The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[ColtHandorf]

but somehow one moved and brought an egg with her????

Ask me how Duchess went from 14 eggs to five chicks (one dead) so four total and only two eggs left in the nest box. She was inside a closed room. The eggs are nowhere to be found. I know that I cannot wait to get her out on the ground with them. So I completely understand broody magic...

I put her outside & she quickly went right back to HER former nest box in the coop. Oh well. I'll let her stay there & gave her some orp eggs.

Aww! I wish I lived in a climate where I could do that. The snakes would get the eggs and the chicks though I'm afraid. Although since I brought the guineas home I haven't seen one snake in the barn. There was a small rat snake in the yard near the Seramas las week. There's no way it could have gotten in the cages with them, but Amanda was outside and demanded that he be dispatched of quickly. The next day she called me from the back porch in an absolute panic. She said their was a poisonous snake in the back yard and I needed to come right away. I asked her how she knew it was venomous and she said it had Hershey Kiss patterns down it. I knew it was a Copperhead without even looking. I had to put on mud boots, run out to the barn and get the hoe, go through the goose pen, and through the yard to get to it. Thankfully it didn't bite the dogs that discovered it. I obliterated it with one swing of the hoe. It was in four pieces with the head neatly taken off the body. I was quite impressed. After I got it into a feed sack and started burning it the adrenaline must have worn off because Amanda cried and then may have gotten sick to her stomach afterward.

So moral of the story, no broodies not behind hardware cloth for me. I desperately need some more places to put babies and grow-outs. The oldest batch of Orpingtons keep picking at each other. None of them have any tails. I noticed yesterday they'd picked the White pullet until she was bleeding. I didn't have a thing to put on her and no where to move her to. I'm tempted to oust the rest of Amanda's bantams into cages and just put all the Orpingtons into the dog run together until I can make some more room.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Well I didn't get a thing done yesterday. It was absolutely miserable outside, downright hateful it was so hot. I'll have to get out there after work today and sweat my rear off watering and feeding everyone.

I just realized I did a dumb thing and mixed three sets of chicks. I banded the Blues and Mottled Blue Orpington so I wouldn't mix them into my project Blue Silver-laced girls by mistake. I didn't band the Chocolates though and now they are all mixed into a bunch of black, "nonstandard" Orpington colors. Boo! I hope when they feather in it will be more obvious who is who. The older pullet is so dark she's nearly black.

I've got turkeys hatching today. I candled all the incubators. Amanda got to keep 5 Serama eggs, I think I tossed like eight Orpington eggs that weren't fertile. Looks like all the guinea eggs were developing, and possibly the turkey eggs. I'm going to give the LG another day or two before I start tossing eggs and moving them. I didn't see much promise. There were a lot of blood rings. A few might have been fertile.

 

[Faraday40]

DS chilling out on a hot day with Mr Potential.

 

[Faraday40]

My silkie's a mama AGAIN.
7 lav and 2 blue orps.... plus 5 seramas and 3 quail for good luck.
Xansie will mother them all!

Melting chickens.....

More Mr Potential

 

[ColtHandorf]

He is a good looking bird! I really like his shape. I'm super weird/picky about combs and always try to select for five points on a male. If they are really spectacular and have six, so be it. But personally, I like five more. lol

Both Prudence and Duchess ended up with four chick each. I confiscated two SLO and one White from Prudence because they just weren't keeping up with the "non-standard" colors. Duchess has one little SLO that seems to be doing quite well with her little batch of mixed babies. Babies in the trough are quickly outgrowing it. Babies outside need to go on the ground. Bigger babies aren't really babies anymore. They also have no tails as they have all plucked them out. I did grab a picture of the first blue pullet that was fathered by Caspian (SLO) over the Blue Orp. You'll have to tell me what you think about her feather pattern @Faraday40. I don't think it's true lacing, but I am very interested in seeing what her chicks will look like when she's bred back to a SLO male.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Baby Serama:

Duchess and babies:

Silver-laced Orpington x Blue Orpington pullet:

Baby Serama:

 

[Faraday40]

He is a good looking bird! I really like his shape. I'm super weird/picky about combs and always try to select for five points on a male. If they are really spectacular and have six, so be it. But personally, I like five more. lol

I also prefer 5. Mr Nice Guy had an awesome face with 5 point comb- but too much tail and a bit thin. Mr Potential has the shape, so hopefully one if his offspring will inherit his shape and a good comb from the mama.

 

[Faraday40]

Silver-laced Orpington x Blue Orpington pullet:

Yes. That's what mine looked like. (a blue with slightly thicker edges)
I'd definitely breed her to a very nice SLO and see what you get.

Mine was given to a friend after breeding and I kept the best blue SLO pullet (named Stormy). Losing Mr Wonderful really set me back, but I may have just turned the corner. I 'might' have some developing SLO eggs in the incubator. My SLOs are starting to lay again and I'm saving the eggs up.

My blue SLO is still a work in progress. "Stormy" is fully laced , but her blue color is not uniform Early on I thought she had black lacing, but her butt fluff looked blue. Over time, she lightened up a little but some lacing on the wings and her head still look darker. My hope is to get some nicer looking blue SLOs from her. If not, I have Blizzard nearby with @homeschoolin momma.

The problem with Blizzard is that some of her babies had nice lacing and some were only partially laced and some would look too thick (double laced?) by the tail or back. It's hard to tell as a chick which ones would develop the better lacing. I always ended up selling the day old chicks who grew up to be gorgeous and kept the ones that ended up being only partially laced or thicker laced.


Here's what I mean by thicker lacing:
Is there a term for this?
It's still pretty but not what I wanted.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Is there a term for this?

I call it smudgy.
And Bliz is doing just fine and still laying.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Yes. That's what mine looked like. (a blue with slightly thicker edges)
I'd definitely breed her to a very nice SLO and see what you get.

That's the plan. I'm going to cross her back to Hollywood to see what I get. I'm hoping I have another couple or three blue pullets, but that cross seems to throw a lot of black cockerels. I think I've only hatched three blues out of all the eggs...

I 'might' have some developing SLO eggs in the incubator. My SLOs are starting to lay again and I'm saving the eggs up.

That is good news! I was a bit worried about mine, but I sold a dozen eggs to someone and she's got nine developing. So I'm pleased.

Here's what I mean by thicker lacing:
Is there a term for this?

I've always thought it was mossy, but maybe that's where you get that pencilling effect, or double lacing, instead of just the nice laced pattern?

Mossy - indistinct, irregular, or messy-looking markings that break up or destroy the intended color pattern on feathers

I call it smudgy.

I've called it this also.