The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[ColtHandorf]

I'm not sure I understand your question to answer it correctly. Orpingtons were developed in England. When they were imported to the US in 1903, like almost everything Americans touch, they deviated from the established European, or English breed standard. For a very extreme look you can see these images...

Production (Hatchery Quality) Buff Orpington:

Buff Orpington - American Poultry Association (APA) Standard:

Buff Orpington - English-type (Conforms to the UK Standard):

So the term English now is used to describe the type of Orpington. My birds do not conform to the the APA SOP for Orpingtons. Additionally most of the varieties I have could not compete out of the AOV (All Other Variety) Class even if their colors were recognized by the APA which currently only recognizes Black, Blue, Buff, and White.

 

[Faraday40]

Been researching when and where the term “English Orpington” was coined.
Google so far has taken me to Poultry Club of Great Britain where breed originated and American Poultry Association SOP and both just use the name Orpington.
Was hoping for some background from Greenfire Farms who I think imported them here in USA but they are not listed so apparently they have moved on to other breeds.
Any information appreciated

x2 on what @ColtHandorf said.
Many of the "Imported English Orpingtons" can be traced back to Greenfire Farms and Ewe Crazy Farms. (The second sold its stock to Carolina Rare Poultry.) It's very time consuming and expensive to import animals into the United States, so very few breeders have done it. A decade ago, imported English Orpingtons were too expensive for most people to own.

The "American" Orps are called an "English breed" by the APA, but they look sleeker than the English orps across the pond. I fell in love with the big basketball shape and pantaloons, so that's what I've been breeding towards.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I'm glad that explanation made sense. lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

I did some candling and it looks like I'll have babies in two weeks. And three. And four. I've got to stop staggering sets of eggs in the incubator.

 

[Faraday40]

I did some candling and it looks like I'll have babies in two weeks. And three. And four. I've got to stop staggering sets of eggs in the incubator.

I understand completely.

I've got a few eggs due to hatch any day. I've also got another 2 dozen just sitting on the kitchen table. (Begging to be put in the incubator instead of the fridge!)

I'm forcing myself to see what hatches BEFORE setting any more eggs. The broody hen's orp chick looks like a lav x SLO. Although my breeding groups tend to hang out together, I think the males like to mate the more "exotic" (other rooster's) girls. My SLO is the more dominant roo, so there's a good chance I can hatch the SLO hen's eggs. If not, I'll have to wait until it's warmer and the flock is separated.

 

[Orpingtons Mom]

Drops of food coloring on/in vent. Gel kind is more concentrated and works better.

I know someone else who bought hideous, distinct shades of long-lasting lipstick. She said it worked and the lipstick was for the chickens only. But to this day, I still have vivid disturbing images about application in my head.

Couldn’t resist.

 

[Foxinthehenhouse]

This thread is to post pictures and discuss the beautiful English Orps. Please, no discussion on APA standards, auctions, etc. We just want to see pictures and talk about this beautiful eye candy.

Winston and Clementine are our English Blue Orpingtons that we imported last year. I took some photos today of their oldest chicks, The O's (Olympia and Octavia), Hagrid, Rumples, and Bluebell, and thought I would share.

Bluebell - she is such a pretty little girl

Hagrid

Hagrid and Octavia

Hagrid and Olympia

Rumples

The Three Butts - Hagrid and The O's

The O's, Bluebell, and Hagrid

The O's, Hagrid, and Rumples

The O's

Olympia

Rumples and Bluebell - I love this picture

The O's

Octavia - I think she is absolutely stunning, if I do say so myself.

Lovely birds! Did you import them from England?

 

[ColtHandorf]

Checking in on everyone: How are things after the Polar Vortex/SNOVID?

It could have been much worse at my house. I managed to keep the pipes from bursting so we had water up until the city shut it off due to breaks in water mains. So I was bucketing water out to everyone multiple times a day. The lowest it got here was -9 degrees Fahrenheit.

I lost some juvenile Orpingtons despite them being under heat lamps. I also lost Derek, my only White Orpington male. I moved all the girls back into the Silver-laced pen in the hopes that Hollywood does carry the Recessive White gene and I can produce some more Whites. It's going to set me back a whole year, and I have such a big waitlist on them. I have about 14 white eggs I'm going to set tonight after work. All the chicken eggs hatched in the incubator, including an egg that was a week late. The duck eggs didn't fare as well and I hatched one duckling. It is a complete pest, at the moment. It has some more siblings due at the end of the week and after candling I think six eggs are still good. I also lost some more Seramas, so I'm down to two trios. All the younger birds died even with heat on them and the adults. I also lost one of my older Silver-laced hens. I'm hoping that I don't lose anymore.

We lost water for four days so that was a huge pain in the rear. Power was inconsistent for about 24 hours due to rolling black outs. I know I should be grateful I didn't lose tons of birds like some of my friends who lost power and as a result lost all their chicks and eggs. But it is really a setback and frustrates me. It was so nice getting to water them with a hose yesterday. I'm preemptively medicating everyone due to the amount of wild birds that were swarming the fresh water and feed I was giving my birds. After that, they are all going to get treated for lice and mites, including the entire barn.

 

[Faraday40]

@ColtHandorf
So sorry about the egg & chicken losses. I was thinking about you every time we heard about frozen lines in Texas. Happy to hear that you have consistent power and water now.

My orp boys got a touch of frostbite on their comb tips. Not much you can do when the day time highs are only around 2'F (but it feels like -10'F). It was much colder at night Strange that Awesome got it worse. This is his 2nd winter, so I'd expect the lav cockerel (who also has a bigger comb) to get more frostbite. My theory is that since Awesome is #1, perhaps he stood tall, in the run, on guard, while the lav could take shelter inside the warmer coop area.

No losses here , but we did bring the seramas inside for a week. (Only when temps were in single digits) I loaned some of them to our neighbor. Her kids got pet chickens for the week and I got less mess in the house. Meanwhile I've got some chicks that my silkies are mothering. We went above 32'F so I put the broody hens & chicks outside in the coop yesterday.

Today I decided to close off 1/3 or the run to separate my laced and lavs. Hopefully they'll be apart long enough so I'll be able to do the Easter hatch-a-long.

 

[ADPNRSP]

This may seem like a silly question, but do I have two splashes here? One hatched out golden, and the other hatched silver/gray. I thought I had a splash and a blue, but now…