Orpingtons: the good, bad and ugly

[kabs]

Our buff orp, we've had from a local breeder, since a day old is our flock leader of 10. She's never been broody, and loves to be picked up. She lays all winter, and dosent mind the snow. She is chunky, and loud. Probably our most vocal bird. She's the first to let us know She's about to lay an egg, laid an egg, or if someone else laid an egg. She's too thick to do any serious flying.

 

[ltcffl03]

Our Buff hens are great, very docile and friendly, I got them as day old chicks from murray mcmurray, have always handled them. Great layers, had three go broody, we want this. In our flock they are second in the pecking order. Our roo is very protective and gentle with the hens.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

I keep orpingtons, and all of these are correct ( especially overeating!) but i have found they usually stop laying eggs in winter. Could just be my personal experience though.

Mine does too. I have a suspicion that the Orpingtons who come from the original breeding lines are the ones that lay through winter, and the Orpingtons who come from more mixed breeding lines do not.

 

[Lillith37]

I’ve got three bantam Orpingtons. I love them. The only downside is that they aren’t good in the heat (I’m in Australia and we get 30+ Celsius in the summer, with heatwaves that can reach 40+). Also they will be lower on the pecking order. If they are broody they might be disrupted on the nest by a bigger hen wanting to lay. I don’t mind that they go broody because I think having the break from laying is a good thing for hens.

1) Yinny Trundles, the Yard Supervisor. Chocolate hen. She is ambitious, sassy, outgoing, cuddly, talkative, and a serial brooder. Excellent forager. Has had zero health issues asides from two small bumbles recently which healed easily because she was broody. Easy to break her in a cage, takes less than three days.

2) Sweet Pea. Lavender hen. Has the shredder gene. Sweet Pea was an only child. She has always been a bit nervous and flighty. She has calmed down since she started laying. She doesn’t like to be handled but is fairly complaint if I do need to handle her, and she will climb up and sit on my shoulder for a bit. She hasn’t gone broody yet. She also had two small bumbles recently (not sure why it happened to them both). Hers are taking longer to heal because she is on her feet all day. No other health issues.

3) Odin. Blue cockerel. He’s a good boy. He struggles to manage his mating impulses in the morning and the evening, but otherwise takes good care of the flock and Sweet Pea in particular. He is generous with his treats, watchful, chases the magpies and other wild birds away (we used to have a terrible problem with Indian Mynahs—not anymore), and he isn’t aggressive at all towards humans or dogs.

I would definitely recommend them especially for cooler climates. The only reason I won’t persist with the pure breed is lack of heat tolerance. The bantam Orpington gene pool is also very small in my country. Now that I’m moving somewhere where I can keep a rooster, I want to breed for health, resilience and temperament rather than any particular look or egg-laying capacity.

 

[K0k0shka]

There’s a big difference between English Orpingtons (the original), and American Orpingtons (the copy). English are big, round, and luxuriously fluffy, like basketballs. American have a generic chicken shape. There’s also a big difference between hatchery stock and birds that come from a breeder. Hatchery Orpingtons are pretty much going to be American style. Their temperaments don’t vary as much between the different colors/styles as they do between different lines coming from different breeders. Don’t get Lavender, the shredding gene makes them look raggedy and unkempt, and it’s extremely hard to find birds that don’t exhibit the problem at all, even expensive ones from good breeders. It’s a question of how bad they’ll look, not whether they’ll look bad

I love Orpingtons, they are my favorite breed. I’ve had several generations, some hatchery but most of them English from breeders. Some of them go broody a lot, others never have. I think the most popular, Buffs, are known for broodiness, but I don’t have any Buffs. All of mine stop laying in winter. They vary in how much they tolerate handling, but all are friendly and will let me pick them up, with some seeking me out and sitting in my lap.

 

[Sally PB]

Two of the three buff cockerels from TSC (never buying straight run again!) terrorized the pullets and had to be culled at 4 months. The third on was good with the ladies, but not with me. I wasn't sorry when he died. I missed having a rooster, but I didn't miss him.

 

[Nicks_Chicks]

In me and my friends experience, they seem almost impossible to break. I put them in broody jail. She went broody in there. I closed the coop door. She went and sat somewhere in the yard. I collected all eggs right after they were laid and she sat on nothing. She was broody for 2-3 months

 

[Bawkbok]

Wish I would have known all this before ordering our hatchery buff. Too late now. She is bossy, challenges others to tussles but is not mean and seems to be very flighty. She flies all over the yard and seems skittish for reasons I can't figure out (nothing flying overhead). She chases squirrels off, wild song birds that get too close and is very finicky about her bugs. She only likes one specific kind best I can tell. I hope we don't have a serious broody problem. On a happy note, she is healthy and gets along with the others, chilling out with them and is mostly quiet. Hoping she will be a good egg producer.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Wish I would have known all this before ordering our hatchery buff. Too late now. She is bossy, challenges others to tussles but is not mean and seems to be very flighty. She flies all over the yard and seems skittish for reasons I can't figure out (nothing flying overhead). She chases squirrels off, wild song birds that get too close and is very finicky about her bugs. She only likes one specific kind best I can tell. I hope we don't have a serious broody problem. On a happy note, she is healthy and gets along with the others, chilling out with them and is mostly quiet. Hoping she will be a good egg producer.

My Buff Orpington hen has always been the opposite of the average personality for them. She is a loner, hates human attention (she will scream like she is getting killed if you grab her), and likes to start fights.

 

[Bawkbok]

My Buff Orpington hen has always been the opposite of the average personality for them. She is a loner, hates human attention (she will scream like she is getting killed if you grab her), and likes to start fights.

I'm sorry to hear that. I guess we both drew the short straws, huh?