Russian Orloffs

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Oh and I have no idea what the "cotton" stuff is...mine roos have it, too...it's just like a fluffy down stuff at the base of their tails?? I suppose you could just pluck it out if you're bothered by it. Of course, it won't change any genetics involved (if that's a genetic issue)--but I noticed even my bantam roos have it?

Anyway, here's the ABA SOP for Orloffs...it says the beards/muffs should be "creamy white." It also mentions that they may be interspersed with black and/or red. I've been pushing for creamy white with little or no black and/or red. I think the creamy white is much more striking. I have also noticed that the creamy white beards/muffs seem to be fuller than those which are colored.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh and I have no idea what the "cotton" stuff is...mine roos have it, too...it's just like a fluffy down stuff at the base of their tails?? I suppose you could just pluck it out if you're bothered by it. Of course, it won't change any genetics involved (if that's a genetic issue)--but I noticed even my bantam roos have it?

Anyway, here's the ABA SOP for Orloffs...it says the beards/muffs should be "creamy white." It also mentions that they may be interspersed with black and/or red. I've been pushing for creamy white with little or no black and/or red. I think the creamy white is much more striking. I have also noticed that the creamy white beards/muffs seem to be fuller than those which are colored.

Interesting that you should say that. I thought the white beards looked fuller simply because of the contrast between the white and the brown, not that the whites actually were fuller.

I am not actually sure which I like better. The entire bird looks so very different if there is white in the beard and through the head verses if the entire beard and head and body are uniform.

I find it fascinating.

Whereas I find the body posture and carriage of the bird paramount in making either an "obvious" RO or a something or other you are trying to make into a RO. I suppose that is the "building the barn first then paint it" approach. Even after looking at many different pictures, I am not overwhelmingly for one particular color or color pattern over another.

 

[NCSprout]

Beautiful birds, Rare Feathers!

 

[desertmarcy]

Rare Feathers, all my birds descended from your stock in 2011. I had 3 cockerels and 5 pullets. Only one cockerel had nice red color, the others had too much white, however I was a newbie at this and had all 3 in with the pullets originally. So I can't say for 100% sure which sired the chicks I hatched in 2012. Then this year, I bred my best male offspring from 2012 back to 2 of the original hens (those all in the previous post) and the original red male I put in with 6 "daughters". He was not breeding them very well and I got very few fertile eggs, but those are the ones that have the brown beards. Then he expired in the heat this summer. Here is what his beard looked like:

 

[ashandvine]

Type is the most important, period. I must agree that the size/height of an Orloff does have something to do with seeing it as an Orloff. For me it is a visual indicator of their ancestry in Oriental Games. I guess I wouldn't fret about beards at this time. Give them time. Even with the fluff. If by two years old they aren't what you want then make a plan.
Rare-- you are right, those legs are funny how light they get. Thank you for the comparison pictures.

 

[speck wilson]

the tail fluff you guess are talking about is normal for a bird that kind of tail carriage and feather shape....a real curved sickle raising strait up from the back....Like an AmericanGame, or Old english...if thats the type of tail you want...you will have the fluff, and it is correct....its seems to be more pronounced in the dark wheaten, BBR, mahogany type colors.

And I have a question for you guys......everyone seems to be very concerned with to much or too little white in the very young birds.....in other spangled or mottled varieties I am familiar with...white ALWAYS increased with age...therefore...you show the correct ones young,( and by that i mean dont judge the color till real adult feather, and the light ones as old birds ...different birds add the white at different rates ...but they will all add white ...the whole flock will never ever be "perfect" at one time
is this not the case with orloffs color?

 

[desertmarcy]

the tail fluff you guess are talking about is normal for a bird that kind of tail carriage and feather shape....a real curved sickle raising strait up from the back....Like an AmericanGame, or Old english...if thats the type of tail you want...you will have the fluff, and it is correct....its seems to be more pronounced in the dark wheaten, BBR, mahogany type colors.

And I have a question for you guys......everyone seems to be very concerned with to much or too little white in the very young birds.....in other spangled or mottled varieties I am familiar with...white ALWAYS increased with age...therefore...you show the correct ones young,( and by that i mean dont judge the color till real adult feather, and the light ones as old birds ...different birds add the white at different rates ...but they will all add white ...the whole flock will never ever be "perfect" at one time
is this not the case with orloffs color?

With mine, I just ignored color entirely until after their juvenile molt. A lot of the young birds start out with too much white but they lose it. Look at the photos I posted of mine. There aren't any there that are very white. So far I have not seen them get excessive white as they age. My 2 year old hens still look nice as did my cock bird before he died. One of my first Orloffs looked like a splash, he was very white with dark feathers dotted here and there. I wish I had taken a photo of him before I rehomed him. He was very striking and nicely tempered.

 

[RiddleMe]

Quote:
This is my plan as well. Unlike breeds like the speckled sussex, the spangled orloff doesn't seem to be standardized with regards to it's base primary color/pattern (the e locus alleles: eWh, eb, or e+). This is why you can have creamy white (eWh), dark brown (eb), or chipmunk (e+) colored chicks that still look identical as adults. It's those same variations in genetics bases (I believe) that can cause the excess white in some juveniles, but not others. For a visual example, see below. Both these boys had tons of white, but molted out dark for their adult plumage (note both these cockerels are culls).

 

[desertmarcy]

This is my plan as well. Unlike breeds like the speckled sussex, the spangled orloff doesn't seem to be standardized with regards to it's base primary color/pattern (the e locus alleles: eWh, eb, or e+). This is why you can have creamy white (eWh), dark brown (eb), or chipmunk (e+) colored chicks that still look identical as adults. It's those same variations in genetics bases (I believe) that can cause the excess white in some juveniles, but not others. For a visual example, see below. Both these boys had tons of white, but molted out dark for their adult plumage (note both these cockerels are culls).

Excellent photo examples, thanks for posting them. And thanks for the short genetic lesson. I am learning turkey color genetics, but chicken color genetics is beyond me at this point.

 

[RiddleMe]

This is my plan as well. Unlike breeds like the speckled sussex, the spangled orloff doesn't seem to be standardized with regards to it's base primary color/pattern (the e locus alleles: eWh, eb, or e+). This is why you can have creamy white (eWh), dark brown (eb), or chipmunk (e+) colored chicks that still look identical as adults. It's those same variations in genetics bases (I believe) that can cause the excess white in some juveniles, but not others. For a visual example, see below. Both these boys had tons of white, but molted out dark for their adult plumage (note both these cockerels are culls).

Excellent photo examples, thanks for posting them. And thanks for the short genetic lesson. I am learning turkey color genetics, but chicken color genetics is beyond me at this point.

I do not by any means profess to understand all the ins and outs! I took a few genetics classes as electives in college, so have a small base for understanding. But chicken genetics are really complex, there are so many different factors involved, and of course they all influence each other to tweak the final product.