The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

I'm assuming this was directed at me. No, they went to school while I busied myself taking the oldest two over to Plainfield for emergency sports physicals. Then we (the teens and I) covered the heat lamps with chicken wire and I got them secured in place just after dark.

Oops. Sorry. I Thought I PMed you. I guess the snow was really affecting me. We got about 3" so it could have been a lot worse.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I'm going opposite on this one and saying female for now. My current double whites popped some combs and wattles early, but stayed small. How old are they?

They were hatched July 30th, so going on 3.5 months? I don't understand how mine are so small compared to y'all's that are the same age and younger. It's always been more developed in the face than the other White and most of the SLO even at a young age. For a few weeks I thought it might be two pullets again, but the comb and wattles are growing a little bit and the face is quite red. You can also see a difference in the thickness of the leg in that shot. The for sure pullet has dainty, toothpick legs. lol I am hoping they are a pair. If nothing else I can just cross them back to Hollywood and produce a split cockerel.

It was 22 degrees this morning and feels like 6 degrees with the wind chill. The birds all had grump face this morning when they didn't have confused faces from examining their very frozen waterers. The geese were on the pool about ten last night. When I went out this morning there was about an inch of water across the pool and the rubber feed trough had about two inches of ice. I broke those up in the hopes that they don't refreeze and they can all have a drink. The waterers appeared to be frozen completely. I don't have one of the heated water things. So when I get home I assume I'll be making some trips with a pitcher from the house.

 

[Faraday40]

I made my own heater waterer about 6 yeas ago using a 5 gal bucket. (At the time there was no such thing as a heated chicken waterer.) It wasn't cheap but I love it!!!! The most expensive part is the heater. Any submersible de-icer would work. (Like a bird bath heater) I bought this one because it only turns on when needed. It keeps the water just above freezing
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RL9NSA/?tag=backy-20

The other important part is the horizontal chicken nipples. (The vertical ones leak a little & can freeze up when temps dip down below zero. The horiz ones rarely ever freeze because they're more inside the water bucket.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0757GGBV3/?tag=backy-20

Another trick is to use filtered water. We have a lot of minerals & it can leave deposits on the heater. Besides the extra cleaning, I was afraid the minerals would cut the life of the heater short. (and it's expensive, so I don't want to replace every 3-5 years) I bought a cheap kitchen faucet filter (which we can also use for our drinking water). We fill up a few re-purposed plastic gal jugs with water and just carry one out each morning to refill.

My husband & kids tease me about giving fancy filtered water to the chickens, but hey, it saves $ to not replace the waterer.

 

[ColtHandorf]

We rarely get cold enough for long enough for the water to freeze. So it isn't a huge problem, but it is certainly inconvenient for the next few days. The pen is so far from the house, running extension cords out there makes me nervous as well. I'll get something figured out though.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

running extension cords out there makes me nervous as well.

You dont even want to know how many extension cords i have running out through the pastures....

 

[Faraday40]

Here are some pics (Just because I took some pics today)

Crystal & her chicks.
@homeschoolin momma The back one is the female you're getting for Taj. You'll also get a brother to help with the transition

Here's your girl again. She's a little smaller but oh so round. I love her face. It was very hard for me to decide.

Here's Smudge & her 2 lavs. The lavs & blacks are all very big birds. Smudge is molting & still recovering from being broody, so she's much thinner than usual. The left is the girl & the right is the ??? male. I've been leaning toward male, but still there are no definite signs.

In many ways, I'm hoping for a male. I have enough females & so far, like the shape of this one.

This is Mr Potential (from Aug). He's OK but his long neck is bothering me. I'm nervous he's going to end up too lanky.... like the roo from last spring. He's just a little over 3 months, so I guess it's too early to tell.

Definitely at that very awkward stage!

Here he is again with his 2 sisters.

I plan to keep this one:

A big blue orp. There's just something about her that I like. She's massive! I see the white between her toes which makes me think she's from my blue laced project. Breeding her to a SLO could give me some nice blue SLOs.

 

[ColtHandorf]

They look just as gorgeous on snow as they do on green grass. Thankfully we are up in the 50's-50's today. The two night that got down into the twenties had me outside after dark putting those two youngest pullets in the hen house with the rest of the birds to stay warm. Don't ask me how they can all tell the little ones are intruders. They can't be three weeks behind the older group so they are only a tiny bit smaller. But Suede, the Weird Sisters, and the geese just torment them once there is enough daylight to do so. So they were locked up again in the big tractor/prefab coop this morning. I feel terrible for them. Oh well. I'd lock the whites up with them but the little male (I hope) gets a little snarky on occasion. I'll probably just let them stay in there until they have some more size.

I think I lost one of the eggs in the incubator, it seems to have quit. The other one was peeping yesterday but I didn't have a chick or a pip this morning. When I get home from work I may have to do my first real assist to help the little one out. I've no idea what I'm going to do with a single chick.

 

[Faraday40]

They look just as gorgeous on snow as they do on green grass.

Thank you. We'll hopefully get above freezing sometime on Fri. We may even get all the way up to 40'F by the middle of next week. Looking forward to a little melt.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I woke up to a little surprise this morning!

I left the little sprout in the incubator for the day. I didn’t have time to set something up this morning before work. It’s *very* vocal. I’m not sure what I’m the world I’m going to do with one baby chick. I guess I’m going to have to see if I can find a few around. I hate to drive real far, but I’m not sure what else to do with a single. It’ll bond strongly with me and be horrible to integrate. I’m glad the little fart hatched. Legs look yellow at this point and it has the gold down. I do wish I could figure out what’s causing the gold down color. Especially when they feather in Silver.

 

[Faraday40]

I woke up to a little surprise this morning!

View attachment 1959464 View attachment 1959465

I left the little sprout in the incubator for the day. I didn’t have time to set something up this morning before work. It’s *very* vocal. I’m not sure what I’m the world I’m going to do with one baby chick. I guess I’m going to have to see if I can find a few around. I hate to drive real far, but I’m not sure what else to do with a single. It’ll bond strongly with me and be horrible to integrate. I’m glad the little fart hatched. Legs look yellow at this point and it has the gold down. I do wish I could figure out what’s causing the gold down color. Especially when they feather in Silver.

Awwwww! Try putting a small plush toy inside the brooder. Anything to help it snuggle & bond will give you some peace. Are there more eggs in the incubator?

That's Sterling's chick, right?