The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Heartful]

So, this is my first English Orpington, so I'm new to them. I've been told they are slow to mature, but this chick is 7 weeks old!! It is just starting to feather out. All of its brooder mates are fully feathered and off heat (they were not orps). Is this normal? Every picture I've seen of English Orpingtons at this age are fully feathered. What is going on here?!

Probably a cockerel...not uncommon from what I understand...I have one that is also very slow to feather out!

 

[robgray]

Try soaking him in warm water while you try to pull the poop off (WITH GLOVES) then clip for better fertility! I have a huge blue hen and she is so fluffy! I put 3 of her eggs in and none hatched

Thank you i will try that... He is not going to like it, thats for sure!

 

[McCoyPoultry]

Thank you i will try that... He is not going to like it, thats for sure!

Lol

 

[OnlyOrps]

Can anyone pop over to my thread and help me determine the gender of my partridge chicks?https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/952158/my-new-chicks-and-new-property-thread/60#post_15218371

 

[rockinpaints]

I had 12 roos I needed to get out of my pen. I decided to fence off an area at the end of our orchard so I could find them homes. I made a little shelter and put my mobile electric chicken fence up. Day 1-fine. Day 2 I return to find 6 gone? Day three I return to find not 1, not 2, but 3 hawks feasting on the remaining birds. 12 birds gone in 2 days. Those hawks are huge. I now run the fence in 8' wide runs that allow me to put bird netting across the top.

Also had one come down and take one from another yard. I put an expanse of 8' wide net across a 18' foot expanse down the middle and that did the trick. Just a few t posts and zip ties. They like wide open spaces for landing so disturbing that space and creating very narrow landing pockets seems to have worked.

Sorry for your loss
To keep the hawks out of the chicken yards my great grandfather use to run a thin close line rope zig-zaged across the top of the fences from one side to the other, spacing can be pretty wide. Very inexpensive, easy to get and it works well. We have a lot of hawks that will pick an unprotected chicken off pretty quickly, now they just sit in the trees and think about it

. They need a quick swooping access in and an easy access out. Fortunately they can't figure it out with the line zig-zaged across the top of the pens.

I guess I should knock on wood but we haven't had a hawk attack in years since we started using this method.

 

[rockinpaints]

OK a ps from the above post, don't put your $1000 orpington pairs out in this type of setup till you know it will work with your hawks, yours could be smarter than mine

 

[greenbeetle]

Sorry for your loss
To keep the hawks out of the chicken yards my great grandfather use to run a thin close line rope zig-zaged across the top of the fences from one side to the other, spacing can be pretty wide. Very inexpensive, easy to get and it works well. We have a lot of hawks that will pick an unprotected chicken off pretty quickly, now they just sit in the trees and think about it

. They need a quick swooping access in and an easy access out. Fortunately they can't figure it out with the line zig-zaged across the top of the pens.

I guess I should knock on wood but we haven't had a hawk attack in years since we started using this method.

I run fshing line across the tops of my pens and have had great luck.

 

[McCoyPoultry]

I run fshing line across the tops of my pens and have had great luck.

Same!!!!!!!!!

 

[rockinpaints]

I run fshing line across the tops of my pens and have had great luck.

Yes, that works too

 

[Cearbhael]

Yes, that works too

Well, I will have to try that. Hope it works on Bald Eagles too. We seem to have tons of them! Spreading out from the Mississippi which is only 14 miles away! They are discovering farmland MN is full of yummy rabbits, pheasant, chickens, turkeys (wild and domestic) ducks, and lots of lakes in the state of 10,000 lakes (census actually came up with over 100,000 lakes but who's counting) fact is there will always be a couple of lakes or streams within any Eagles territory.