The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

On the Orp genders that everyone made guesses about..it is pretty clear what I have now.
1 Lavender hen and 3 Lavender roos
1 Isabel Pair
1 Blk Lav Split Roo
1 Choc Cuckoo roo
Booo mostly roos

So sorry about the bad luck with the lavs. I knew you had one female & 2 males, but was really hoping the ? lav would turn out to be a female with a bigger comb. I had plenty like that. In fact, my youngest lav is 4 months & I can only "guess" he's a male. He's maturing very slowly, so I'm nervous he could be another she. I certainly hope not since I put him to bed with the roosters tonight. LOL

BTW- Here's what I mean by our "living Nativity." (Last year's pic) Since baby chicks fit the new Fisher Price toys perfectly, we call them "Little PEEP-le" toys.

Our son always used to gently put chicks in his toy trucks. Later as the birds got older, they would go for wagon & eventually bike rides to the park.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Booo mostly roos

Boo indeed, but I did call that. Lol Sounds like my luck with Lavenders. I got 17 chicks and ended up with 11 cockerels. Sold off three pullets and then had my best and smallest (I wouldn’t sell the little one) die and have one left. I can’t wait to cross a Black English cockerel over her next year to see if I get better looking babies.

I still think Dahlia is my only layer at the moment. Little girls are fitting in a little better with the chickens. I’m still having to put them to bed at night because they pile up on the ground outside the house under their old cage. Silly chickens. The geese still hate them. I’ll be glad to get them all separated out once I can actually get some work done on the barn.

I keep forgetting to call him I’ve had so much stuff going after work in the evenings. I’ll do it tomorrow and hopefully be able to pick them up this weekend.

 

[Faraday40]

Remember how I said I've recently been getting a brown egg a day? Well, I saw the layer in action this morning. Crystal (the laced orp broody who still sleeps with her 4 mo old chicks) was in the nest box. However she wasn't alone. Her female chick was with her. I had opened the coop to return the males to the flock after spending the night in the garage. The little laced cockerel really missed his mama & ran right up to the nest box & jumped inside. Poor Crystal had to lay her egg while in a cramped nest box with 2 overgrown, 4 mo old orp chicks. LOL

I still think I have at least 2 birds responsible for the brown eggs I'm getting. Crystal's eggs are more brown & reg. egg-shaped. The other egg had a pinkish bloom. Possible makers: I have a gold laced orp who hatched in April comb getting darker), a lav orp pullet who hatched in June, or a Speckled Sussex hen who has finished her molt (red combed).

 

[ColtHandorf]

Silly babies for bothering mom while she was busy. I'm just getting one egg every other day from Dahlia. Her eggs are way to round to mistake them for anyone else's. I have seen Hollywood breeding her and I was tempted to set a few just to see if they were fertile, but I don't really want anymore babies to raise outdoors while it's so cold. Neither of the older hens, Mel and Sue, are laying for sure. Mel is done with her molt but hasn't started back up. Sue is still molting. She looks absolutely tiny compared to the other Orpington hens and has a pale face. Victoria is very red in the face but not laying yet. Suede still doesn't seem to have any interest in breeding birds that are the correct age. Occasionally he gives the Weird Sisters a run for their money, but the girls have figured out if they run at the geese, Golly and Georgia get so offended by the disruption they'll turn around to put a stop to it. By then the girls are ten feet away but Suede is just reaching them so he gets a good pinch or a long hiss and aborts the mission. Odette the little white pullet is tiny but feeling better. She'd had a little eye infection for a bit, but it seems to be clearing up. Derek is a goof ball and good looking for his age. I'm anxious to see what he'll look like filled out. The two SLO boys are surprising me. The squatty one I've been calling Sterling Junior is still short, round, terribly marked, but adorably cute. The brother who I was never very fond of is actually getting gorgeous. He's by far the largest of all the youngsters and nearly as big as Sue, the smallest SLO hen. He has definitely got his father's yellow legs as well. But I'm pretty sure he's going to be huge. Mary and Matilda are turning out beautifully. I can not wait to see them in three or four months when they are big and laced out so well. I just love their low-slung fluffy butts. I just wish they'd go to sleep in the chicken house. I have to use a hoe to dig them out from under that cage every night with the geese over my shoulder cheering me on. I think they think I'm 'pinching' them with my hands because the girls scream like I'm killing them. lol I guess that's acceptable because they don't like them.

 

[PlainOrpingtons2018]

You're so fortunate to get 3 girls and a boy! (that what it looks like from the pics anyways lol)
They are a pretty group!

Many say it’s good luck lol, but I think I may have a curse It took me 3 years to successfully hatch a splash cockerel! I don’t keep everything I hatch, but after the 2nd year of having only pullets growing out. I was a bit worried, I didn’t purposely keep pullets lol, I kept the ones I thought looked more like a cockerel. This year I finally hatched and kept a boy for myself. I had to keep back so many chicks though lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

Earlier this year all I could hatch out were little cockerels when all I needed was pullets. I can't imagine why three roosters thought they needed to produce more males.

 

[Faraday40]

Many say it’s good luck lol, but I think I may have a curse It took me 3 years to successfully hatch a splash cockerel! I don’t keep everything I hatch, but after the 2nd year of having only pullets growing out. I was a bit worried, I didn’t purposely keep pullets lol, I kept the ones I thought looked more like a cockerel. This year I finally hatched and kept a boy for myself. I had to keep back so many chicks though lol

I have similar "luck." I tend to hatch out more females. I have no idea why it turns out that way and would gladly share my secret if I knew what it was. Normally it's not a problem but when my only lav orp rooster died 2 years ago, I was scrambling to hatch as many chicks as possible to get a new rooster. (Ended up with 7 lav pullets & only one not so good lav cockerel, named "Dinner". I also happened to hatch 2 black/ lav splits, which ended up being a pair. Thankfully I was able to use that male, named "Mr. Temporary," the following spring.)

Even now: I thought at 1 week old that my serama hatched a pair. They're 5.5 wks old & now both look like females! Seramas usually mature quickly & show gender signs at 3 weeks. The comb of my predicted male has not yet "popped" up.
What genders do you guys think?
female

other chick (has bit of wattle color but no comb yet)

 

[ColtHandorf]

Oh, I know nothing about Seramas, but I would have guessed a pair too. Only because I know the little cockerels develop earlier.

 

[Faraday40]

Oh, I know nothing about Seramas, but I would have guessed a pair too. Only because I know the little cockerels develop earlier.

My predicted "male" looked about the same 2 weeks ago. Those tiny pink wattles usually start showing at only 2-3 weeks old. By 4 weeks there's usually a little comb.

Here's what their daddy looked like at 4 weeks old. (He was easy to identify as male.)

... and by 5 weeks

.... 6 weeks


Can you see why I'm scratching my head wondering if I got it wrong? I'm also wondering if the weather has anything to do with it. My fall orps seem to be lagging developmentally. Why are 4 mo old pullets & cockerels still hanging out with their broody mamas?

 

[Faraday40]

Well I guess the gender of the ? serama no longer matters. She was fine this morning but around 9am I found her laying on her side in the shavings crying. I think the flock pecked & mortally injured her. I separated the chicks & mama.... and then mama continued the beating. I removed mama & the chick died. I tried putting the mama back in with the remaining living chick but mama was beating her up too. Now I have a lonely only chick with a balding head inside the house and no companion for comfort & friendship. Not sure how to integrate this little one. Any suggestions? She's so sweet & gentle.