Orpingtons: the good, bad and ugly

[chickndays]

Considering ordering a couple Orpington chicks for spring. What should I know about the breed? Pros and cons? Do the different varieties (looking at chocolate and lavender) have the same breed problems (tendency to broodiness, etc.)?

 

[Logar]

The only cons are their tendency to go broody and that they don’t lay quite as many eggs as other breeds. Lavender has the ‘shredding gene’ which results in a lot of bird having very raggedy feathers.

 

[CoopBoots]

Can't speak outside of hatchery Buff Orpingtons, but here is my experience with those:

I ordered Buffs from Hoover's Hatchery through TSC. I raised 9 pullets, all correctly sexed, but lost 4 within my first two years to health issues (suspected fatty liver. Yes that seems like a LOT. After integrating other breeds, I'm inclined to blame the genetics from Hoover's at least in part). One is a permanent broody, another two tried once each but were not dependable.

Pros:

• Generally calm tempered birds
• Easier to keep inside my fences than lighter breeds
• Decent layers
• Generally good mothers (best of my flock thus far compared to other breeds)

Cons:

• Fatty liver risk/propensity to eat too much and exercise too little, even with lots of space

Other info:

• Cream eggs, rather than much brown, in my experience
• Not as broody as I personally hoped, but possibly much more broody than someone else would like
• Not anything as fluffy and adorable as an actual English Orpington, although I still find them nice looking birds in general

 

[Auntiejessi3]

IME they are pretty easy-going birds, even my lady that is antisocial is still pretty chill. My lavender (she is in my profile pic) had pretty nice feathers, so it really just depends on the breeding stock as far as the shredder gene goes. All but 1 of my orps has gone broody, multiple times. All my orps are English type and not hatchery birds.

 

[FrostRanger]

Pros
Calm and friendly
Good layers
Dual purposed

Cons
Broody
Docile and can be prone to getting bullied by more dominant breeds

I have one buff orpington named Juniper and she is so sweet and a bit sassy. Even when everyone else was going through their skittish teen bird phase, she and one of my easter eggers Juniper were the only ones who'd let me pet them. Juniper is still a pullet but she's a fantastic layer. The only downsides are they are indeed quite broody and if you have more dominant breeds they are more likely to be bullied so I'd keep them with other docile breeds. Juniper is definitely lower on the pecking order but none of my other birds are overly assertive and I have a large run with plenty of clutter so she has been fine. As coopboots said, you do have to make sure they get plenty of exercise and not too many treats as they can be prone to obesity

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

happy teddy bear chickens who like to sit around like giant orange marshmallows - sometimes it's on your lap and sometimes it's on a clutch of eggs, either way they don't move

 

[SourRoses]

Cons:

- All other breeds seem mean in comparison.
- Some hatchery lines are not very Orpington in type and may not have the sweet personality.

I don't know which hatchery was responsible for my neighbors Buffs, but they're lacking a lot of Orp features. They're noticeably smaller than my Orp mixes and have no more floof than their Rocks.

I personally prefer the huge floofy English Orpingtons, but American Orps can be quite lovely too. I'd make sure they came from a hatchery or breeder known for good stock.

 

[chickndays]

happy teddy bear chickens who like to sit around like giant orange marshmallows - sometimes it's on your lap and sometimes it's on a clutch of eggs, either way they don't move

Oh boy... I think you just convinced me to get one.

 

[Bawkbok]

We have a buff from a hatchery and she is not docile, nor will she let me pick her up, does not like to be held, fondled, etc. She is 5 months old. We acquired her as a pullet at 15 weeks old so that may be the difference since we didn't have her as a chick to get her used to the handling - I don't know. I was interested in the breed for the very reasons of wanting a lap chicken - not with her. Hoping she is a good egg layer and does NOT go broody as raising chicks is not part of the plan but we knew broodiness is a potential with them.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Considering ordering a couple Orpington chicks for spring. What should I know about the breed? Pros and cons? Do the different varieties (looking at chocolate and lavender) have the same breed problems (tendency to broodiness, etc.)?

I don't have an abundance of experience with orpingtons. I have a mixed flock, so I'm comparing apples to oranges.

My first orp was a lavender from Mt Healthy. She is a nice, calm, chill hen. Doesn't lay eggs as large as her body size would suggest. But she lays consistently a few eggs a week still including in winter (she's 3+ years now). Her eggs are light brown and 50-55 grams. Her feathers are fragile and break easily so she always looks ragged and rooster-worn, in spite of not being over mated. She does not care to be touched and is quite difficult to handle in spite of being such a calm mannered bird in the flock. She is sweet and comes running for treats, but is not nearly as personable as I expected an orpington to be.

Her flock mate, a Red Orpington also from Mt. Healthy, turned out to be a rooster so not much to comare regarding eggs, etc... He was extremely fluffy and kind of a big fluffy bull-in-a-China-shop kind of bird.

The red & lavender orps had a baby who is black w/ gold leakage. She behaves exactly like her mother and has the same fragile feathers. Her eggs are cream colored and larger- 65-70 grams and she lays really well through the winter.

I got a chocolate orp last spring (can't remember which hatchery but may have been Mt. Healthy again). From a young age she had issues with her crop not emptying entirely. She was treated mutliple times as a pullet for sour crop. It would clear up and come back. I never found the "root" of the problem. We culled her at around a year of age because her crop became so incredibly pendulous we couldn't help her anymore. She was the friendliest of all of the orpingtons, but still not one of my overly friendly birds. She did not lay very often, and her eggs were cream colored and fairly small.

Long story short, I rate them a 4/10. But I also wonder if having a buff orp would give me a different experience since buff is the original color. I would add a buff orp to my flock just to see if they are what the hype is all about. Otherwise, the only reason I'd consider adding another oprington to my flock would be for color diversity. I don't find them to be spectacular layers, super healthy, or to have sparkling personalities. None of mine ever went broody.