I have 3 Legbars and 3 lavender Orpingtons that we raised as chicks. I got the Legbars exactly a week after the Orpingtons. The Orpingtons were the last 3 chicks they had when I got there, I wasn't planning on 3 but didn't want to leave the last one alone. So I got 3 Legbars to keep things balanced, although I was the first person there on that day and had my pick. So I got the darkest chick, the lightest chick and one that was in the middle with her wild feather pattern being very defined and pretty. The lightest turned out to have a blonde crest so we call her Blondie. The middle birds crest is red and I call her Becky as an inside joke. And the darkest has dark brown crest and we call her Tail Feather because she had one extra long TailFeather that was broken and dangling at the tip until her first molt.
The orpingtons I got were are pathetic, one of them was clearly the runt of the whole batch. Runt grew up to eventually take the head bird title from blondie, whom was the most dominant when they were chicks. They actually had a knock down, drag out fight in the middle of the yard that lasted for a couple minutes.
Blondie is kinda on the fringes of the flock now, she's the lowest in pecking order and tends to do her own thing. She goes to bed first every day and sleeps on a shelf in the corner that I intended to use for other things, it's about 2 inches higher then the roosting bar and I've seen runt try to knock her off of it but she can't. And the orpingtons wait to roost until it's actually dark outside, 30 or 45 minutes after the legbars go inside.
They are all nice to each other though. They mostly pair up when grazing in the yard but the pairs change and don't really matter what breed. One of my orpingtons has really kind eyes, as opposed to runt who has an intense look like an eagle or something has. We call that bird grandma and she goes broody occassionally and will sleep the nesting box if we leave eggs in there overnight like she knows it's the right thing to do or something. She will also roll any eggs laid in the other nesting box over into the clutch in the main nesting box everyone usually uses.
Overall I think those two breeds are really good together. Although I initially wanted to get 2 of each and have 2 Welsummer, Speckled Sussex, or Marans. Whatever I foud first. I have to say I read that the legbars were skittish and that orpingtons were friendly but my chickens are opposite. My Legbars like to be held and my Opringtons will only tolerate it for short periods.
They'll fight over food sometimes but it's almost always Runt taking something from Becky or TailFeather. Those two are so agressive together that the other two Orpingtons just let them go first. But if Runt wants what they have she will take it. Blondie has to sneak up and get whatever she can get on the tail end of the event. I've even seen Runt run completely across the yard to stop Blondie from eating chicken feed out of the feeder in their coop, simply because that wasn't what the flock was doing at that moment. Apparently she is in charge of when they stop and move on to the next activity.
My Legbars prefer to free range, they don't eat much feed. The Orpingtons will eat anything. But my Legbars stopped laying when it got cold and my Orpingtons never stopped laying everyday. If I had to pick 2 of each to keep I know which ones I would, but I wouldn't like having to do. I'm happy with them, they get along really good considering the horror stories I read on here sometimes. They groom each other and stuff. I watched TailFeather bury her head under Grandma birds wing during the first thunder storm they ever lived through.
I say do one of each or pairs but having singles of any breed with pairs of any other isn't fair. Maybe a single RIR or something scrappy but even then 2 on 1 would ensure they were bottom of the pecking order. Having three of each forced them to form that one odd couple and that couple made breed relations normal. LOL. It's a progressive flock.
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