Russian Orloffs

[OrloffTom]

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The white legs are due to crossing with speckled sussex. The correct color for the legs is yellow. I am culling any of mine that have white legs.
They lay best the first year but do lay a bit after that. They tend to be very broody the second year onward though. Not the best breed for egg production, but not terrible either.
I'm no expert now, so maybe someone else will chime it too.

Thanks MSfarmboy

. I love the fella though.../sigh. Well, I wasn't sure I was gonna breed him anyway but I do love his demeanor and his somewhat softer crow. My neighbor had some chickens for a while and geez he had one rooster and he was loud lol. I'm glad I found this thread though so I could try to learn more about this breed. I just went back and read that in the US that there are 3 differents recognized and 4 in the UK but I read through the past posts that they aren't recognized by the APA anymore and the book was revised in '09. Anyway, I do appreciate you answering those couple of questions. I love how he doesn't have the big comb and wattles. But I do like some that have those traits hehe!

 

[savingdogs]

I only have two, but they followed that pattern....layed well the first year, even in winter. Went broody second year, not many eggs after that. I like broody though, they were great mothers. A whole flock of them would be too many for me though.

 

[OrloffTom]

Well, it may not be too bad if you incorporate you some egg layers in there to compensate for the drop off. In regards to my rooster's shanks being white/pale would that trait follow down into the offspring if I were to breed him? I don't want to have a "weaker" strain if possible.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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It's not a weaker strain, just not the correct color legs. Russian Orloffs are almost all gone and need alot of work to bring them back up to a standard. My understanding is that several years ago someone breed them with speckled Sussex to improve the spangling. Unless you plan on breeding heavily and trying to improve the breed or plan enter him in a show, the color of his legs won't really matter. They are beautiful birds. My roo with the white legs is my favorite, I just don't want to breed him as I am trying to breed them back up to a standard.
I think it's just a matter of what you want.

 

[OrloffTom]

Ah ok gotcha

. I would like to eventually but I'm still trying to learn more on the breed itself. I am having one problem with him and it's not on any of the Golden Comet girls. Underneath his saddle feathers he's got a bare spot. I've not gotten very close to inspect but close enough though I could see pretty good and I've not seen any mites or anything. I wish I could find my charger for my camera so I could take pics of it to show. He's still eating/drinking well, crows like he has been, very alert as usual and doesn't seem to be acting any different. I think he does sleep on the coop floor instead of the roost but I'm not entirely sure. He's not bleeding or anything from the bare area so could he be picking them or one of the hens? You can't even see it unless he's bent over eating or whatever

. He doesn't seem to be in any discomfort that I can tell. I do have some anti-biotic stuff that I can add to the water if need be. It's been about the same size for about 2-3 months now and it doesn't appear to be any worse /shrugs.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

On the culling because of white legs, I would only do this if the overall type of the bird was off. Color in plumage and legs can be fixed once you have the type set in your line. As a good friend and mentor has always instructed me, you have to build the barn before you paint it!

 

[Cuban Longtails]

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He may have been feather picked, or this could be just something unique to him. If you want to test that it's feather picking, put him in a pen by himself for a few weeks and see if his feathers start growing back. Lots of times with males that are housed with females, the females will pluck hackle & saddle feathers to the point where there is a bald spot left. It stays bald because the hens are plucking the blood feathers that sprout to replace the previously picked feathers.

 

[savingdogs]

Is this an orloff trait? I have two hens that went through a terrible spell of feather loss and picked at themselves continually. Your idea of confining them alone did work however, because they were broody and didn't think about pecking at themselves for awhile.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

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Not that I have heard of.

 

[OrloffTom]

@ Cuban Longtails: What do you mean exactly by overall type? He seems to have pretty good spangledness (if that's a word lol) and his carriage seems to sit up higher like they are suppose to. I wish I could find my camera charger so I could get a good pic of him

.

Could it possibly be an Orloff trait since a couple of us here have had it? I mean it could just be coincidence as well but it makes you wonder :-/. Anyway, he's out there crowing it up a storm today. We've had some snow and I think hearing different types of noises coming from vehicles has got him riled up lol.