Post Pics Of Orps/ Orpingtons HERE

[3 NH reds]

My 3 Buff Orps are great they are one year 3 months old and started laying at 6 months. This year 2have been Broody so we got some eggs for them. They make excellent brooders. I have Broody Mc Buff on a second set of eggs, mostly Black Jersey giants but some Blue Orpington got tossed in. So it is a waiting game to see who hatches in 2 days( we hope

) Bad pic of Broody but she is in the dark corner of the coop. She is getting pale from egg sitting so long. This is her last batch for the year.

 

[lildinkem]

12 1/2 weeks is aprx 3 months old... it is now mid August so that would add 2 months on 7/30 plus 3 weeks to get to yesterday.

And she is laying. Pretty impressive.

 

[thedragonlady]

12 1/2 weeks is aprx 3 months old... it is now mid August so that would add 2 months on 7/30 plus 3 weeks to get to yesterday.

Thank you OSUMAN. I'm glad someone passed math. I corrected their age in a later post when I found out their actual hatch date from Marc.He had told me he was shipping birds 6-8 weeks old. I assumed due to their size that they were older. See my page too. The dates and ages have been corrected there. The ages of the Hall pullets are absolutely correct too as I hatched those, and all the other pullets I have.

 

[zooweemama]

You'll be amazed what sunshine and green grass will do for those feathers now that it's getting cool enough. Well done you for keeping them cool this summer! I wish misters would work in our high humidity.I've had fans on mine all summer in 100-109 temps with 80+ humidity. Where are your birds from? Some lines lay earlier than others.My big English girl surprised me, and started at 5 1/2 months.

I hope the free ranging helps. I am so excited to go let them out of their coop this morning! These 4 big girls are from a Clevenger/Farthing line. The rest of my BOs are from a Chandler/Britt line. I got them ALL from Heaven Sent Ranch. Love Debi! For egg laying next year I am going to get some hatchery strains (likely Easter Eggers + something else) but won't be breeding those. And then keep my Orpingtons pure. This Winter I will be reading up more heavily on breeding and breed standards. For now I am just enjoying the chickens.

 

[lildinkem]

I hope the free ranging helps. I am so excited to go let them out of their coop this morning! These 4 big girls are from a Clevenger/Farthing line. The rest of my BOs are from a Chandler/Britt line. I got them ALL from Heaven Sent Ranch. Love Debi! For egg laying next year I am going to get some hatchery strains (likely Easter Eggers + something else) but won't be breeding those. And then keep my Orpingtons pure. This Winter I will be reading up more heavily on breeding and breed standards. For now I am just enjoying the chickens.

You should have some nice Buffs to play with. Farthing's line is Terry Britt's line. The Chandler/Britt birds will make some great looking Buffs when you take them to each other.
Sorry DRAGON I am not use to such young UK birds laying at under 6 months. I wish I had some that young who would lay. You must have some great genetics along with the great looking Buff pullet.

 

[thedragonlady]

You should have some nice Buffs to play with. Farthing's line is Terry Britt's line. The Chandler/Britt birds will make some great looking Buffs when you take them to each other.
Sorry DRAGON I am not use to such young UK birds laying at under 6 months. I wish I had some that young who would lay. You must have some great genetics along with the great looking Buff pullet.

No problem. She surprised me too. Both she, and her Bro. Monty, grew very fast . Monty is still growing like a weed. I have his 1/2 bro. also. 9 Monty sired eggs in the bator due to hatch in 2 weeks so we'll see.

 

[lildinkem]

No problem. She surprised me too. Both she, and her Bro. Monty, grew very fast . Monty is still growing like a weed. I have his 1/2 bro. also. 9 Monty sired eggs in the bator due to hatch in 2 weeks so we'll see.

Are the eggs from Mrs Pumphry? Some breeders do not like to hatch out young pullet eggs. To me, I do. I hate to loose a good bird before I get anything from them. That happened last fall. I had a nicer Black pullet pass on for no apparent reason. Could have been the male who I shown brought back something from a show I attended. This year I will be very careful. And bathe the birds after the show as well as before. I will not give the bird in a show any water unless I am infront of the bird while it drinks. Leaving nothing to chance.

 

[deek]

Here is a photo of our Mr. Buffy. He is about 4 months old, and so far he is a very sweet rooster. He gets cuddled a lot.

 

[Don Chandler]

Laying on a SQ buff will take time. They have to mature, no lights or high protein feed will make much difference. Or anyway on my guys it never has. Hatchery type orps will lay alot earlier, that is what they are bred to do. Once they start to lay my problem is getting the girls to fat. If I self feed my breeding pens the egg production goes down. I hand feed all my breeding pens and get along alot better. My guys get one cup of feed a day and lay pretty good. SQ orps will never lay like a hatchery bird. I always try and cull my hens if possible. Pullets just lay alot better. If you had a goal to raise better ones and was lucky you will have nice pullets. It will not always work, sometimes I will have a wreck. Breeders that tells you they always raise good ones might not be telling the truth.

 

[aveca]

Thanks Don, i had a few questions about that..with the aussies they always said wait till she has put out a good 20 eggs or so..that being said, with all of the weasle , fox , hawk, racoon problems that faulkners, myself, romig whitney and others have been suffering this year..i would agree its worth it to try and get a few out early.christina told me, lynne, dont let that hen get fat, you,ll have problems...at first i didnt, but honest to god, she gets her little handful of feed and out to pasture, she gets fat on the grass..every time she breaths she gains a pound.i cant do anything now thou , NY winter too rough on babies...not sure what to do with her..in the horse world, we would call that an easy keeper..in her case little too easy keeping...