The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[ColtHandorf]

I'm thinking Astroturf or outdoor carpet - but only want a small piece.

Can you order the fake grass pads for nest boxes? I think those are pretty small. Or cut up one of these?

I've got over 100 babies right now. Any of you want to road trip down to Texas to get some? lol

 

[Faraday40]

Look what I got today!!

3 beautiful UNCRACKED Silver Laced Orpington eggs! Yes, all 3 hens layed an egg today, and none were damaged. .....Now to figure out the fertility.

Left (Stormy, the blue SLO, has slight speckles on her eggs), Middle (Treasure), Right (Crystal, my sweet 4 year old hen who lays more bullet shaped eggs)


My best Orpington layer is my least fav chicken. "Chaos" is the 1st skittish orp I've ever owned. She is a beautiful black pullet and lays an XL egg almost daily..... but nada when it comes to personality. She dislikes being held and while the other hens are fighting for my attention, she runs away if I dare touch her. Even my Leghorns are more friendly.

 

[rayrose]

Can you order the fake grass pads for nest boxes? I think those are pretty small. Or cut up one of these?
View attachment 2650851
I've got over 100 babies right now. Any of you want to road trip down to Texas to get some? lol

You can buy a roll of astro turf and cut it to the size of your nest boxes at HD. That's what I did. Girls took right to it. Extra easy to clean, and lasts forever.

 

[Faraday40]

You can buy a roll of astro turf and cut it to the size of your nest boxes at HD. That's what I did. Girls took right to it. Extra easy to clean, and lasts forever.

I will probably do that if I can find a cheap scrap at Home depot. For now I put a thin foam sheet (free packaging material) under some clean rags. The rags were sliding around, so if an egg happened to land on the wood = crack. The foam adds a little friction which keeps the rags from sliding. It won't be a long term solutions since I fear they may decide to snack on it. (Had a problem years ago when my chickens decided styrofoam tasted good. LOL)

 

[rayrose]

The astro turf has a rubber backing that keeps it in place, no sliding
around.

nternet #307324744​

Model #LM756​

Store SKU #1002406244​

They'll ship it to your home free. Tried to copy and paste pics,
but my personal confuser wouldn't cooperate.

 

[Faraday40]

Another good egg day. I have 8 SLO eggs from the past 3 days.

Also a lot of lav, blk/lav split, and Jewel's eggs (Jewel = lav, blue, black, chocolate, recessive white - she has it all! LOL)

 

[ColtHandorf]

I just pulled sixty babies out of the hatcher this morning. I need to stop hatching. lol

 

[Faraday40]

I just pulled sixty babies out of the hatcher this morning. I need to stop hatching. lol

Wow! That's a lot of beaks to feed.

 

[Faraday40]

The egg production was good this last week. A big part of that was fixing the nest box issue to prevent cracked eggs. Although I certainly don't need the chicks, I put a dozen SLO eggs into the incubator to check fertility.

 

[Fcwham]

Hi everyone,

I have been scrolling through this thread learning as much as I can from your photos. This thread has been one of the best resources I’ve found as I’ve raised my Silver Laced and Lavenders from hatch.

I’m a new chicken owner and I live in a neighborhood where I can keep 4 hens. When I proposed building a coop to my wife her only request was that I get at least one orpington for her because she thinks they have “Cute Corgi butts”. So I ordered Silver Laced and Lavender Orpington hatching eggs. Due to infertility and damaged air cells we only ended up hatching 2 Lavender and one Silver laced. They are now 3.5 and 4 weeks old.

Based on my readings in this tread and some of your photos I’m thinking that all 3 are cockerels. Could someone with more experience help me confirm this? If I’m dealing with all males here I’d like to try to find another round of eggs and get them going so I can get them to a good size before winter this year.


Lavender 1:

Lavender 2:

Silver Laced:

Same Silver Laced, different angle: