Post Pics Of Orps/ Orpingtons HERE

[Tuffoldhen]

Always, always been told forced molts are hard on chickens and they sometimes die from it. It's that time of year and it happening as nature intended is better for them. I up their protein levels with calf manna or manna pro, canned tuna, cat food moist or dry and lots of boiled or scrambled eggs.

 

[hinkjc]

Agree, I would never force a moult on my birds. Nature is hard enough on them. I believe in letting things happen naturally too.

 

[Beth G.]

Thanks for your replies. I feel so much better now resisting after he's tried to get me to do this the past few years and I don't because I feel like its sooo mean. I can't stand the site of empty food bins or waterers not filled daily w fresh water

. I'm glad I asked thanks again.

 

[KalikoFarms]

Here are some pictures of my 7-8 week old Lemon Cuckoo Orp's. My hubby bought them for us yesterday arent they beautiful. They are from the Priscilla Middleton Double barred blood line in England.

They are the sweetest chickens I have ever been around. They have never really been handled much and will walk up to us when we go into their pen. They will let you pick them up and its almost like they snuggle up to you and purr...lol

Rita

 

[Beth G.]

Ohhh they are just gorgeous!! Congrats on your new babies

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[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

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Aren't they the cutest? How on earth did you find some cuties? I'm getting a LC trio in a couple of months from a dear friend.

~Aspen

 

[aveca]

Beth G. :

Have you ever forced a molt on them and then bounced them back with the high protein? I ask b/c I have a friend that tries to convince me every year to do this, to speed things up but, it requires pulling up water and food for a couple of days which kinda bothers me so I have not done it

Just curious if anyone else does do this though.
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Hopefully our pa chickens fill in fast.. anit nothing like going into winter half bald... given ours some dry kitty food and gamebird layer feed to help bring the feathers in a bit faster
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I never force molt, it is very stressful..hard enough when they do it themselves . takes a lot out of a chicken...best thing to do if you can is prep the young birds right out of the egg. .these are big feathered birds so they need extra to show. showing the young ones works best , they never have that young bird glow later on. ...we have special feed made for us that has some greens in it..an APA judge actually has it made for his flock, he had me get it....plus pasture is so important to find greens ect.. and couple times a week the get a little scrambled egg or hamburg but not a lot just a couple good bites...an egg is a complete food it has every vitamin known so between the 2 they just absolutly glow come show time. and a good bath really accents it..on the older birds we just remove broken and torn feathers at least 2 months befor and give them a little extra too to rebuild those feathers and it seems to go very well and they recover from a molt nicely... You can do very well without forcing a molt..in the off season we cut back to pasture and combo feed so the young birds can finish naturally in growth and that way they are not being pushed too hard .they still reach thier full genetic potential, just more on thier own time..choose who you want to show in spring and work on those..that gives you pleanty of time to prepare ..i have several older hens in molt right now, boy you can tell they are not comfortable but the feathers that are coming in are beautiful..i almost forget, we are salmon eaters and all of the bits get cooked up and fed to them..they really like that...we were never comfortable with witholding feed and water so decided to work around that instead. so far it has gone very well..

 

[speckledhen]

My BBS Orps are molting heavily now. Suede has no tail or hackles, but that makes way for the fresh new blue feathers. Smoky is full of quills and new feathers and has lost weight. Dusty doesn't look too bad, but I've taken bucketfuls of feathers from their coop and pen.
Here are two short videos of four of the latest babies from that group playing. The two black cockerels and blue pullet are Dusty's kids and the splash pullet is Smoky's.


http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv95/Mtnviewpoultry/Video Clips/?action=view&current=DSCN3479.mp4

http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv95/Mtnviewpoultry/Video Clips/?action=view&current=DSCN3490.mp4



(links fixed, sorry!)

 

[aveca]

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boy it has to be tough being an orpington..they have more feathers than almost any chicken..they have to work extra hard to molt and recover..i saw an orp at our freinds molting..poor guy was nearly naked, and he looked embarrassed about it..he sort of looked at you sideways . i couldnt see your vidios, must be you have to sign up to look? i did try.

 

[speckledhen]

No, you don't have to sign up for anything. It's just photobucket.