The BANTAM ORPINGTON Thread

[Faraday40]

x2 on the question. I have the giant English orps. Love them! Yet, my one spunky little bantam orp gives me more entertainment & also doubles as an incubator. I've seen a few bantam orp eggs for sale but often the adults that made the eggs don't have the full & fluffy look that I prefer.

My bantam Cookie looks like a small LF, but she's all fluff & feels very light when picked up. We rarely see her feet, so she sort of glides through the grass while the rest of the chickens waddle.






Just look at her innocent, sweet face.


One bantam orp is enough for me now. It also allows Cookie to remain queen broody hen supreme. However, I could see myself wanting to hatch more in the future if we had the space.

 

[WVduckchick]

My smallest ones aren't the fluffiest either, but they are still under a year old. When I sell eggs, I usually list on the 24 hour auction thread here, or Craigslist, or FB.

 

[minihorse927]

My smallest ones aren't the fluffiest either, but they are still under a year old. When I sell eggs, I usually list on the 24 hour auction thread here, or Craigslist, or FB.

mine tend to mature slow. They will grow and fluff until they are a solid 2 years old.

 

[WVduckchick]

mine tend to mature slow. They will grow and fluff until they are a solid 2 years old.

Thanks, I was figuring at least a year, so that's good to know.

 

[minihorse927]

Thanks, I was figuring at least a year, so that's good to know.

I think some strains develop a little faster but they really fluff way out into that 2 year old season.

 

[jeremy]

My original birds came from breeders in Washington and Louisiana. I know for sure one sold off all of their breeding stock, unsure if the other still breeds bantam Orps. These were both from imported and American SOP lines. I purchased hatching eggs from Blue Rein Poultry, cannot remember the woman's name, but culled every bird hatched due to (serious) faults.

I'm a few generations in, I bred what Blues I could find to Chocolate lines to try and get better type on my Blues. I have been selecting for type/size every generation. Goal is to breed for a BBS flock and eventually stop propagating the Choc genes once I am satisfied with type.

There were some bantam Orps imported from the UK a couple or so years back. I purchased eggs from the breeder, but have not received them. They were not cheap, either.

Fortunately there is now another source for these same imported bantams, who acquired her birds from the original importer. I have reached out to this breeder to hopefully (finally) get to add these genetics to my line. These are bantam Blacks, which will prove helpful in breeding a BBS flock.

I have no Greenfire stock/genetics in my flock. I have heard too many negative things about them to ever add their lines to my farm.

 

[Honora]

A couple of pics of my Splash broody with some of her LF Orpington "babies." She is a great mama. This jubilee chick has a lot of attitude! When I first gave him to the hen he kept grabbing her wattles and hanging on while she tried to shake him off. She was very patient.

 

[WVduckchick]

@Honora she's lovely!

 

[Faraday40]

Have to share this pic.

I went out to the garage last night & saw this:
How does Cookie keep track of all 20 of them?
(Technically, she has 21, but one was in the house with me.)

 

[Honora]

Aw, here's another one of my broody. Her name is Yeti-Snowball (long story). Chicks are 5 weeks old today but some of them still like to snuggle up to mama.