The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

Sure, here it is.
View attachment 2247573
It looks like a lavender with a bad case of red head.

At least I THOUGHT it came from Lacey (partual slo). And even though i have 2 roos, my lav is absolutely pathetic and clueless on mating. A year old and all he really does is just stand on the girls he catches. Shakes his butt a little. Sometimes just straddles them and shakes his butt. Its embarrassing. Taj is fine though. I would assume that he's the father of them all.....I think I need a new lav rooster.

Looks like a GLO but it could also be like one of those GLO chicks that grows into a SLO.

 

[Faraday40]

DS's hen has 4 chicks this morning. All have hatched. 1 white serama, 2 SLOs, and one white that should be an SLO. Since my blue SLO came from Jewel's lineage, I guess she carries the recessive white gene like Jewel. Such a surprise. I thought I was not going to see any more resessives white when I got rid of former rooster. I can confirm that Mr Wonderful carried some type of white gene because he had to have passed it on to his son, Awesome.

 

[ColtHandorf]

My dear hen Smudge is still hanging on.

That's really good.

I'm still worried about my lav rooster, Mr Potential. He's still sweet and runs up to greet me, but he feels so thin. I see him eat and he's acting alert. The biggest concern is that i'm no longer getting fertile eggs from his hens. I noticed this morning when he 1st went out, that he didn't chase and harass the hens. Instead he went to the food. I don't bother with food in the roosters' sleeping cage since chickens don't eat at night. I know the boys are pretty hungry by 8am, but normally mating hens will trump food anytime. LOL I do have 3 turkeys this summer. 1 or 2 of them are male. Could their presence have something to do with Mr Potential's decline?

Hmmm, that is worrisome. I'm not sure I'd no what to do other than keep an eye on him. Are the turkeys bullying him? Derek, my White Orpington, isn't phased by the turkeys at all. But none of the chickens in that pen really are. They bully other birds through the fence, but I don't let them mingle together. I'd probably weigh yourself and then weigh yourself holding him and keep an eye on his weight if you don't have a good way for weighing just him.

I have 6 SLO eggs in the incubator. Two more hens are broody. (Cookie & Trouble) Need to decide if I should split the eggs between them and turn the incubator off..... or give all 6 to Cookie and start new ones for Trouble.

Well obviously the answer is to fill the incubator up and let both broody hens have clutches.

It looks like a lavender with a bad case of red head.

Sort of. I feel like I've seen that particular color before. Or something kind of close to it. Is there a chance the hen could have been bred by anything other than one of the two Orpington roosters? I feel like the cross I saw colored similarly was a Blue Orpington x Exhibition Rhode Island Red.

my lav is absolutely pathetic and clueless on mating. A year old and all he really does is just stand on the girls he catches. Shakes his butt a little. Sometimes just straddles them and shakes his butt. Its embarrassing.

I know all about embarrassing breeding...lol I'm still not sure how any of the turkey eggs are fertile. The tom is really bad at it, plus 95% of the time he's not interested. I was watching the other day and the smaller of the two hens would literally run to get in front of him, throw herself down, and wait. He'd walk around her and she'd get up and do it all over again. I think if I end up with two good looking younger males I may send him off to be someone else's problem...or dinner.

Looks like a GLO but it could also be like one of those GLO chicks that grows into a SLO.

Kind of? But mine are always much darker than that. Maybe a Blue or Splash Gold-laced?

*****

I caught one of the younger Blue Orpington cockerels breeding yesterday. I thought I'd have another four-six months before they had any interest in the ladies. It looks like I'll be building more pens and moving more birds before too long.

I still haven't managed to catch any of the possums. They are all enjoying the cat food I've been putting out for them though. For the moment they have't bothered any of the birds. I was actually watching the smaller one and the juvenile White Orpingtons eating together out of the feeder the other night. I'm hoping that I can figure out a way to at least lock the barn down completely this weekend. It's just been so hot I don't want to get out there and mess around with it.

I've desperately been trying to find a decent used cabinet incubator. I think I'm going to end up just saving up and buying a new Sportsman.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Is there a chance the hen could have been bred by anything other than one of the two Orpington roosters

Nope. Slo roo and the pathetic lav roo. Jake and Jack the Spitz roos know better than to fence hop. (And it doesnt even look like a spitz mix)

 

[ColtHandorf]

Nope. Slo roo and the pathetic lav roo. Jake and Jack the Spitz roos know better than to fence hop. (And it doesnt even look like a spitz mix)

Hmm, I'll be interested to see how it feathers out as it gets older. It's a cute little thing.

 

[Faraday40]

I'm being overrun by broody hens here!

My silkie hatched some orps and seramas.
The 3 chicks in center are seramas.
The 2 light seramas are brothers to the ones @homeschoolin momma has. (Hatched 6-19)
My silkie also adopted the 10 wk old tan silkied pullet to right.(Hatched 5-13)

Then (on July 4th) Sesame hatched 2 Modern Game (black & blue) and 2 unauthorized serama eggs were added by the other hens.

I get a kick out of the white one who now has dark gray wings. My guess is she's a female & the golden one a male. Only 2.5 weeks, so I hope to find out if I'm right soon.

Then Coge went broody with Sesame, so we gave her some orpington eggs. The hens also slipped a serama egg under her. I'm a sucker & if I see development, I don't have the heart to toss it. I'm normally pretty good about emptying the nest daily, but we had a few crazy days & those sneaky hens did it to me again.

We already sold 3 of the orps, so Coge only has one silver laced orp & one serama now. The serama's so tiny! They are 5 days old. (hatched 7-17)

Here's my big mama Jewel & my 1st silver laced orps of 2020. (hatched 7-6)

Of course Cookie is broody again and sitting on eggs. When will it ever end!?
Here are what's left of Cookie's big May 1st hatch (1 doz turkeys and 2.5 doz chicks). I kept one lav orp and 3 poults. It's funny how they still stay together.

Here's the orp at about 12 weeks. At 3-4 weeks I thought male because of those big wattles..... but its biological mom is Jewel who also had big wattles as a chick. By 6-8 weeks, no comb & wattles stayed the same, so I figured a pullet. Now at about 12 weeks, I see a little pink in comb and growing wattles. No pointed hackle/saddle feathers.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Thankfully all of mine have decided it is too hot to be a mother. Even one of the two broodies that had chicks earlier has decided she's over it. And of course the babies are completely wild. They have been on the ground since they hatched and when I shuffled them out to the barn during the Great Bird Move a few weeks ago, they've been racing around chasing bugs and stuff far and wide without their mothers. Thankfully all of them are mixed "non-standard" colors bar the one Silver-laced so hopefully they will get to go live somewhere that they'll get to do a lot of free-ranging. I can't wait for them to get big enough to not slip through the wire.

I've had a couple of Silver-laced chicks hatching yesterday/tonight who are a day early. I'm unsure on several of the eggs that are in the incubator, but some I do know are fertile and looked good up until a week ago. After this set I think I'll just thoroughly clean and disinfect the incubator and do a large guinea hatch. I may not set any more Orpingtons until the fall when it has cooled off some. I will still keep setting bantam eggs for Amanda so that by the spring she'll have more than a few pairs in the Spring.

The plan in the fall is to get some more pens built to get everyone on the ground and safe, but it is much too hot for pen building right now.

I did catch the little possum the other night. We actually just sat the trap in front of it and walked it in there and dropped the door. Apparently he's been going in and out of the trap for a week or so enjoying all the cat food. We drove him about twenty minutes away to a little dirt road with lots of woods and a few water sources and released him. I haven't seen the larger one in nearly two weeks. I'm hoping she's moved on.

The Lavender Silver-laced Orpingtons are still absolutely wretched looking. I'm also down to two out of the nine. One of them looks great and is huge to have no feathers. The other one is smaller and acts "puny" from time to time. Like when it's resting I expect to see it drop dead, but when it's actively running around, eating, drinking, etc. it looks entirely normal. I'd bet money on both of them being cockerels. If that is the case I will just order directly from the breeder this fall when it cools down some. I'm not sure what happened other than them being massively over-heated and picking while they were at my friend's house.

 

[Faraday40]

@ColtHandorf
So sorry about those laced lavs. That's so harsh!

BTW- what is your gender prediction of the lav orp I posted?

 

[ColtHandorf]

So sorry about those laced lavs. That's so harsh!

I know, I'm so bummed out about them. The two are looking better and better, minus being completely bald. lol I'm really hoping that it is a pair. One is much larger and is showing a decent comb for a bird that age. The smaller one is definitely smaller, but it has a comb that worries me. I've not raised them so you know different bloodlines can be different. I'll try to post some pictures in a week or two if they get some feathers.

BTW- what is your gender prediction of the lav orp I posted?

I'd have to lean towards cockerel? But I wouldn't say that I'm more than like 60% sure... When you pick it up does it sound more masculine or feminine?

 

[Chick_Maelle]

Hi! I would like to share some of my buff and lavender Orpingtons of various ages!