The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Do you have a copy of the ENGLISH SOP, Jeremy? I would love to have a copy of the Orp section. All I have is the APA SOP, and I haven't even looked at the Orp section of that. Guess I should some day....

I was out taking pictures today. I thought this pullet looked just like a heart. Do you see the heart shape here?

 

[Happy Chooks]

I see it Kathy, she's beautiful!

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Do you have a copy of the ENGLISH SOP, Jeremy? I would love to have a copy of the Orp section. All I have is the APA SOP, and I haven't even looked at the Orp section of that. Guess I should some day....

I was out taking pictures today. I thought this pullet looked just like a heart. Do you see the heart shape here?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/31282_dscf3248.jpg

I see the heart shape too, she's awesome Kathy.

You should change the tint color of the picture to pink & red, then put the image on Valentine's day cards and sell them on BYC!

I don't have a UK version of the SOP, just the American SOP. We should reach out to one of the folks across the pond on the thread and see if they'll forward it to us.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Yea, really ! I would much prefer to breed towards the English type anyway!

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Yea, really ! I would much prefer to breed towards the English type anyway!

So would I, the look of the UK lines just blows my mind, it makes American Orps look puny.

I wonder if Joy & Julie's friend Matt has a UK SOP...

 

[lildinkem]

I seen a guy, Brian Decker say he was just over there and posted a pic of a UK Black. Ask him for a UK SOP.

 

[jeremy]

Over where, is he on BYC?

 

[RisingStar]

BRITISH POULTRY STANDARD
ORPINGTON LARGE FOWL
Poultry Club of Great Britain
5th edition, 1997
Victoria Roberts, editor
Blackwell Science, publisher
Oxford, England


Origin: Great Britain
Classification: Heavy, Soft feather
Egg colour: Brown

In the Orpington we have an English breed named after the village in Kent where the originator, William Cook, had his farm. He introduced the black variety in 1886, the white in 1889 and the buff in 1894. Within five years of the original black Orpington being introduced exhibition breeders were crossing Langshan and Cochin and exhibiting the offspring as black Orpingtons, the birds fetching high prices, and attracting many for their immense size. But this crossing at once turned a dual-purpose breed into one solely for show purposes, and it has remained so until today. A late introduction, the Jubilee Orpington, is now rarely seen.

General characteristics: male

Carriage: Bold, upright and graceful; that of an active fowl.
Type: Body deep, broad and cobby. Back nicely curved with a somewhat short, concave outline. Saddle wide and slightly rising, with full hackle. Breast broad, deep and well rounded, not flat. Wings small, nicely formed and carried closely to the body, the ends almost hidden by the saddle hackle. Tail rather short, compact, flowing and high, but by no means a squirrel tail.
Head: Small and neat, fairly full over the eyes. Beak strong and nicely curved. Eyes large and bold. Comb single, small, firmly set on head, evenly serrated and free from side sprigs. In the black variety, comb may be single or rose, the latter small, straight and firm, full of fine work or small spikes, level on top (not hollow in centre), narrowing behind to a distinct peak lying well down to the head (not sticking up). Face smooth. Wattles of medium length, rather oblong and nicely rounded at the bottom. Ear-lobes small and elongated.
Neck: Of medium length, curved, compact and with full hackle.
Legs and feet: Legs short and strong, the thighs almost hidden by the body feathers, well set apart. Toes, four, straight and well spread.
Plumage: Fairly profuse but close, not soft, loose and fluffy as in the Cochin, or close and hard as in the Game Fowl
Handling: Firm.


Female

The general characteristics are similar to those of the male. Her cushion should be wide but almost flat, and slightly rising to the tail, sufficient to give the back a graceful appearance with an outline approaching concave.


Colour

The Blue
Male plumage: Hackles, saddle, wing bow, back and tail dark slate-blue. Remainder slate-blue, each feather to show lacing of darker shade as on back.
Female plumage: Medium slate-blue, laced with darker shade all through, except head and neck, dark slate-blue.
In both sexes: Beak black. Eyes black or very dark brown, black preferred. Comb, face wattles and ear-lobes bright red. Legs and feet black or blue. Toenails white.

The Black
Male and female plumage: Black with a green sheen.
In both sexes: Beak, etc. as in the blue. Soles of feet white.

The Buff
Male and female plumage: Clear, even buff throughout to the skin.
In both sexes: Beak white or horn. Eyes red or orange colour. Comb, face, ear-lobes and wattles bright red. Legs, feet and toenails white. Skin, white.

The White
Male and female plumage: Pure snow-white.
In both sexes: Beak, legs, feet and skin white. Eyes, face, ear-lobes and wattles red.

Weights

The Blue
Male 10-14 lb. when fully matured.
Female 7 ½-10 ½ lb.

The Black
Male 10 lb.
Female 8 lb.

The Buff and White
Matured cockerel 8-10 lb.
Female 6-8 lb.
Old birds sometimes a little heavier.

 

[HenThymes]

What wonderful and informative information to have posted. Thank you very much.

 

[kathyinmo]

Thank you so much for that, rsngstr101, it is much appreciated!

This is from England ....