Russian Orloffs

[Brooke78]

Heres my RO pullet Alma she is surprisingly loving and very inquisitive loves my jewelry and toe nail polish

 

[FridayYet]

She looks really sweet!

 

[Sylvester017]

I have only lost RO's to health issues one way or another and I try to check them daily mostly the lady's the roo's have less of foot problem due to no one climbing on their backs ....

I have only red tailed hawks here and crows and even though the crows hist the egg's from the non caged chickens I let them be as they keep the red tailed hawks away but the bob cats and fox are another story but they only seem to get the ducks and EE chickens and in eight years I say I have never lost a Russian Orloff chick or adult to a predator

For the most part the RO's are a very healthy chicken but the stickers from the Stage Brush or when they dry up Tumble Weeds anyway the stickers are the worst thing out here in Death Valley not the Heat or Cold and rain is just not something the animals see much at all out here .......

Yep the Russian Orloff's are dumb but very alert and with their girth (big body's) their fighting is rather slow and little to no damage to each other when fighting and yes it happens .........

Wonderful bird to have and friendly .............

gander007

We can't have roos so that won't be an issue. We are in a subdivision of small cottages and yards but still get Cooper's and Red-tailed Hawks visiting. Mostly Cooper's that nest in the nearby freeway trees but usually only when they're raising young. Our neighborhood Crows are good at keeping the Cooper's away but she manages to come by occasionally. Our yard is fortified with doghouses, canopies, lean-to shelters, and shrubs/bushes so the Hawk doesn't go after our hiding adult hens. Our yard isn't comfortably open for swooping aerial predators. No foxes or large wild cats but an occasional stray/feral housecat that the hens will attack as one angry bird mob so the cats won't come back! We have city Raccoons and 'Possums but our hens are locked up before those critters come out at night. We also leave a light on over the coop and have solar Predator Night Eyes on the coop.

We've had heritage dual-purpose combative breeds and gentle non-combative breeds and decided to re-home all the aggressive type breeds. We're down to Silkies, Ameraucana, and Breda and wondered if the RO would be a safe non-combative breed to add to our gentles flock. I was considering a Pavlovskaja also but I think that's just too much crest, feathered feet, and 5 toes to tackle plus their egg-laying is really low. I don't mind low productivity but currently Pavies are not particularly outgoing/friendly and more ornamental than anything else.

What's the pet/human-friendly status of ROs? Our Silkies are easily managed and tame, the Amer is a jumpy alert bird but will allow us to pet/hold her and is quite a conversationalist, and the Breda is outgoing/curious/unafraid, so we wondered about the pet status of ROs - heard they were rather human shy. I know about socializing chickens but some breeds (example - our previous Leghorns) are not your typical human-friendly touchy/feelie types and only allow human contact on their own terms. The gentle breeds we have now climb all over us or follow us around our yard chores yet are very predator-savvy.

THX for your kind input.

 

[Sylvester017]

I go back and forth on if they are picking at each other or not. I thought they were, although I have never seen them do it, but when I was looking at various birds, when they are walking around they look fully feathered, but when I start pulling up wings, or parting the feathers they just seem to be kind of "light" on feathers all over. So what I thought might be plucked spots I think are actually just them being slow to feather. Which I was told is a good thing, since this is supposed to be a closely feathered breed vs something fluffy like an Orpington.

Just in case though I've been adding more protein to their diet. They have a good sized roost area, but they actually still seem to sleep on the ground more than anything. They aren't quite big enough yet to turn loose into the main flock though, at which point they will have tons of space. But I just had my first RTH kill last week, a 4 month old Barred Rock, so everyone is staying locked up for now. Especially the smaller birds.

Oh, so sorry about losing your bird. That's the pits! I've read so many posts with owners losing chicks, ducklings, or juveniles that I made it my practice not to put new birds out into our main flock until they are about 5 to 6 months old and/or as large as the outdoor adults. At 4 months they might be as tall as an adult bird but mentally have a little more maturing to do. 6 months is my best age for integrating into the main flock - they start learning the pecking order politics quicker and pick up on the barnyard alerts better. Still there are some breeds that can be oblivious to predator alerts - I understand Favies are a bit slow and also wondered about the ROs too.

That's an interesting observation about the RO feathering. I've had mean feather-picking breeds like our Marans that would huddle next to a Silkie on the roost and pick her crested head bald (we thought the poor little bird was molting but she was being picked pure bald), and then we had a very aggressive Leghorn pullet that went chasing the Silkies and Ameraucana to pull out their crests, beards, and muffs. The point being that all my aggressive feather-pickers didn't go after other parts of the bodies to pluck but mainly concentrated on the easy-to-reach facial/head feathers. I don't have roos but understand that pullets/hens are tempted to pluck out cockerel/cock tailfeathers. We re-homed all our aggressive heritage or dual-purpose hens and only keep gentle non-combative breeds now. Rather than jumbo eggs we now have less, more regular-sized eggs and are enjoying having less backyard political dramas.

 

[malndobe]

Some updated photos of my ROs, they are a week shy of 3 months old now. Still don't know what gender each one is, but I guess that doesn't really matter until they start crowing or laying eggs

 

[Sylvester017]

Some updated photos of my ROs, they are a week shy of 3 months old now. Still don't know what gender each one is, but I guess that doesn't really matter until they start crowing or laying eggs

Really beautiful juvies! Can't wait to see their adult photos. The closeups are calendar worthy!
Where'd you get your ROs?

 

[FridayYet]

Beautiful pictures! The birds look great.

 

[malndobe]

Really beautiful juvies! Can't wait to see their adult photos. The closeups are calendar worthy!
Where'd you get your ROs?

Thanks. They are from Riddleme, who is on BYC

 

[GhettoRoo]

So. Just read, before two years there was talking about Orloff sexing.
So, the answer is? how?

 

[vtguania]

GhettoRoo you can try feather sexing when they are between 1-3 days old or wait till they are four months old to accurately sex them. if doing the 1-3 days old, females feather in faster than the males. This is visible in hte primary feathers. I'm not sure how accurate this method is as I always forget to mark them after I check. See pic below for visual description. female is on right, male on left in this pic of 3 day old Orloff chicks.