Russian Orloffs

[Rare Feathers Farm]

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Where did you get her?

a woman who lives about 80 miles from me

I would guess a mixed breed....

 

[txmel]

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That almost looks like a Buckeye to me!

Nate

i just looked up buckeye and your right. she does look a lot like that so maybe. shes very curious and always wants to see but seems to be alittle nervous if i pick her up and carrier her around. if she is a buckeye hopefully she wont be too noisy and flighty. thanks for the guess

 

[Cuban Longtails]

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That almost looks like a Buckeye to me!

Nate

i just looked up buckeye and your right. she does look a lot like that so maybe. shes very curious and always wants to see but seems to be alittle nervous if i pick her up and carrier her around. if she is a buckeye hopefully she wont be too noisy and flighty. thanks for the guess

I disagree with the others. I have raised hatchery orloffs and that one looks like the ones I've had only lighter in color. They do grow their hoods & muffs later on. I see some spangles peeking through in her feather pattern. Keep us up to date on with photos.

 

[txmel]

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i just looked up buckeye and your right. she does look a lot like that so maybe. shes very curious and always wants to see but seems to be alittle nervous if i pick her up and carrier her around. if she is a buckeye hopefully she wont be too noisy and flighty. thanks for the guess

I disagree with the others. I have raised hatchery orloffs and that one looks like the ones I've had only lighter in color. They do grow their hoods & muffs later on. I see some spangles peeking through in her feather pattern. Keep us up to date on with photos.

ok i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope. i will post pics of her as she gets older so you all can see what she does. i'm really hoping she is an orloff. thanks

 

[SFIcelandics]

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i just looked up buckeye and your right. she does look a lot like that so maybe. shes very curious and always wants to see but seems to be alittle nervous if i pick her up and carrier her around. if she is a buckeye hopefully she wont be too noisy and flighty. thanks for the guess

I disagree with the others. I have raised hatchery orloffs and that one looks like the ones I've had only lighter in color. They do grow their hoods & muffs later on. I see some spangles peeking through in her feather pattern. Keep us up to date on with photos.

What line are your orloffs you have now? How about your welsummers?

Nate

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

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The Orloff pullets I got from Welp are a little under a month old now and are on schedule to look like this at 5 or 6 weeks, though probably with more "speckling".

I would post pictures, but I am mostly away from the farm right now. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[txmel]

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The Orloff pullets I got from Welp are a little under a month old now and are on schedule to look like this at 5 or 6 weeks, though probably with more "speckling".

I would post pictures, but I am mostly away from the farm right now. Maybe tomorrow.

thank you so much i would love to see some pics to compare

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Well I completely forgot to take pictures when I was home taking care of the animals today. My fiance and I have been working at the fair, and because of the long hours, we opted to stay on the grounds in the RV and make a run home for critter care each day.

Well, today, I arrived home and I had multiple rabbits escaped from the colony and a baby Orloff running around the house since they have finally gotten to the point that they can jump out of the brooder (rubbermaid tub)! It was funny, she just looked at me like she was more than ready to get back in there with her buddies. Poor thing!

They got switched into a wire cage set-up today, so no more chick escapees. Going to have to borrow or buy a hav-a-heart trap to round up the rabbits, I sure don't have the endless hours it takes to catch them otherwise!

There's a pretty spangled hen at the fair right now. I like going to look at her and imagine my kids growing up that pretty!

Oh, I've noticed a BIG range of sizes and weights in the 4 little pullets I have now. Is this normal? Should I tag the bigger ones and track their weight? I do want to select for a dual purpose bird, and only one of these kids is even pretending to keep up with the dark cornish chick of the same age. (It was the escapee, as a matter of fact.)

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

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I would keep the largest ones...I'm not sure why their weights/sizes would be that much different? Your pullets should be about 5-6lbs at maturity.

As far as a dual purpose bird...get an Orpington or Buckeye, LOL

The Orloffs were originally bred as a table fowl but with the Malay in their background, their meat is very mostly muscle (can be tough) and they are very slow to mature. I have some young ones that are now almost 18 weeks old and still are not crowing or fully grown yet, whereas my Creves have been crowing for weeks and were in the same hatch in my incubator.

After their first year, the Orloff's laying drops off very dramatically to maybe a few eggs a week (per bird) and becomes highly sporadic thereafter. As far as temperament, they are nice/sweet birds and I always get compliments on them...they're not just a real dual-purpose. I'd classify them as ornamental.

Of course you can eat them all you want and collect their eggs, etc...but you'll be putting $50 in feed before you get them to a suitable table weight and you could always put in a laying breed that lays different colored eggs in to your flock just for that purpose...I've done that in the past--just added a hen or two that lay a white or green egg so I had enough to bake with.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

RFF, that's something I've been worrying about. I'm not completely committed to preserving the Orloff as a heritage breed, though, either. (I'm not convinced there's any 'heritage' blood left in most of them, anyway. I suspect most lines are phenotypical recreations.)

I also have a nice meaty buff Chantecler cockerel I'm thinking of keeping them with until I decide exactly which direction I want to go with them. I may end up abandoning pure bred Orloffs completely if I can't find lines to start me down the road I want, and just select for extremely winter hardy dual purpose birds using any combination needed. The thing is, I do love the LOOK of the Orloff, (over the Chantecler, for example,) so that will likely color my selection a bit.