I don't know what hatchery these Orps came from , but you have lucked up. These are very usable birds, depending on their size.My advice would be to introduce a really good Roo from a SOP/ show line to give you more size, greater chest depth, and eveness of color.Here is the first hen; I might have to go out and take more pics of the other one; not all of them are very good. I bought four hatchery pullets last April. The dogs got the other two, which of course were bigger, rounder and darker than these two.
the dogs got this girl right in front of her tail and her feathers haven't all grown back yet, so a lot of her fluff is showing. As you can see she is a very ligtht color, almost the color of the straw in the pen.
You can also see how her body feathering is a lot lighter than her hackles; I'm thinking they should be more nearly the same color?
Again, I am trying hard to learn the SOP and could use some critique, you will not hurt my feelings by pointing out what's wrong with these guys; I am here to learn. I am trying to make an intelligent decision, should I eat that roo and toss these girls in the EE pen and wait for my young trio to grow up? Or hatch out a few and see if anything good comes?
I think you might have a roo in the top photo. Where did these come from? They need lots more body at this age. They should be bigger and "umphier" all around.Ok, here are the babies. Hatched 10/19 so just over two months old.
This little girl of course is sitting funny and wouldn't stand up for her picture. She is the smaller of the two girls.
This girl is a little bigger and heavier than the other. for size ref. that is one of those plastic window box planters that she is investigating.
Yes that is a roo in the top photo. I bought them as chicks from a BYC member who hatched them from eggs from another BYC member. Could some of it be feed? They were on regular chick starter, 18% protein. I have just switched all my young birds over to a meat grower feed, 22% because it seemed like some of them were growing too slow.
Thank you Don, I will be looking to join the UOC. Yes it's hard to actually find good show stock of any breed out here. And most of what I've run across that was actually SOP are not the breeds I"m looking for. There is a poultry show on Jan 5 that I am going to go to, so I will be looking around there and maybe I will luck out. I think this show is expecting maybe 500 birds. I understand there is another much bigger one in Feb and will try to get to that one too.
A very big show coming up in your area is at Stockton, CA, our Orpington National will be there for 2013.
