The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

Well I'll keep searching for in incubator. So far she hasn't laid an egg since moving her home. So I've probably got some time. I'm hoping to Amazon Prime one after payday this week.

My orps are like that too. Whenever I change things - like separating them into breeding groups, moving them to a chicken tractor, adding or subtracting a flock member, etc - the hens stop laying for a while. If I'm lucky, it's just a few days or a week. Sometimes they decide to molt & then it can be over a month! Let's hope your hen likes the new change.

Incubators are nice to have on hand because you can't always control when a hen goes broody, and an incubator can hold more eggs. Also, if something happens & the hens leaves the nest (or you have a scattered hatch or need a chick ICU), you can always pop them into an incubator. It's very strange but cold eggs sort of go dormant. On 2 different occasions, we had a hen accidentally return to the wrong nest & her eggs went cold. One of those times there was snow on the ground. In both cases, the eggs hatched but they were 1-3 days late. Of course hens can get a higher hatch rate, don't need electricity to operate, don't require constant temperature monitoring, egg turning, & humidity adjustments, and also take the place of a brooder. When I do use an incubator, I'm often lucky to have a hen go broody. I let the hen adopt all the chicks and put her inside the brooder to raise them.

This is my fav broody mama, "Cookie" She's the bantam orp I mentioned earlier. She's too small for our roo to mate, so she gladly hatches LF eggs & adopts incubator chicks. She had well over 20 chicks under her in the pic below.

Cookie says, "If it peeps, it's mine!!!"

 

[ColtHandorf]

That is adorable! I used to let my LF Salmon Faverolle hens incubate for me, but I also used to use the big GQF incubators with great success 15 years ago. I have a horrible track record with Little Giant Incubators. So I'm just nervous about finding a model I'm comfortable using (that I can afford). I'll be sure to post some more pictures of the birbs so we're back on topic-ish...lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

I’ve been setting some eggs. I hope they hatch. We shall see in about 18 days...

I’ve added two more eggs and if she lays consecutively again I may add the new ones until she takes a break. After that I may let her keep some to see if she’ll go broody.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I've got 16 days until hatching on the first four eggs I put in the incubator. I haven't been brave enough to candle them yet, I'll probably wait until Sunday or Monday to do that. I'm not sure I can handle the crushing disappointment of them not developing...

In the last few days they've (the pair) have become much more active. They are spending more time out of their house, but it's been nice and sunny for almost two weeks so everything is drying out and the two trees in their run are leafing out which might be helping. They've certainly been enjoying the green grass, although there are sections of their run with grass nearly a foot high. The two of them haven't made much of a dent in it.

I've picked two names for the rooster and am not sure what I want to go with... Sterling or Andavariel which translates to Argent (or Silver) Winter. I am still completely undecided on the hen. I usually just call her 'big girl' or 'fat girl' when I ask her what she's doing. I adore watching her slide down the ramp that leads up to their roost poles. She's finally gotten the hang of it.

I'm planning on getting some hatching eggs from a couple of different breeders for B/B/S and Lavender Orpingtons. I might actually be getting chicks on the Lavender Orps. I keep reminding myself to be patient and not go into the feedstore and cave at the peeping. lol

I'm also bringing home a pair of American Buff Geese this weekend that will share sleeping quarters with the Orpingtons, so fingers crossed they get along. American Buffs are supposed to be very calm, and the Orpingtons are probably the most laid back chickens I've ever owned. Nothing seems to phase them.

Is anyone hatching any of their own or shipped eggs? @Faraday40 have you hatched any of Blizzard's eggs from a Mr. Wonderful breeding?

 

[Faraday40]

Your rooster is so handsome! I hope you get some good chicks from him!

My "test" hatch was just some random orp eggs. They were not separated into breeding groups. I had a school that wanted hatching eggs for the last week of Feb, so I needed to make sure what I sold would hatch. (Once I saw development in the incubator, I knew the eggs were OK to sell. I didn't have the heart to toss the developing eggs, so I have a few random orp chicks now.) One of Blizzard's eggs hatched a pretty chick, but it was sold right away. I'll probably grow out the remaining ones & sell them as started pullets. We have a friend who will grow out the males for meat.

From my test, I found that my lav roo was pretty active and my laced roo also had some success. The laced orps got some trimming. I found my bantam coop had minor issues: One silkie & my OEG 's eggs didn't develop. Not sure why those 2 hens gave clear eggs when the other two hens were fertile.

I started another small test on Sunday (now that the orps are separated in groups) and will soon begin gathering eggs for my big school hatches starting in April. I like to have chicks available here as a back up - just in case the school has an incubator error. If zero hatch, I can swing by & slip some chicks into the classroom brooder.

While we're hatching at the schools, my son is also doing a 4H project comparing incubators. We're going to use a Hovabator, Incu-view, Brinsea, & home-made cooler-bator at the different sites. He will compare hatch results as well as other features. If a hen goes broody, she will also join in his experiment. There will be one week overlap, so the eggs developing now will have to move into my backup incubator for hatching.

Sometimes I wonder if I'd be better off with a smaller capacity incubator like yours, @ColtHandorf . I'm going to be overrun with chicks in May!!!!

 

[ColtHandorf]

Well I caved Friday after work and candled the two older eggs and could see a heartbeat in one of them for sure. I'm so excited to think I'll have little ones in a couple of weeks.

And I wish I had a bigger incubator. lol I picked up a pair of Buff American geese this weekend and they gave me their LG incubator with a turner. So I guess I'm going to fire that up and see if it holds a steady temperature... No way are geese eggs fitting in that Rcom...

 

[Faraday40]

You already have the fertile eggs, so you might as well test out your new back up incubator.

I got mine because there are times I have staggered hatches. So one incubator is for the incubating and the other is for the hatching. Of course, you will now need multiple brooders, feeders, etc. LOL

 

[Faraday40]

Remember when I mentioned that having a lot of incubator space is not always a good thing....

Well, I candled the 2 doz eggs I added a week ago. (I wanted to see if the butt fluff trimming helped. I also separated the orps into breeding groups a couple weeks ago, so I can control the color outcomes.) The results so far look good.... far better than I expected. None of the eggs are glowing brightly! 6 spitzhaubens are from a friend, 16 orps & 2 seramas are from my birds = more potential chicks than I had planned. Gulp! I honestly thought I'd be tossing at least 6 infertile eggs. Who knew the roos would do so well? In a little over a week, the schools start, so these eggs will have to move into my back up incubator.

I'll keep you updated.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I candled over the weekend and all six of the eggs were fertile and have developing chicks. I'm so excited to see fuzzy babies this weekend.

Of course I have to complain although I really shouldn't as it's my fault. i had noticed him over-breeding her which is why she was staying in the hen house a lot during the day up on the roosts so he couldn't. (I've had no luck finding anything that lays a white or colored egg to help spread the love...) When the geese moved in they kept her out of the house as the goose started laying her eggs in there as well. Of course that just encouraged Sterling to breed her more. I ordered a saddle but it didn't get here before he basically broke her. I've got her in a large dog kennel in my bird room with the finches. I'm applying Vetricyn twice daily and letting her out to wander a bit periodically. She seems to be feeling immensely better, but she's not roosting or laying (which I expected). It was a massive wound from his spurs. He's so young they don't curve yet. Once she's all healed up I'll saddle her up and move her back out there. Hopefully by then I will have been able to track down some other Orpington hens to take the heat off her.

I'd love to get some eggs from you later this year if you ever sell.

 

[Faraday40]

Great news about your rooster's fertility. Sorry to hear about your hen's injury. I've experienced that when young, inexperienced cockerels begin mating. He should eventually improve his "technique." Veterycin is amazing stuff. That's all I did and my hens always made complete recoveries. Just make sure she's healed up well enough before putting her back with the roo. The skin is thin & the scab can re-open. (Yep. Sad to say I had that happen once.) Our "hospital" is a simple tote inside the house. Since there's not much room to walk around, the patient gets some extra lap time, kitchen scraps, & may even watch a movie on TV. Anytime there's some type of injury, I simply tell DH, "We've got another house chicken!"

Our Mr Wonderful is having trouble keeping his hens fertile. He was with the whole flock & I just pulled out his hens' eggs for hatching. Now he just has his 4 laced girls in the chicken tractor. Our lav orp has his 3 hens + the rest in the coop. (Although the laced orps lay a more unique, rounded egg, so it was easier for me to set them aside. I'm having trouble identifying the lav orps' pink oval eggs from my speckled sussex hen's eggs. If I only had multiple coops & all the chickens I desired......)