The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Lots A Cluckin]

Hi there! I am fairly new to breeding chickens for high quality results. I searched high and low for the best start I could. I purchased a trio of 100% English Orpingtons, one black roo, one black hen and one blue hen. They are large! And so beautiful! I hatched out 35 chicks a few weeks ago (like 3 almost 4 weeks). I can not keep that many though. I want to sell some but am not sure how to decide which ones to keep and which ones to sell. I keep reading to keep ones with good shape but I don't know what shape that is! I can not find picture of perfectly shaped chicks. I know there are some I can part with right off because of simple reasons... A few have a white feather or two growing in. A few have yellow beaks when they are supposed to be black and a few have partially yellow feet which are also supposed to be black. Any advice? I am going crazy standing here staring at these chicks!

Oh and one more question. If a chicken breed is supposed to have a black beak and not having a black break is a disqualification then does every inch of the beak have to be solid black? I have some that are black but have just a speck of yellow (or natural color). Would those be DQ because the ENTIRE beak is not black? Or do they only worry about the primary color?

Hi! In order to find the ones with the best type you need to grow them up to at least 6 months and that is the very very least I would say you would be more accurate on which is the best if you could grow them to 8-10 months but still even then they would not be at their full grown stage. I read this somwhere, and someone correct me if I am worng but Orps are not full grown until around 18 months. Now that said you can cull the worst looking ones before that age because some orps just never improve much past 6 months they'll get bigger but that is about it.
If you absolutely can not keep that many chicks until they are 3-4 months when you can semi tell if they have good type or not, I would go ahead and cull some chicks down to what ever
number you can manage to raise to at least 6 months. I would keep the biggest chicks but be sure the legs arent extremly long you want to stay proportionate with body size and leg length.
you may want to wheigh them if you have a small food scale that would work perfectly.

now I am not sure about any other of the Orpington colors, I only raise BBS and Lavender, but just because a chick as a white feather or two in it's flight feathers does not disqualify it, just think of those as it's baby feathers. They will not have those when they get bigger they loose them at 12 weeks old I think it is. Now with the yellow feet...is it just there toes or is it there whole foot and leg? if it is just the toes I believe that is pretty normal and again is just baby skin and they will grow out of it. Now I am not sure about the beak I have had chicks with yellow on their beaks that grew out of it and now have no yellow at all, one the other hand I have also had chicks with completely yellow beaks and never fully grew out of it and still have a yellow tip and their beak
(I cull those) I am not sure if a few specks would be a DQ or not...but if you are talking about your chicks having a few specks they will grow out of it...chicks grow out of alot of things that does not pass on to adult-hood. Just because a chick as certein color eyes, beak, feet, feathers, does not automatically DQ them, If they get to about 6 months and still have discolored eyes, feet, beak, or feathers, I would definitely cull them BTW, to cull does not necessarily mean to kill them, I don't kill any of my chicks or adults unless they are injured or sick. I simply sell them on local websites like craigslist or something similar.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Hello
I am looking for a partridge orpington rooster. Does anyone on this thread know if anyone is selling one? Thanks

 

[curranchickens]

Thank you so much Lots a Cluckin! I feel so much better now. As far as the feet, it is only the toes that are yellowish (on some). I still don't understand exactly what is meant my "good type". When they do grow out to 6 to 10 months, how can I tell what "good type" is?

 

[curranchickens]

Oh and by the way... Cull does not mean kill to me! I have only killed two chickens. One was a baby chick that hatched horribly deformed and could not walk or eat. I could not do it so my husband took scissors to his neck to put him out of his misery while I cried in the next room. The second was a rooster that was fully grown and mean and nasty! He attacked us everytime we came out of our house. He drew blood one to many times so I took him to a neighbor that raises meat birds... He killed him right in front of me and it was HORRIBLE! I cried all the way home and could not sleep for three nights straight because of the guilt and reliving the killing! I sell sell sell or I would give away but can not kill.

 

[thedragonlady]

Thank you so much Lots a Cluckin! I feel so much better now. As far as the feet, it is only the toes that are yellowish (on some). I still don't understand exactly what is meant my "good type". When they do grow out to 6 to 10 months, how can I tell what "good type" is?

If you are serious about breeding good birds you need to buy a Standard of Perfection from APA. This book is the Bible of poultry raising and showing. Also look at the photos of good birds on this thread, and the Post Photos Of Orpingtons Here thread. You will learn a lot,

 

[Lots A Cluckin]

Thank you so much Lots a Cluckin! I feel so much better now. As far as the feet, it is only the toes that are yellowish (on some). I still don't understand exactly what is meant my "good type". When they do grow out to 6 to 10 months, how can I tell what "good type" is?

I would recomend searching "English Orpington" on google and look for images....find a bird you would like to see your birds look like and work towards that keep any that resemble what you are looking for in orpingtons. read the SOP http://www.unitedorpingtonclub.com/
I would also recomend reading this page http://www.unitedorpingtonclub.com/breedingexhibitiontips.htm I personally do not like the super round basketball shape of some of the english type birds if I liked that I would have gotten cochins...but i also do not like the straight back and very little fluff on American type orpingtons...I like a mix of both types....here are a few pics of my birds and the type I really like...these are full Imported English Orps

Mother


Father


Son


Daughter


Daughter


daughter


As you can see they are very big and fluffy but not super round basketball like. The best advise I can give you or anyone is find a shape you like best for your orpingtons and work towards that wheather it be super round and fluffy, tigher feathers and straighter back, or a combination of any of those attributes. If you don't like what you are breeding towards it makes it less fun for you, and isn't that the reason we all even started this adventure is to have fun? It is all up to you what a "good type" is...yes there is a Standard of Perfection but it does not give you an exact angle of the tail or width of the chest, or length of the skirt etc. Just read the standard then find some pictures and find the type you like best. A very wide range of shapes meet the orpington standard. it is up to you what you want your birds to look like.

 

[Renie'sPeeps]

Hello
I am looking for a partridge orpington rooster. Does anyone on this thread know if anyone is selling one? Thanks

Richard Jordan has one.

 

[Kiniska]

Hey guys, I just wanted to correct a mistake I made earlier. I quoted Renie as saying EOs are fully mature at 16 months. She actually told me 18 months. Sorry about that.

 

[curranchickens]

Thanks for all the great information! I have the standards for this breed. I did not think I needed the whole book... at least not yet... lol. Anyway, here are a few pics of my chickens. They are very camera shy so the pictures are not good. They always seem to have their heads down when I try to snap some pictures. The one of Titan (my roo) is alittle deceiving. He is actually taller but in this picture he is kinda crunched down. The next picture is of my pair of girls. They look alittle butterbally looking in the pictures because they have a huge behind but when standing up they do have a back... what is everyone's thoughts of their shape (at least from what you can see in the pictures)? Thanks for all the feedback!

My roo Titan


My girls (Lucy and Ethel)

 

[Kiniska]

Love the lacing on your blue hen. Very pretty.