The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Shaffer]

Bob,
Thanks for showing us your birds. Now, those are UK cuckoos and gives one the idea what to strive for. Even the hens show the cuckoo pattern.

 

[Braclin]

Wow Bob Very Beautiful birds!!! I will actually be on holiday in England/Scotland/Wales at the end of April. I would be very interested to see your set -up. Again Great Job!!!!

have started sifting through pictures i have and filing them in their colours, first off is red cuckoo, still a long way off perfection especially the colour in the hens, it needs to be considerably darker and without any solid tail or flight feathers, very difficult to get whilst retaining good cuckoo markings but i'm reasonably pleased so far being such a new colour, there has been a lot of interest in them over here and i shall be releasing eggs for sale this season, u.k. only i'm afraid.

please let me know your views on the colour, likes or dislikes, wether it has a place in the future in the U.S. along side all the other colours, this and the blue laced are the 2 colours which will take me into retirement as i have no plans to start any new project colours,
i will put on more colours/varities when i have them sorted
Bob

 

[jeremy]

I love this hen's shape. She's so round!

 

[kathyinmo]

This is the one I want!

 

[aveca]

those are probably the best orps ever. Im kind of crazy about the same one Jeremy likes, KAthy , you have great taste too, that one has near perfect shape and stunning color.

 

[galanie]

This is the one I want! 

Not if I steal her first! Um, I mean... Me too...

 

[pips&peeps]

Bob, do you have the necessary paperwork and tests on your flock so that someone could legally import them?

 

[jeremy]

Thelma napping.

Emma, my lightest Splash pullet. She's so sweet.

 

[orpington man]

To the best of my knowledge red cuckoo does not carry dun, you would need to ask a genetacist which i am not for a clearer answer, although people have labelled me as such in the past, i have never read a genetics book and it is too late in my life now for my brain to absorb and understand all the technical detail, my knowledge of colour breeding comes from practical hands on experience and many trials and errors over the years, unless you know several generations of the birds you are breeding from, all sorts of colours will turn up and you will be none the wiser from where they came however many books you read,
All cuckoo hens should carry the cuckoo pattern, if they don't show the pattern they are not cuckoo! i've seen a lot of ads for eggs from so called split cuckoo birds especially the lemons, these birds do not exist, if they don't have the cuckoo pattern they are buffs,
Braclin you are more than welcome to call in whilst in the U.K. on holiday, i don't have all the colours here these days as i have cut back drastically on most of them but there will always be some to see,
I don't have all the legal paper work for exporting eggs and chickens, to conform properly to all the required rules and regulations i would have to clear the farm of all but the birds i wish to export eggs from and they would have to be kept in close cofinement, along with the cost this is something i am not willing to do,
you probably already know the scenario that Minh To went through with all the birds he had unjustly slaughtered by the USDA, i supplied him with several of the birds including red cuckoo, several of the very best birds i had bred, they were all quarantined and tested for just about everything they could be tested for at no small cost, all came back clear and were shipped to the U.S. the rest is history i won't go down that road again, many years of work went into those birds and it still hurts now that they ended their lives so needlessly
Bob

p.s. pictures of blue laced and buff laced to follow

 

[orpington man]