Russian Orloffs

[desertmarcy]

Regarding getting the Orloffs into the APA Standard. How many of you know breeders that have been breeding them for at least 5 years? Are there enough breeders out there that have, and are they interested in participating in a qualifying meet? I have only had mine since 2011 so I am no where near the 5 year minimum.

 

[ashandvine]

Great question. I can only say there are maybe four or five folks I know who have had them even close to five. I am all for pulling out of the German and UK standards as we wish to.

So good news for me and potentially good news for me which I have to share with those who know my struggle to rebuild here. After keeping for two years and then struggling with eggs this year I have chicks coming and from a breeder whose birds I like!

Next... I am talking quite a bit with someone who has blacks in the UK and they have agreed to try sending me eggs. I lost touch with the man who had the muffed games I wanted to use so this would be a huge break. There is a lot I don't know about shipping and receiving eggs like this and chances seem to be pretty low anything will hatch BUT if even one hatches that would be a big step up for me. Us. The Orloffs

 

[desertmarcy]

Great question. I can only say there are maybe four or five folks I know who have had them even close to five. I am all for pulling out of the German and UK standards as we wish to.

So good news for me and potentially good news for me which I have to share with those who know my struggle to rebuild here. After keeping for two years and then struggling with eggs this year I have chicks coming and from a breeder whose birds I like!

Next... I am talking quite a bit with someone who has blacks in the UK and they have agreed to try sending me eggs. I lost touch with the man who had the muffed games I wanted to use so this would be a huge break. There is a lot I don't know about shipping and receiving eggs like this and chances seem to be pretty low anything will hatch BUT if even one hatches that would be a big step up for me. Us. The Orloffs

Last year, Kevin Porter was trying to import some turkey eggs and ran into all sorts of problems. Here is an excerpt from that experience:

The shipment got as far as Miami customs but they would not send them onto me because his health papers were all made out in French and they couldn't make heads or tails of anything.
We finally got the health certificate re-done in English and sent that to them and it was accepted for clearance finally, but the eggs had sat in the hot Miami warehouse for 3 days so I decided not to go ahead with them sending them to me as I'm sure they are cooked.
I am going to have another fresh laid batch sent to me asap.
The customs and USDA are going to charge just over $400 in fees to send the eggs onto me after they clear customs,I didn't know that until today after talking with them on the phone.They also said they would get the next batch sent on to me the same day they got them in so they would not set in their warehouse.

 

[ashandvine]

Its strange how some people can just buy off ebay and in this stuff comes and then others will go through customs and struggle. It doesn't make sense. Thank you for the information. These will be coming from an English speaking situation so my expectation is that there won't be that catch... but that's all a long long ways off and I might be empty handed in the end.

 

[mcclucks]

Thanks Gresh, the brown eggs are my first two Orloff. The rest are the Leghorn's. These girls are starting to produce. The Kokanee is a freebie, another passion of mine

 

[bamitsbrittany]

I just got a red Russian Orloff. I don't know anything about the breed... lol Anyone want to fill me in? Im new to chickens in general and I have never even heard of this type of chicken! =]

 

[vtguania]

desertmarcy I have gotten a response from two breeders who have breed orloff for over five years. I sent a mass e-mail to breeders a few months ago but only these two responded. Not sure about their interest in participating in a qualifying meet though. There is more to getting the breed recognized than that. Many are interested in getting the breed recognized and have been working on it for years. I am new to the breed but in my opinion I believe the first step should be to adopt a standard that we can all go by then take it from there. I posted a thread on here a while back as well on two e-mails I received from the APA in regards to getting the breed recognized. I also posted it on the US Orloff Club site.

ashandvine, importing hatching eggs will be costly, not saying that it shouldn't be tried. I have been gathering information on importing eggs to see if it is something I can try to do next year. I have already had two orloff enthusiast that have mentioned they are interested in going in with me on importing eggs. I have been trying to get a good breeder connection overseas but have not succeeded. I have spoken with the USDA & it is also permitted to hand carry the eggs on a plane. The most important thing is to make sure all the import documents are at hand at the time. This will only save the shipping cost (although a round trip ticket may be more costly). The advantage to hand carrying the eggs is that at least you will know they will not be bounced around perhaps increasing the hatch rate. I will keep you posted on any other info I gather. By the way, Eli is looking really good, I will send you pics next time I take some.

 

[Alaskan]

I just got a red Russian Orloff. I don't know anything about the breed... lol Anyone want to fill me in? Im new to chickens in general and I have never even heard of this type of chicken! =]

The best way to learn about russian orloffs is to read through this thread. It is pretty long, but covers just about all questions you might have.

 

[ashandvine]

So far so good. All 11 chicks have made it despite their earlier condition. I am going to try to get another sd for the camera so I can start a little photo journal of down and markings/sex and development. Marcy? Was it you who also started something like this? Its an interesting mix. I also just got a great article sent to me from a Russian woman who has kept RO for 7 years. Love this: http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/13E04A03.pdf One person said it didn't come in translated but mine did. I had no idea that cocks used to be 4.4kilos [9+lbs!]. We have a lot of work to do.

I have a source for eggs so if folks want to let me join their little 'lets import' club then pm me. It would be great to divide the eggs out and have a few gene pools developed here too.

 

[desertmarcy]

So far so good. All 11 chicks have made it despite their earlier condition. I am going to try to get another sd for the camera so I can start a little photo journal of down and markings/sex and development. Marcy? Was it you who also started something like this? Its an interesting mix. I also just got a great article sent to me from a Russian woman who has kept RO for 7 years. Love this: http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/13E04A03.pdf One person said it didn't come in translated but mine did. I had no idea that cocks used to be 4.4kilos [9+lbs!]. We have a lot of work to do.

I have a source for eggs so if folks want to let me join their little 'lets import' club then pm me. It would be great to divide the eggs out and have a few gene pools developed here too.

That's great on the chicks, good luck with them. No, it wasn't me who was doing a photo journal, I don't have time for that, unfortunately. Right now I've got to thin out my birds. I'm going through way too much feed (2500 pounds in one month). I want to cull out almost all of the Orloff cockerels from this year and only keep the 2 best. Unfortunately, they weren't all hatched at the same time so the age differences make it harder to compare. This year's group look much more similar in appearance than last year. I am not getting cockerels with a lot of white on them. I am missing the pure white beard on some, though, so I will use that as a culling point. I will use size as well, and stature, but again, since they are not all the same age, it is hard to compare size. I guess I will make one try at putting some trios on Craigslist first to see if I can sell some of them. I just have too many birds growing out and it is getting stressful. This is supposed to be fun! After Thanksgiving my feed bill will go down a lot after butchering some turkeys.

I kept back one of my original hens from Rare Feathers as a layer and "eye candy". She has too much white on her, so after the first year, I did not use her. I wonder if I used her now, if she would put the white beards back on her male offspring without also adding too much white elsewhere? She just finished molting and is looking pretty right now. I'll try to take some photos of her and post later.