The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[jeremy]

Quote:
You sell eggs to folks in the US?

How on earth could somebody steal that many birds and get away with it???

I'd love to see pictures of you're different colors!

 

[BamaChicken]

Welcome CFC

Jeremy, I have been amazed reading on a few English forums how often they have chicken theives. I don't guess I have ever heard of anybody stealing chickens over here. I think most would rather buy them already dressed out at the store.

Well I didn't get home in time to make pics. The wind is blowing a cold front in at about 20 miles an hr. so not that pleasant to be outside. I do need to gather eggs.

CFC please feel free to give me any help I need in breeding here. The thing i wish I could see more of is juvenile chicks and younger chicks to see what they look like at every stage. that is hard to find on line.

 

[justuschickens59]

Quote:
Yeah, what Julie said !!! I could take some advice on my birds. I also would love to see juvenile pictures as well. I think that would be extremely helpful !!

 

[cfc]

I'm afraid i don't sell on the US Ebay, only the English Ebay.

I don't usually photograph chicks as i normally hatch around 150 each year and the cull rate is very very high with Blues. I have some photos of young birds, but the only way to tell how good a bird will be is to wait until nearly fully mature. Everything from size, type, colour, lacing, eye colour and comb shape can change through every period. Usually there will be a couple of birds that stand out from a very young age and mature into what you expect, but the majority change far too much to predict from a young age. I found taking pictures of chicks through out there development a waste of time as they can't really help you predict how birds will turn out.

If you are looking to breed to the English standard, the best advice i could give you would be to keep an eye on ground colour. Over here we are looking for light ground colour with strong lacing. The darker blues are unshowable and usually not worth breeding as they throw a lot of dark birds which can't be used in the show pen. Also, tails to me are very important. A lot of males have terrible tails which are too long and make the birds look uneven. Another fault is a gap at the top of the tail where a feather never grows. For me this can completely spoil a very good bird. I've noticed it in a few photos in this thread.

The best thing is there seems to be plenty of people interested in Blue Orpingtons in the US. They should be improved very quickly. Over here, there aren't that many people breeding Blues and they are struggling a little in numbers. At our main shows there aren't usually more than 20 large Blues. There are no more than 3 breeders, including my self, breeding more than 50 a year over here and i feel that is the minimum needed to be able to select well and improve.

I don't think I'll be able to post any photos until the start of next week, but I'll look forwards to seeing plenty of photos from you guys and if you want my honest opinion, i will give it!

Matt

 

[jimmy47]

I'm afraid that chicken thieves are alive and kicking in WV. Even if they only take a dozen you feel very violated so I can only imagine how the Buff breeder felt.

 

[BamaChicken]

Well Jimmy who knew. I feel violated when predators like dogs people throw off to starve kill my mine. Hopefully I have that in check with the electric fencing now.

Matt there is a great interest in the blues and I am happy to say that some of the chicks and eggs that I hatched or mailed and someones else hatched look better than some I have here. I think it is a good start. I don't want to see the blues lose interest cause I remember only five years ago it was not easy to find Blue Orps. I don't know the exact number of people breeding them in the USA now but I would guess at least 50 to a hundred. Everyones goals might not be the same.

Some want to show and some just want some great big UK type blues hanging in their backyard flocks. Right now Just getting some size and type has been very important. The new English blood has made a huge difference.

I want to show you pic of Hoss and get your opinion. He has to stay no matter what because he is my husbands favorite cockerel on the place. I don't think he is going to let me forget that I sold off Tank last year and he thought we should keep him. He was massive but seemed to have an attitude. I have promised we keep Hoss.

I have hatched 200 chicks the last two years and am hoping to only do a minimum this year. I only have a few pure English girls hatched this year and so I will do my best to get some chicks out of them and Charlie this year. It may be his last year. He has always been picky and has one or two favorites. He is about to get through his molt and I hope to see him more active again.

 

[justuschickens59]

Jimmy - If you mess with me, I'll be up there snatching some chickens from you !! And I'm so glad to see you on here !!! It was really great seeing you and the Missus last week, just too short a visit. How is Rumples doing? Bluebell is fine...she bumbled and moped around for a couple of days, but she is fine now hanging with Hagrid and The O's. Fat Kitty says to tell you "meow"

Matt - Like Julie said, the interest in Blues here is tremendous right now, and the interest in the English Orps (regardless of the color) is also tremendous. I imported blue/black orp eggs from the UK in May 2009 and had two chicks hatch - The Churchills (Winston & Clementine). THey are both a darker blue (which is actually my preference). We also had imported some Buff and Crele Orp eggs, but none of those hatched (I'd give my right elbow for some nice Buffs and Creles). Anyway, we have slowly worked on building our 100% English flock, but it is slow going with only one hen - who is a sporadic layer. We had some fertility issues at first, but thanks to Jimmy47's help, we got that problem solved. I am up to 8 birds that are 100% English. I had 10, but had too many roosters, so I gifted one to Julie and one to Jimmy....who are both diligently working on getting some English flocks established here, so we've all be working together on it.

I have no plans to show my birds - I just love them. They are our pets and are members of our family. I would like your critique on my birds if you would be nice enough to give it. I will PM you my e-mail address so you can send me your comments when you get a chance.

Glad to have you here !!

 

[Renie'sPeeps]

This is a question I have been pondering... HOW old is too old for a Roo to be used as breeder effectively?

 

[jimmy47]

Julie, I'm pretty well protected from the four legged predators too. The flying ones are more of a problem here during the daytime. It's the two legged ones on the ground that worry me but at least it only happened once to me.

Joy, it was so good to see you and the Mr. again. I told Betty that word was out that a couple gun maws had a meeting in central VA and brought along their right hand "boys" in case there was trouble! Kit was in rare form so there was of course no trouble, ha. My black cat turned white when I showed him the picture of Kit and that was before last night's snow here. Rumples is doing fine, he did stop off at the court house and have something done to his birth certificate. Looks like he penciled in "Thurston" but no matter he comes to any name as long as I have a treat in my hand. He seems to be very happy with Midnight and Ebony. The Blue Knight wouldn't give up Blue Skye though. The next five pullets that are a couple months younger are drop dead gorgeous but may take me to court because I still haven't come up with names for them. Four are dark blue and one is light. I guess they are just jail birds because their leg bands at least have numbers, just no name.

I have really been enjoying this thread but will never get all the old pages read. Wonderful to see so many BBS people involved. Back when we first met, the U.S. models were almost impossible to find.

 

[BamaChicken]

Matt when you get back on look at page 6 and see if you recognise those birds