The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[ColtHandorf]

Five chicks total this morning. Two Silver-laced, one chick from Dahlia x Caspian that appears to be black. It's all black with a little yellow/white chin. I imagine it will have some leakage when it is older. The white egg hatched a white chick. And that was from Anne's egg. So even with the blue legs, she still threw white chicks. I've got some more pips this morning so we'll see what else happens.

 

[Honora]

So exciting to hear about everyone's chicks! I have found a home for my bantam leghorns and sebrights, a person who doesn't mind that they are probably mycoplasma carriers, and who doesn't plan on getting any more chickens. So I am happy that they won't be getting the chop.
My poor coughing rooster is going to freezer camp tomorrow, and most likely my last 2 black orp hens also. And I have hatching eggs arriving next week, so I am looking forward to rebuilding my flock. A lot of people are not shipping eggs right now, but I have ordered some buff orps, along with some bantam Wyandottes (for broodies) and Swedish flower hens (for white eggs). I am hoping I get some nice laid back Orpingtons and some good broodies. Good luck with everyone's hatches!

 

[Faraday40]

@ColtHandorf
Congrats on the chicks so far. I bet you're very happy to be home to enjoy the hatch.


I have some weird developments with my 4.5 wk old chick. (The one I predicted as male.)
Here "He" was as a younger chick. Looked sort of mauve, then more lav, and now light blue.


Now:
Concern #1 - still looks pullet-like..... except it's big & meaty.
This is Jewel's great grand-chick and I thought Jewel was male until age 8 weeks.

Mr Wonderful's genetics are in there as well a potential mix of lavender, black, blue, chocolate, and recessive white. This chick is an experiment.

Concern #2
So here's what's now developing - gold leakage. It probably came from Mr Wonderful because he had a grand daughter (Glow) with the same shade of gold...... Look by the hackles.

... and here a close up. If it weren't for that small comb & colorless wattles, I'd swear this is a male.

If you remember me posting pics of Glow all last year, she was an ugly chick & pullet but filled out to be a beautiful hen. I won't be keeping this "guy" around for breeding, but my curiosity says to wait and see how he turns out and keep him for the summer.

Glow

 

[homeschoolin momma]

... and here a close up. If it weren't for that small comb & colorless wattles, I'd swear this is a male.

I think this might go like Jewel and you're not going to know for sure until later. I think it's female, but agree that those legs are huge. But since we know that Jewels genetics are there, and this chicks mom was also huge, this one is probably going the same way. When you posted the pictures the other day, I was also wondering about it being a light blue....kinda like the one from me that we sent to freezer camp last fall. But yours sure did look lavender earlier. Now about that gold leakage.....

 

[Faraday40]

This chicks' genetics remind me of when kids play mad scientist.
..... Just mix all kinds of stuff together and see what you get. That's basically what I did

Maybe it's a blue gold laced orp (with partial lacing like Glow)..... or the start of an Isabel orp..... or just an ugly chick. Who knows!?

He'll taste good no matter the color OR She'll make some one a nice pet.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

He'll taste good no matter the color

yup!

 

[ColtHandorf]

Well I ended up with eight out of eleven eggs hatching. All eleven were fertile, but three of them didn't hatch. There's one White, three that hatched from the pen with Caspian, two are definitely Dahlia's, and one looks to be Agatha's. It looks like a dark blue and even being on top of what chicks were coming out of what egg, there wasn't enough important eggshell left from that one for me to see what I wrote on there. The other four should be Silver-laced. Three are the traditional coloring and one is a lovely chocolate-gold. I'll have to keep an eye on it to be sure. It hatched from what I assume was a last minute egg I crammed in there because it wasn't labeled.

I'm going to clean them up and set again this evening after work. It's 39 degrees here this morning, which is absurd. The goslings are running amok in the yard with their parents. They can still pop in and out of the welded wire and chain-link fences, which is super annoying. I have to check the little yard every time I take the dogs out to make sure they aren't on that side of the fence. Anna would have a field-day with them.

I also moved Suede into the yard yesterday evening. Amanda came running out of her room saying Golly was trying to kill the rooster. I assumed she meant Sterling II because he's still sharing the yard, but they've not had any problems since the nest floating incident. I threw on mud boots and came out to see Golly had completely knocked the wire pen over and actually had his head stuck in the wire. I just snatched him out and tossed him across the yard. Suede was unharmed, other than a few tail feathers. So I moved his whole set up into the little yard, much to Anna's delight. She can now pester him when they go out to potty; although her heart is not really in it. He just stares at her and ignores her. That's not much fun. I really don't know what I'm going to do with him. Because he's still eating and drinking I don't have the heart to put him down, but I can't imagine it's much of a life to live in a tiny pen, flopping/flapping to get around. He still won't put any weight on his legs...

 

[Faraday40]

@ColtHandorf
Please post some pics of your new chicks.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I'll get some after I'm done eating lunch.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Some horrible pictures. My allergies have been driving me nuts.