The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

I wouldn't mind a broody. lol I've got plenty of space to put one, just not a cage I'd enjoy stuffing her in. Frustrating that Blizzard isn't being cooperative. I wonder if she just hasn't been setting long enough to accept the chicks?

I'm not sure what's cuter, that little Blue SLO chick or your son giving his Serama a kiss. She looks very...tolerant. lol The started birds are looking good. I've debated getting Silkies specifically for brooding purposes, but I'm scared the Orpingtons would bully them. And Silkies are like little aliens...lol I think I'd feel weird even eating their eggs. Which is ridiculous. But they lay white eggs where Cochins wold lay brown. :/

I'm going to do some pen and house cleaning this weekend so I'll get some pictures. I think I'm going to let the kids play in the trampoline play pen. I just need to move it again first. Every time I went out to move it last weekend it started raining.

That little serama has bonded with DS and seeks him out. She's in his hands quite a bit and even came with us to visit my dad. (We have a little cat carrier purse that's easy & light.) She spent little time in the carrier that day because she was being held by one family member or another. Like I said, it looks like I've got another "useless chicken."

The newly hatched chicks are in with my Sebright & her 2 wk old chicks. Neither the chicks nor the hen even noticed. The 4 new chicks snuggled under her and were fine this morning when they were moved out to the tractor. Today's going to be around 100'F, so I'm not at all worried about them being cold. LOL

 

[ColtHandorf]

Well I guess I'm going to have to get some Seramas eventually. I told the roommate she could have some. And they are just too cute.

 

[Faraday40]

Well I guess I'm going to have to get some Seramas eventually. I told the roommate she could have some. And they are just too cute.

Seramas are very personable and seem to enjoy a lot of human contact. (The Roosters are even more awesome. They make good pets.) My Old Eng Game hen is the same, but I've only had the one female. The OEG also tend to go broody but maybe not as frequently as the silkies. The seramas go broody but can easily be broken, so it's not too bad. My champion, best mama hen in the world is my bantam orp. She came from imported English bloodlines, so she looks much like a round fluffy cochin without the feathered legs. She can not only cover a decent number of eggs, but she's stubborn and refuses to give up on the idea of motherhood. She's my most reliable mama and never loses chicks. (Sometimes my scatter-brained silkie will run off in excitement for treats or to peck at something shiny and then remember that she "forgot" her babies and run back to collect them. LOL)

Silkies are cuddlers. They're floppy & mold to your body like their melting from your touch. Seramas like to be held but they're more playful. They don't melt but they'll fly up to your lap, shoulder, head, arm, etc. and enjoy spending time with their owners.

A few of my BIG orps have been broody, but most are not very good at it. Their large size & clumsy feet can smoosh eggs and chicks accidentally. They "want" to be moms, but the smaller breeds are simply better at it.

 

[Faraday40]

Back to orps....
We needed a pic of Big Blue for DD's 4H poster. Due to the insane heat index, the poor gal kept panting & running for shade. We ended up bringing her into the house to cool off before taking pics.

Here's her glamour shot:
(I posted this pic on another thread, but thought I'd also share it here.)

Today's heat was worse. I decided it was time for all the orps to get a nice cold bath. This also meant that the kids & I also got our own wing-slapping, wet-feather-smelling spa day. (Actually it was only a little splashing of muddy chicken bath water. Most enjoy a good soak.) Too bad I didn't take Blue's pics today AFTER her bath.

DD decided her silkies also needed a cooling bath. Wet silkies are quite a funny sight! However what was even more hilarious was our reaction this evening. DD was holding her silkie (Mai Mai) & said that she smelled really good. DS took a quick whiff & strongly agreed. Of course I also had to smell her.... and then DH's turn ... and then our next door neighbor heard us and was curious. There we were all sniffing the chicken and passing her around over the fence.


If you're curious & don't have a silkie,,,,, Most chickens have an earthy smell. Silkies have a scent that's sort of like the smell after it rains. Our Dominique also had the same smell.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Sniffing Silkies...now I've heard it all...lol

I got the whole house cleaned this weekend but never had anyone available to help me move the trampoline pen into the shade so that the Lavender and two Silver-laced kids could run around on some grass and dirt. I've got to move it before the gentleman that mows the yard comes on Wednesday, so it'll probably move today after work. The grass is getting tall in there, apparently goose poop makes good fertilizer. Who knew? lol

The big Orpingtons are getting so spoiled. I let the geese out onto the yard to graze every morning, and in an attempt to help keep bugs down in the yard and spread them out where maybe snakes wouldn't be so tempted to take eggs (although I haven't seen one in weeks), I've been letting the Orpingtons out as well. You'd think the world was ending if I'm not out there by 8:00 AM to turn them out. Silly birds. I do love looking back and seeing a bunch of fluffy Orpingtons all in a line following me across the yard. They are absolutely stunning on green grass. letting them out on the big yard also helps the hens get away from the roosters if they are being obnoxious.

I really do need about fifteen more hens, or else a pen to put the roosters. It is almost getting so hot that I don't want to set anymore eggs so fertile eggs wouldn't be an issue. I'd like all the girls to have a break and grow back feathers. The two hens that came from the breeder in Diana have had bare back since they got here, but they aren't letting the rooster's breed much. Poor Duchess is just a doormat. She just lies there until they have all had a turn and usually waits for the gander, Golly, to give her a poke before she hops up and runs off. The pullet from the breeder in Burleson is looking amazing though. I wish her lacing was better, but if you see her parents here:

Her mother has great lacing and excellent size. Her father is lacking a bit in regards to lacing and size, but he was also under a year in this photograph. I'd really like to incorporate more pullets from this breeder into the flock. I think we are going to trade some in the fall hopefully when it's a bit cooler. I'm still quite annoyed and the snakes killing the majority of the started birds I picked up with her. I'm hoping with a few subsequent molts that she laces up more like her mother. In size she's already as big as my hens, but not as filled out and mature looking.

That's not the best picture, but she is a squirrel-y thing sometimes. She was watching me feed and water the Lavenders in the cage so she was waiting to see if they dropped anything she needed. I'm imagining with how warm it is getting it will be fall before I see any eggs out of her. Although her comb and wattles are starting to pink up finally.

As some of you saw I had been on the fence about picking up a bird that may or may not be a Splash Orpington. After we all stared at the picture we decided that the bird in question might be an Orpington. However, the bird had a deformity of the beak and after querying the owner, discovered it had been poorly debeaked and it was growing back. Her comb was also missing all of the points whether from frostbite or practicing dubbing (my personal belief) I don't know. I am 90% sure I'm going to pass on her.

The same day I found her, someone returned a text about an inquiry on Lavenders. I've been trying to find a breeder that has them and also Blacks in order to improve their feather quality. I find that poultry people can be just as disreputable as breeders of anything else; dapple or merle dogs for instance. Those dogs sell for more, but despite the fact that dapple x dapple produces double dappled puppies that can have hearing or vision problems not limited to just blindness or deafness, but actually missing eyes or ears. I've found that people breeding for Lavender can be the same. Not wanting to produce splits which would sell for less, they breed Lavender x Lavender and end up with those ratty feathers. Anyway, it turns out they breed Blues. Which means they will have Blue, Black, and Splash. And they only want $20 for four month old pullets. I'd like to get three blue, two splash, and two black pullets, as well as one black cockerel. The black cockerel can cover (separately) the black/blue/splash girls when the blue and splash girls aren't with the Silver-laced and the Lavender girls when they aren't with the Silver-laced. The Black hens can either be in the B/B/S pen or covered by a Lavender cockerel. And another Lavender can cover the Silver-laced girls on the off chance I want to cross that way.

I don't think there should be any problems with that so long as I keep the hatches from the various pens banded so I can keep them separate. I know you don't want the Lavender and Blue gene in the same pen, but black birds produced from a black to black mating or from a blue x black mating wouldn't carry either gene. So they could go into the Lavender program in order to create more splits. I'm just going to have to be hyper-vigilant about making sure splits are banded as splits.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I forgot to mention that I also set eggs Saturday. My friend loaned me her Brinsea Mini Advance. And what a frustratingly small machine it is. I managed to stuff ten eggs in there so I'm not sure how well they are actually turning. I'm hoping that I can see some development before next weekend and toss the clear eggs out so the developing ones can be turned more efficiently.

And out of the dozen that my friend set only three seem to be developing. So I suspect that the males are not covering those two hens from Diana and are rather continuing to overbreed Duchess the doormat. *sigh*

 

[ColtHandorf]

This thread was interesting.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/lavender-laced-orpington-extremely-rare.885287/

The OP is mistaken and I think boasting about something in order to mislead people into buying eggs at a high price. I don't think the birds are what they claim. However the last page is much more interesting. I hope to see the questions I posed answered in order to give me a better idea for how to proceed with this project.

 

[ColtHandorf]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/silver-laced-orpingtons-lf.976009/

Also squirreling this away in here so I can find it later for more reading. I've just been drooling over some of the gorgeous birds I've seen here. I need all mine to finish molting and be gorgeous again.

 

[ColtHandorf]

So in y’all’s opinion, which rooster is the most ideal for breeding?

Sterling:

Unnamed:

Hollywood:

Unnamed:

Sterling & Unnamed:

Hollywood and Unnamed:

Hollywood:

Hollywood (front), Unnamed (middle), Sterling (rear)

Unnamed (rear) & Hollywood (front)

Hollywood:

I like the size on Sterling. He's much bigger than the other two roosters. I also think his lacing is more defined and crisp which is ideal. He does have too many points on his comb and his legs/skin are the wrong color (yellow versus white).

Out of the two white-skinned birds I prefer Hollywood over the rooster I haven't named. (Hollywood for Paul Hollywood from the Great British Baking Show since they are English Orpingtons and I named the two newest hens Mel and Sue...lol) Anyway, I like his personality much better. He's just gentle like Sterling. Not that the other one is aggressive, he's just dominant. He has the better comb of the two with nice even points. He has decent lacing (soft not crisp) but is more rounded, unlike Sterling who is more heart shaped (reminiscent of a Wyandotte).

In the second to last image and the one above that, in the body of the message you can see the difference in the depth of color on the two white skinned roosters. Hollywood on the right has a soft grey/black versus the unnamed rooster who is very black. Does that indicate anything in particular?

Also please ignore any messy combs in some of the photos, those were taken after a weekend of roosters learning how to get along. And I apologize for molting pictures. It's very warm here and they are just losing feathers left and right. That's why I included some old ones of Sterling where you can see him all filled out. I'm not going to make any firm decisions until this Fall when all of the birds are in good feather again.

My hopes is that I can produce chicks with Sterling's size and defined lacing and take them back to Hollywood and get the looser feathers further down the leg, plus correct skin color of course. I'll be retiring Duchess and Sterling next year after Spring so all of the pullets are only bred back to the white-skinned unrelated birds, versus to siblings or their father to lose that yellow skin.

 

[ColtHandorf]

@nicalandia @The Moonshiner @CountryFlock @kidcody @Faraday40 @homeschoolin momma

Do any of you have any insight into that difference in the intensity of black between those two rooster?