! New to BYC.
I have 8 Buff Orpington, 7 Rhode Island Red and 3 Russian orloff pullets that will begin laying in a couple of months.
Can anyone advise me how I will be able to identify the different eggs and laid by whom? I realize the RIR eggs will be darker but heard they can vary. And the Orpingtons will sit on anyones eggs.

I have one BO roo with these pullets (18) and want to raise just BOs next spring. He does seem to hang with the BOs more so I hope these will be his ahem....favorites. Or do I need a second BO roo to raise BO? Status quo is good right now as far as everyone getting along great. Do I need to watch to see who he is mating with or separate them? I have one large pen but I could sub divide, just would rather not as they all have fun together.

Also, I'm hoping the orloffs supply me with winter eggs when then others take time off, if anyone has any experience with this I'd love to hear how many Orloff eggs they get. I kind of got these by feed store mix up (didn't want a meat bird) but did fall in love and kept these three. But I shudder to think what an orloff/orpington cross would look like and really want to avoid birds I have to deem "meat."

 

[ging3rhoffman]

The RIR egg is medium brown and the BO egg is a light brown to cream in color. You will be able to tell the difference. I dont have the other breed.

Yes you can use that rooster with your BO hens. What i would do is when you are ready to have some chicks, move the rooster and 3 or 4 BO to a different pen. Let them breed for 2 to 3 weeks and then you will know that those are pure breed BO, then you can put them all back together again. That is if one or two of you BO's start sitting on those eggs. Let the momma BO stay in a pen to themselves until they have raised the babies and then they could be all together again.

There is nothing wrong with having the BO as egg layers, you dont have to ever use them for meat if you dont want to. They are super sweet and beautiful to boot. You will find that they BO are great egg layers.

 

[Katy]

My RIRs were a little darker most of the time plus longer and more pointed than my orps which are very round. I've never had Orloffs.

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

I'm waiting on my Orloffs but I think they lay white.