Well I got four new Silver-laced Orpingtons from three different bloodlines. I've been following a breeder in Diana, TX that was selling two year-old trios several months back for $90. I missed out on the trios, so I was on a waiting list for chicks. They had a couple of freak accidents, (best hen choking on a mouse she caught, etc.) and decided to sell their four remaining birds, two roosters and two hens. They have good lacing and are a great size, plus the correct skin/leg/beak color. It was nearly a four hour drive altogether to go get them, but I'm already loving them. Well I love them when the roosters aren't making me crazy.
When we got home with them it was super late, so I just tucked all of them up onto the roost. So Sterling, my original rooster, the two new roosters, one five month old pullet (the only surviving bird from the trip to Burleson) and the two new hens. Duchess is currently back in the bird room in a kennel as Sterling managed to slice her open three different times because he gets his feet under the saddle when he breeds her. *deep sigh* I woke up to the roommate who's bedroom is closer to the chicken pen saying there was a lot of commotion. I'd literally dreamed about them killing each other all night so I jumped up and ran out there. Sterling was in one corner pouting with a little blood on his face and the other two who were previously housed together were going at it. I separated everyone and through down some hen scratch. That distracted them for about ten minutes and then they went at it again, while in the background Sterling kept making this horrible dying dinosaur noise. I'd had enough and used some scrap fencing to pen the two new boys beside each other in the main pen but apart from one another with food and water and left Sterling to mingle with the girls. I decided while everything was chaos to bring out the five largest chicks and put them out with the big birds. I got two more chicks (two and three weeks old) with the four breeders and they were much too small to be housed with chicks as old as my first set.
Everything was great all day, the two new boys hackled through the fence a bit but that was all. Fast forward to bedtime when I went out to check on everyone and not one, but both of the new roosters had managed to jail break and were rolling around in a very half-hearted tussle in the doorway to the chicken house while all the girls and Sterling looked on. I just scooped them up and put them on the roost. The chicks of course decided sleeping in the tall grass was what all the cool kids do, so I set them up next to their dad on the roost where they stayed all night.
Next morning everyone is getting along, no rooster drama, the chicks are following Sterling and the pullet (who I may name Elizabeth after the Queen?) and the two new hens both laid. Forty-five minutes later there's a colossal thumping from the hen house and I go out there to find Sterling has made a bid for a reclaimed the throne in an unexpected turn of events. He'd thrashed the rooster yesterday that was the problem child and was proceeding to flog the other new one who was trying to hide behind the feeder. I snatched Sterling and tossed him out of the house and gave his butt a soft boot for good measure. I scooped up the very offended new rooster and set him up on the roost. I hadn't let the geese out for the day and decided I'd let the Orpingtons have the yard to free-range so I opened them up onto the yard and shooed Sterling and the ladies out. They all spread out and left each other alone. The hens take turns with the different roosters, but seem to prefer Sterling. The chicks never leave their father's side.
Bedtime was interesting. Sterling and the pullet slept at the foot of the ladder, the chicks piled against the fence, and all the new birds were on the roost. I smooshed feathery butts around to make room for everyone and got them all locked up for the night.
This morning everyone seems to be the best of friends. The two new roosters hang out but avoid Sterling. However there's no hackling or silly rooster taunting to get a rise out of each other. I have no intention of keeping all of them, but both the new boys are molting and not in the best feather. One has a fantastic comb and is ideally the rooster I'd like on the flock most of the time. The other one was supposed to go to a friend and her unrelated pullet, but the pullet has gone missing and I don't much feel like resigning him to death at the hands of a raccoon or whatever it is that keeps killing her birds. Sterling I'd like to retire to a nice "kitchen flock" of hens that lay pretty eggs but that involves another pen and more chickens. lol
In the meantime I'm glad that I got them. I wish Duchess was whole so I could put her back out there. I don't imagine three roosters on two (almost three) hens is going to be very pretty. But I haven't noticed any breeding yet either. The hens I think are too stressed from the move. They aren't squatting when the roosters grab, they yell and run. Duchess would just lay there like a throw pillow.
Interestingly the breeder said they get silver and white chicks from one of the hens, and rusty-gold and white chicks from the other. They said their babies always feather in Silver-laced though. Both the chicks I brought home were the rust color. I'll have to get pictures of them. And it looks like my Gold-laced might be feathering in Silver as well? She was very distinctly gold, but her new feathers are much lighter. So I'm not sure what happening. She's certainly darker than the two from the new breeder though.
My pair can only produce female GL apparently. 
