Russian Orloffs

[ashandvine]

Riddle- your birds are looking very nice. Marcy, what are the signs of heat issues you are seeing? I am curious. We don't deal with that here.

Gresh, I agree with you about the Malay and game being bred back into RO but be careful how loud you type that in here. If you were to seek a Malay thread in BYC or even try the Heritage thread you would find a couple folks who have bred Malay in or who keep Malay.

 

[desertmarcy]

Marcy, what are the signs of heat issues you are seeing? I am curious. We don't deal with that here.

Well I've found two of them laying on the ground, dead

All kidding aside, mostly they do pant a lot more than the other breeds I have and just in general, look more stressed from the heat.

 

[Cknldy]

R.o's are a cold weather bird. Not surprising that they are harder to keep in hot weather. I expect to have problems myself in late summer when it gets in the 100's here. I never thought of putting a shallow pan in for them to walk in- will have to try that.

 

[desertmarcy]

R.o's are a cold weather bird. Not surprising that they are harder to keep in hot weather. I expect to have problems myself in late summer when it gets in the 100's here. I never thought of putting a shallow pan in for them to walk in- will have to try that.

My Orloffs love to stand in water to cool off. Some people here use kiddie wading pools for that purpose. They get gross daily though and make a mess dumping the water out and refilling, even if it is only an inch or two of water.

 

[ashandvine]

What about creating a cold core for your waterer and wetting stones or concrete blocks/tiles in a nearby shaded area? The core is created by freezing water in a liter bottle you cut the top off or even just an old juice concentrate can would do. The bottles you can't fill the whole way up or you end up with a tall icicle you can't fit in a gallon waterer. Not a problem if you have a five gallon bucket. You slide the ice out and put it inside your waterer, then fill with cold water around. If you place your waterer in the shade they'll last longer- duh, I know, but its got to be said.

 

[NCSprout]

Lost another chick...now I am down to one. Anyone?

I would go with the previously posted idea of bloodline deficiency, I would think nutritional, in the parent stock.

Secondly, does anyone know of some Malay breeders in or near North Carolina? It is a well-known fact that the gruesome Malay chicken was used in the development of the Orloff, and I would like to acquire a trio of Malays if I am to ever breed Orloffs, for I think that many Orloffs today lack that Oriental-gamey look.

God bless,
~Gresh~

There are 2 of the best Malay breeders in the states in NC. They will not have anything available until late summer/ early fall. A couple of words of warning though; first, they are not cheap...at all. Plus feed bill becomes a bit high when getting into the larger Orientals like Malay or Kulang Asil. Second, prepare to have this project going for many generations over many years if you plan to get back to a phenotype resmbling an Orloff. Third, the background of the Orloff contains a few breeds and the game aspect comes from a Persian Malaoid breed, not necessarily the Malay as we know it today.

 

[desertmarcy]

What about creating a cold core for your waterer and wetting stones or concrete blocks/tiles in a nearby shaded area? The core is created by freezing water in a liter bottle you cut the top off or even just an old juice concentrate can would do. The bottles you can't fill the whole way up or you end up with a tall icicle you can't fit in a gallon waterer. Not a problem if you have a five gallon bucket. You slide the ice out and put it inside your waterer, then fill with cold water around. If you place your waterer in the shade they'll last longer- duh, I know, but its got to be said.

My problem is I have too many birds and too many pens to individualize their care. Most of my chickens use nipple waterers and the reservoir for the system is too far away, I don't think chilling that water would have any affect on the temperature coming out of the nipples by the time the water got there. The other birds, that don't have nipples or too many in the grow out for the nipples, are getting water in bowls or small stock tanks. These I have to change out 2-3 X a day right now since they either drink it all or it gets full of sand and poop

It is a struggle this time of year. I also don't have room in my freezers for very many frozen water containers. Soon I hope to get the energy to butcher a bunch of older hens and younger birds that I don't want to keep. There are a ton of people around here selling chickens cheap right now so these will just have to go in the freezer. If it weren't so blasted hot, this would not be a problem for me, but the heat drains my energy very fast.

 

[Gresh]

@Ivy: Hm, thank you for the response. Sounds like I will have to do some serious investing in such a project. Do you think that I, as a beginner, would do better if I just bought normal Orloffs and did my best to perfect their type, and after I had done what I could (and thereby gained valuable experience), THEN buy a couple Malay?
I have heard that the Malayoid-type game used in the Orloff's production was different then the Malay of today. I think one source said it was a "Russian Malay," but because the Orloff began in Persia (and because there are Malayoid-type chickens like the Asil in Persia), I would assume that the Russian Malay, if it even existed, would have been infused sometime later.

@Ash: Thanks for your response. Why exactly do I have to "be quieter," as it were, in typing about Malays? I don't want to cause trouble, if that is the case. Anyhow, do you know the BYC Forum names of those Malay breeders?

@Everyone: Does anyone know if there are any Thuringians in the USA? In my recent research, I actually found out that the Thuringian was probably used in the Orloff's perfection, but I have never heard of Thuringians in the US. I assume most of you already know about the Thuringian, but I am a bit late in finding out.

Also, is there a way to "freshen" the Orloff bloodlines in the USA without resorting to breeds that were probably not included in its making? One thing that has made me somewhat unsure about keeping Orloffs in the past is the sheer fact that, save possibly the Malay, there are, to my knowledge, no foundation breeds used in the Orloff's creation that are present in the US. How can we, as Orloff enthusiasts, make US bloodlines better without committing the mistake of doping them with unrelated breeds?

God bless,
~Gresh~

 

[ashandvine]

When I was reading through-- or attempting to, a recent russian agricultural study done on the genetics of several EU breeds, including the Orloff, via DNA break downs, they listed it has having Uzbekian Game and one other game I can't recall... not Malay or any thing else. I wish I read Russian.

 

[Alaskan]

Ok, I googled, but I couldn't find any uzbekian game chicken.

Do you have a link? Now I really want to know what those look like.