The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[The Happster]

Made the mistake of looking for Orpington hatching eggs/birds.

Found some right where I used to live.
Won't be getting any - for a while at least. I can't fit any more cockerels in.

Pics from their website.
Lemon Cuckoo...

Silver Laced...

They have Lavender Cuckoo and a fair few other variants.
Full house at the moment. Maybe I'll get some eggs shipped in a few years.

Now I really need some of these.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Such good-looking birds! I just love them so much. I wish I could have had eggs from the Silver-laced Orps brought back from France. My friend's youngest son was staying with some family friends at a vineyard and they kept Silver-laced Orpingtons.

 

[The Happster]

I blame all the people who have been posting Orpington photos. I'm jealous.

Bought my first Orpington cockerel from a man in the same area. Wonder if he still sells birds.
Here he was.

Need to get a colour other than buff though.
Buff isn't my cup of tea.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Buff isn't my favorite color either. I do like the Buff bantams, but I like all the patterns. I'm honestly surprised I like the Whites as well as I do.

 

[Faraday40]

Time for some updated photos.

@ColtHandorf These are for you. The laced are still molting but starting to get back their curves.

This one shows Stormy's butt and the color difference between blue & black.

Here's the lav cockerel with Calamity (lav) and Chaos (black)

These 2 are ALWAYS together.

He knows he looks good!

This shows Calamity's personality. If I do not acknowledge her, she continues to follow me, squawk loudly, get underfoot, peck at my jeans, etc. just to get my attention. Can you see my shoe in both pics? Sometimes she goes as far as to stand on my foot.

 

[Faraday40]

.... and here's my "Darling". I just adore her. Total package of sweet personality and looks.
I could take pics of her all day!

What a fluffy butt!!

 

[Faraday40]

Not orps, of course, but since i had my camera out....

"Trouble" (the sebright) is not impressed by the cold weather.


"Poof Poof" (DS's Spitzhauben) is molting & looking grumpy. She likes to roost near the roof.


A very little serama. (hatched mid July) He has the silkied gene and I really like the way he stands.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Its been a very sad day here at the farm. I woke up and headed out to do the chicken tending and found Faraday40 beautiful Blizzard passed away. I had brought her inside due to the extreme cold and I didn't like the way she was looking. She felt thin and was sleeping in the coop a lot, even during the day. The rooster damage from this summer was really not getting better even though she had pin feathers.

I picked her up and cradled her for a few minutes. She was still warm and had only passed no more than an hour before. After I had put her back, I felt like something was crawling all over my arms and side of face. I grabbed a flashlight and inspected her body. She was ridden with mites. I feel horrible I missed this on this sweet girl! I cancelled going to church and immediately dusted every chicken. I saw no signs of mites on anyone else.

I didn't have a lot of pictures of the sweetheart, but here's what I have. I'm sure Faraday40 will have a lot more.

Trying to be a good surrogate mom to a pair of slo's babies that came with her.

 

[Faraday40]

Yes, Blizzard was a big, beauty.


Baby Blizzard was not exactly "cute."

She looked much better at 5 months.

.
.... and continued to look better with age.

She always looked amazing with a snowy background.

RIP, sweet girl.

 

[Faraday40]

Happy New Year!!!
Glad to be done with 2020!

To celebrate, guess who layed an egg today?
.... My Darling!

Now what to do with it......
Xansie was broody. Then MaiMai joined her. Xansie has been off the nest a lot yesterday and today. I think she may have come to her senses about brooding chicks in winter. MaiMai is not very bright and still in the early weeks. She is sitting Xansie's 2 remaining eggs. Honestly, I'm not sure if they are quitters or just developing slowly. They should hatch around Jan 10th but embryos look smallish to me. One egg is from Jewel (One of my biggest hens.) The other egg is from one of my smaller seramas. Should be interesting.

@homeschoolin momma What do you think?

I could set Darling's egg with the couple you saved for me in my incubator. Then swap eggs around when the older ones are close to hatch. (Put the chicks under hen to adopt when the younger eggs are hatching.)
OR
I could skip it, let MaiMai keep the 2 eggs, and see what happens.