The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

I see
3 laced
2 black
1 blue
1 white
1 choc orp

Am I correct?
Are the black orps from your blue or lav pens? Or are they from a sex linked project - like choc female & male black orps?

Note: I tried a sexlink orp project one year but my double barred choc cuckoo was too much of a Romeo. He hopped fences and got with all the hens. Almost all my chicks had barring that summer. I also learned that English orps go through a much longer awkward phase. Best to sell them very young or have plenty of beautiful mature adults around to show how they will look. So many customers declined 100% pure English orps - even guaranteed females! Instead fell in love with the few unsexed lav orps I had. For some reason those lavs are what everyone wants. When I scaled back my flock, I decided to get rid of chocolates, barred, and blues (but kept Jewel for my chick variety).

 

[ColtHandorf]

I see
3 laced
2 black
1 blue
1 white
1 choc orp

Am I correct?
Are the black orps from your blue or lav pens? Or are they from a sex linked project - like choc female & male black orps?

That is what I see too.

3 Silver-laced are obviously from the Silver-laced Orpington pen. With Five hens laying now, I'm not sure who the mothers are, but I can pretty much guarantee Victoria, Mel or Sue, and Duchess are the most likely dams. Either Mel or Sue, I'm not sure which lays her egg on the ground inside the barn. She has shunned all nest boxes I've given them. It's a very large egg that usually has some speckling on it. None of those have ever hatched the last couple of times I have set them. I'm not sure if Hollywood isn't covering her, or if it has something to do with the eggs being the dirtiest because she insists on laying them on the wet ground. On that note I did get some lovely old milk crate style nest boxes (along with a fantastic ladder) from a friend that had an old chicken coop on their property that they are going to burn. So we salvaged a few things. Once I get some more hay to stuff them, perhaps one of those will be more acceptable.

The two Black chicks (the biggest one and the chick with the stark white eyebrows) are from Dahlia, the Black Orpington. I'd recognize her egg any day. So Caspian, the extra Silver-laced male is the father (son of Duchess and brother to Victoria).

The Blue chick is also from that pen, which means Agatha is the mother and Caspian the father. I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I'm glad you think Blue also. I didn't label that egg, or if I did when the chick hatched it obliterated that part of the shell. I was undecided for a couple of days, but was leaning towards a dark blue.

The White Orpington came from Derek and Anne. It appears white/silver versus Derek and Oddette when they were younger. Those two that came from the Silver-laced pen last year were a white/yellow-gold down at hatch. None of Odette's eggs developed, but she lays inconsistently and Anne is Derek's preferred hen. If I've forgotten to mention the woman I traded SLO eggs to for the turkey hens and the newest SL hen had chicks hatching. She did end up with Whites out of the SL eggs, so Hollywood must carry recessive white. I'm not sure if it's Mel or Sue (or both of them) that carry it also. I didn't hatch any this go around.

The "Chocolate" is actually from the Silver-laced pen. If you remember last year, the chicks I hatched from them would sometimes throw chicks that looked chocolate or gold-laced. To date all of those chicks, while having down that indicates another pattern/color, have feathered in visually Silver-laced. So I'll keep an eye on this one, but it can't actually be a chocolate, unless the Silver-laced birds are also carrying chocolate. I know it wasn't from Prudence, the Chocolate pullet, as the egg was labeled. And Caspian over Prudence wouldn't throw visual Chocolates.

I did set 22 eggs last night in the new NutureRight 360 I picked up from Tractor Supply Co. yesterday. I also set eggs in the Rcom and the Brinsea Mini Advance Tuesday with 10 and 9 eggs respectively for a grand total of 41 eggs. All of them are from the Silver-laced pen and White pen, bar one egg from the mixed pen. I was an egg shy so the roommate picked one egg at random from the drying rack (I hadn't washed eggs yet) to fill the last hole in the bigger incubator. I'm confident it was Dahlia's egg, so the chick should stand out like a sore thumb when they hatch. I'm hoping to hatch several batches like that to get a good started bunch going to pick new breeders from and to sell the others off to breeders or people with backyard flocks. There has been a huge call for laying hens and eggs since this whole COVID-19 pandemic.

On the 360, @Faraday40, does it turn your eggs really smoothly? My Brinsea and Rcom are very smooth. I only know they are turning when the machine beeps to let you know. I forced the 360 to turn twice last night and was surprised to hear the eggs actually rolling across the plastic grid underneath them. Is that normal? And are you planning on pulling the turning mechanism out at lockdown, or are you going to let them hatch with it in place?

 

[flgardengirl]

Hi all! Its been awhile since I've posted. My Eng Isabel Cuckoo hen started laying and they seem to be fertile. Same with my Lav Eng Orp girl although she is in w the Isabel male right now lol.
What would I get if I crossed the Lav female w the Isabel cuckoo male? I am going to put her in w the Lav Male soon but wondering if I should bother setting the Lav girl's eggs right now? lol..probably a hot mess

 

[Faraday40]

@ColtHandorf
The choc-looking orp is the one which surprises me most. I thought you did have some choc orps on the side. (It's hard to keep track since they're addictive and come in so many pretty varieties!) The brown chick doesn't even resemble a GLO and looks just like a choc.

I know that a blue and a SLO will give blue-looking orps. That's probably what you have with the blue chick. The lacing may look a bit thicker - like this:

Breeding back to a SLO and you could get this:

She's taking the place of Blizzard in my blue SLO project. Stormy has better lacing but the uneven color bugs me. Hope she gives nice chicks.


Awesome (the cockerel) looks fantastic. He does crow sometimes but I haven't seen him mate. The lav cockerel is the opposite. He's been mating everything. Poor Stormy has a bald head & back of neck at the moment. I haven't separated the flock into groups. It's very sweet how the 2 roos often hang out with each other. I carry them to bed in the garage every night. They're used to sleeping together, so when I go out to the coop at night, they're always sleeping side by side.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Is stormy laying now?
I think you need to go ahead and borrow Taji for a few weeks and get some silver laced chicks going. There's no reason to wait a whole year until Awesome is ready. I can bring him up. You know I don't mind.

 

[Faraday40]

Hi all! Its been awhile since I've posted. My Eng Isabel Cuckoo hen started laying and they seem to be fertile. Same with my Lav Eng Orp girl although she is in w the Isabel male right now lol.
What would I get if I crossed the Lav female w the Isabel cuckoo male? I am going to put her in w the Lav Male soon but wondering if I should bother setting the Lav girl's eggs right now? lol..probably a hot mess

Congrats on the new layer! Do you have a recent pic of that beautiful hen?

You have some nice Isabels so I'd try to hatch those out. Not sure what you'd get from breeding the lav. Worst case could be a lav with random gold leakage. Any hen will lay eggs and a rooster of any color will taste good.

I currently have an 'ugly' chick which was an experiment. I'm growing it out because of my curiosity. Often those odd-looking chicks can become beautiful. I'll post another pic soon.

 

[flgardengirl]

Here are the two Lovebirds today..the sun was pretty bright. Their colors are better in shade. Its been raining down hard for days so they were happy to get outside and play in the mud this afternoon lol. I will get some better photos tomorrow. I think the hen actually has some poop or something on her wing.

The Isabel Cuckoo roo. I just love him

 

[Faraday40]

Is stormy laying now?
I think you need to go ahead and borrow Taji for a few weeks and get some silver laced chicks going. There's no reason to wait a whole year until Awesome is ready. I can bring him up. You know I don't mind.

Yes. All the laced orps are laying. My flock is still cooped up due to hawks. I could start putting the laced into a tractor, but with the mud, I've been trying to stay off the grass. Awesome could be mating but I haven't seen it (only a bit of chasing & give up) ..... so I haven't bothered separating them.

I have to say that I'm very happy about how well my cockerels get along. I would think they'd spar once in a while (especially being cooped up) but haven't had any issues. Seeing them sleep together by own choice is also sweet.

I'll think about borrowing Taj. We'll see how my May 1st hatch goes.

I may have someone interested in buying a few Spitzes at the end of the month. I'll let you know if it works out. They'd be driving down from northern Wisconsin to buy some orps, so I went ahead and mentioned your Spitzes. A different customer wants to get into seramas. I put some eggs in the incubator for him, but not many since most of mine are broody! If I don't hatch enough or sell out like last time, we may have to get together to decrease your brooder number. I have 8 interested families on a waitlist, and today a possible 9th from WI. I have a feeling I'll be sold out before posting a public ad. It's a good problem for me, but I hate turning people away.

 

[Faraday40]

Here are the two Lovebirds today..the sun was pretty bright. Their colors are better in shade. Its been raining down hard for days so they were happy to get outside and play in the mud this afternoon lol. I will get some better photos tomorrow. I think the hen actually has some poop or something on her wing. View attachment 2093384

The Isabel Cuckoo roo. I just love him
View attachment 2093387

(the chickens - not the mud & poop LOL)

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Here are the two Lovebirds today..the sun was pretty bright. Their colors are better in shade. Its been raining down hard for days so they were happy to get outside and play in the mud this afternoon lol. I will get some better photos tomorrow. I think the hen actually has some poop or something on her wing

Wow, they are gorgeous!

I may have someone interested in buying a few Spitzes at the end of the month. I'll let you know if it works out

I've got 16 rambunctious spitzies running amok in the brooder. There only 5 days old and are already stinking up my laundry room! Ive got a few favorites already. I know.....i need to take pictures. With working and then homeschooling after work, and then caring for chickens ....well.....EVERYWHERE, pictures of 16 babies running around has seemed daunting. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday.

I really wish it would warm up and stay up. I want to go ahead and put these 3 orp babies out so i can put the spitzies in their brooder. But they arent quite feathered in yet. They still look....scraggly. Better yet, I'd love to move hot mess Phoenix back to the serama coop. That would open a bigger brooder too.