Russian Orloffs

[shelleyb1969]

From all of my Orloff research, they should lay brown eggs (of varying tint).

 

[savingdogs]

Mine are hatchery-quality, maybe that is why. At one point I had six, and one of the six did not have the proper looking head. I still have that one, so perhaps mine are a mix. The other five however look exactly like the spangled orloffs pictured here, and they also fit several descriptions of them in personality. Right now mine are not really laying, but we think we got our first egg from one of them again the other day because we had this small white egg and no one else I have lays white. They took a 6-month break for raising chicks! But the eggs I get are fairly small, but their pullet year they laid really well through the winter. I'm ready for them to get back to that. But they did such a good job with their chicks, they were great incubators and all their chicks lived.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

It's been awhile, but I finally had a chance to get a few pictures of our Orloffs. I've got several questions for those of you with more knowledge and experiance.
First... the old standard called for "bay" eyes. What color is that exacly? I couldn't get a true color picture of my bird's eyes because the flash keeps washing it out lighter than it really is. This is the closest I could get, but they are really just a bit darker than the picture.

Also One of my strains has way too much white in the feathers and washed-out white legs. The other strain has yellow legs and better color but has too much mahogany (not enough spangling). How do I breed to correct this? Here is an example of each strain. BTW, the head shot above is out of the first strain (Welp).

Both strains are around 19 weeks old and just coming out of a molt, so they look a little ragged right now. Here is just a few shots in the coop.

and here is the one with the most mahogany.

and my one odd-ball with partridge hackles on the neck.

I love this breed and I know they need a lot of work but I feel they are worth the trouble of a multi year project. I've got around 20 total and even though I am starting to look at which "catch my eye" I'm not going to cull any of them until spring at the very earliest. Hopefully at that time I can find someone else working with them that I can trade out some stock with to bring new bloodlines in. Right now I'm raising them out in a coop together, but will seperate the strains into seperate coops in the spring and most likely start at least one other coop with a project breeding the two strains together.
Any ideas or helpful comments are welcome.
Also.. does anyone know if the old standard had pictures?

 

[savingdogs]

I'm not an expert, but my hens are twins of your spangled ones, especially the four pictures below the leg shots. Mine have yellow legs.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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Where did you get your Orloffs?

 

[Count Orloff]

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Where did you get your Orloffs?

I would also like to know. There is a place up in northern Michigan called Star Bright Farms, but that is a little far for me to go. I like the spangled ones like the one in my avatar the most.

 

[Goose and Fig]

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Where did you get your Orloffs?

I would also like to know. There is a place up in northern Michigan called Star Bright Farms, but that is a little far for me to go. I like the spangled ones like the one in my avatar the most.

That's Shelley, I believe. She's on this thread.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I didn't know the name of her farm, but I've seen pictures of Shelley's birds and they are VERY nice.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Mississippi- I think you've got plenty to work with. I would not seperate the strains- there is so little diversity in the Orloff stock we need to "make new blood" if you will. Take the ones that don't have enough spangling and cross them to the ones with too much white. That's what I'd do anyway.

 

[Count Orloff]

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Or you could ship a couple hens my way hehe.