Russian Orloffs

[Sylvester017]

Mine lay a cream colored (very light brown) medium to large eggs. They are beautiful birds, but not the friendliest.

Can u further define your cream colored very lt. brn?

My two Silkies lay tinted eggs - actually one lays an off-white matte finish while the other lays a very faint pinkish gloss finish.

With ROs I've seen brown, light brown, very light brown, tinted, to cream described for egg color. Do all ROs lay a different shade the way Ameraucanas vary from blue to greenish-blues? I mean, with Dominiques you get brown - from different hens the browns vary a bit in depth of color but you can say definitely "brown" no matter what hen the egg comes from. How is it with the ROs?

 

[dwcrwr]

Sorry about the delayed reply. Been busy with fine tuning my rabbit/ quail/ chicken pen, in addition to caring for chickletts, duckletts and newly hatched quialetts.
My r.o.s give me "did you put some coffee in your cream"? Colored eggs. Some people have told me that they had a pink egg in the dozen that I sold them, and it may have been from a ro, but I'm not sure. To me, they have coffee (brown) that is just very diluted with milk.
With my variety of breeds, I get a rainbow of shades, but I have a to that hopes the fence and lays in the woods, so I know what she is giving me.
As far as the varying shades, you've already said it... All breeds vary within the breed and each bird varies the color it lays as the bird ages.
The lighter brown eggs tend to have a suggestion of pink. The darker ones can seem to have burnt red tones. I have ameracaunas whose green eggs are changing toward blue as they age. After the molt they will likely go back to green. Simply enough, I just like to see all the colors of the birds AND the eggs. Got some welsummer, maran and Cali greys for just that reason.

 

[ashandvine]

A few newer picks of my chicks, they are 3.5 weeks old now.



I love the posture and head on this bird. I would like to see more beard and esp muffs at this point but the type is nice.
As for the question about red leakage I didn't get in here soon enough for it.

Can u further define your cream colored very lt. brn?

I would say that if you see the brown eggs in the store they come in a short range of browns and Orloff eggs are lighter than that. I liked the 'did you put coffee in your cream' description, made me laugh. They are nude colored... how's that? lol from a make up perspective lol They really are light but clearly not white and can be slightly darker. I have no pics.... I confuse my Java eggs with them if that helps. Each bird will be different of course. I can tell some birds eggs by shape or color

 

[Sylvester017]

My r.o.s give me "did you put some coffee in your cream"? Colored eggs. Some people have told me that they had a pink egg in the dozen that I sold them, and it may have been from a ro, but I'm not sure. To me, they have coffee (brown) that is just very diluted with milk.
As far as the varying shades, you've already said it... All breeds vary within the breed and each bird varies the color it lays as the bird ages.
The lighter brown eggs tend to have a suggestion of pink. The darker ones can seem to have burnt red tones. I have ameracaunas whose green eggs are changing toward blue as they age. After the molt they will likely go back to green.

Thx @dwcrwr about the RO egg colors - in my case our B/W Amer has never layed anything but the palest of blue and never had a green from her in 2 yrs, however her egg size has increased and she's reduced to laying 4/week rather than 5-7 she used to lay as a pullet.

I would say that if you see the brown eggs in the store they come in a short range of browns and Orloff eggs are lighter than that. I liked the 'did you put coffee in your cream' description, made me laugh. They are nude colored... how's that? lol from a make up perspective lol They really are light but clearly not white and can be slightly darker. I have no pics.... I confuse my Java eggs with them if that helps. Each bird will be different of course. I can tell some birds eggs by shape or color

Thx @ashandvine - interesting about egg colors. With our 2 Silkies there's absolutely no confusion in their eggs - don't know how 2 Silkies can be so-o-o different: (1) off-white matte egg vs (2) pinkish glossy egg. We can understand color shade differences but the matte vs glossy was a real puzzle to us.

 

[FridayYet]

Not sure how many RO people are left on BYC, but I thought I'd post some pictures for anyone who is not on Facebook. These are my favorite two out of my 5 youngsters that are 7.5 weeks old.

 

[malndobe]

A few new photos of my RO's. Down to 10, a few died recently when they were to dumb to come in out of the rain :-( I found them before they died, but it was to late to do anything for them. The remaining 10 are doing great though, healthy and smart. Still need to take a real camera up to the coop, so far it's just cell phone pics.

 

[gander007]

A few new photos of my RO's. Down to 10, a few died recently when they were to dumb to come in out of the rain :-( I found them before they died, but it was to late to do anything for them. The remaining 10 are doing great though, healthy and smart. Still need to take a real camera up to the coop, so far it's just cell phone pics.

I lost one due to the rain last January and in the total year only 4" of rain and he was a year old so ya really need to watch them as they can handle the cold very well but not much in the smarts department and in the summer they will need shade or they might tend to stand in the sun all day this can also cause a problem .....



I just enjoy watching these guys and the Rooster there thinks he can come in the house .....





Ya might want to watch the defeathering as these guys will pluck as each other when roosting so make sure you provide plenty of room for them ....

















gander007

 

[Sylvester017]

A few new photos of my RO's. Down to 10, a few died recently when they were to dumb to come in out of the rain :-( I found them before they died, but it was to late to do anything for them. The remaining 10 are doing great though, healthy and smart. Still need to take a real camera up to the coop, so far it's just cell phone pics.

I lost one due to the rain last January and in the total year only 4" of rain and he was a year old so ya really need to watch them as they can handle the cold very well but not much in the smarts department and in the summer they will need shade or they might tend to stand in the sun all day this can also cause a problem .....



I just enjoy watching these guys and the Rooster there thinks he can come in the house .....


Ya might want to watch the defeathering as these guys will pluck as each other when roosting so make sure you provide plenty of room for them ....

I am considering RO as a future pullet for our gentle-breeds flock and all the suggestions, cautions, temperament, productivity, health issues, etc are preparing us for our decision. We backyard free range our small flock in sunny SoCal with canopies, plywood shelters, tall plants, and several doghouses for snoozing/hiding from aerial predators. We have a Cooper's Hawk that visits mainly every Spring when she's raising young - how savvy are ROs re hiding from aerial predators? Our hyper Silkies and hyper Ameraucana are pros at hiding but we wondered about the smarts of an RO pullet to pick up on a cue from the other hiding hens? Our hens don't always sound a barnyard alert but just might silently dive for cover without a warning sound.

 

[gander007]

Quote:
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

 

[malndobe]

Ya might want to watch the defeathering as these guys will pluck as each other when roosting so make sure you provide plenty of room for them ....

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.