Old thread, but wanted to see what others thought. The Orpington is supposed to be a dual purpose bird. I have been seeing these "show quality" Orps that are supposed to be bred to standard and some don't begin laying until over a year old, to me, this is ridiculous. I breed Orps and if I have to wait more than 28 weeks for an egg, that hen will not be in my breeding program. It is up to us as breeders to maintain a good balance of their intended purpose and not ruin the breed just so we can grow 15 pound Orps. The standard is 10 pounds for an Orpington cockbird. I do understand that with the advancements in feed and nutricionaI knowledge, we should expect larger birds, but not at the expense of sexual maturity. I would be interested in others opinions.