Orpington

Best possible choice for the backyard chicken keeper; sweet and mellow, doing well even with the noise of the city surrounding them. Neighbors love watching them, and their gentle disposition makes them perfect for a family with children new to chickens.

I have Orpingtons and LOVE them. They are big, fluffy birds that lay well. They do great in harsh weather. Laid back disposition. Make great pets and very dual purpose. I cant say enough good about them. I have blue, black, splash, buff, lavender and lemon cuckoo. I have American standard, English and part English. I plan on adding another color this year. Just great birds to have.

I am a beginner at raising chickens for eggs. I honestly never thought of myself having chickens or cared about them as pets. Now I have twelve delightful chickens that I raised from 12 hour old chicks. They are so much fun! I recommend them to anyone! Bonus! As yet, they have been wonderful with my 3 year old!

The Buff Orpington is a great breed for the beginner and experienced handler alike. This breed has a friendly disposition and easily adjusts to changes in their environment. If properly accustomed as chicks, through daily handling, the Buff will be a very tame & trusting bird. If we could apply human traits to chickens, I would say that they seem almost happy to see the owner and will come at a run when they see the handler enter the yard. They are a talkative breed, clucking continuously to each other and the handler as they forage and go about their daily business. Because Buffs have fairly good forageing skills, they make great workhorses in the fall if allowed to enter the garden after harvest. A few of these birds can turn-over an amazing amount of debris in the garden, as they root around for leftover produce and grubbies.

They are reliable layers of large brown eggs when provided with a proper diet and care. The breed is known as a good layer during the winter months and is quite cold resistant; these are wonderful qualities in a chicken breed. The Buff is simply a pleasant animal to maintain.

The breed, however, is not a strong grower, but will gain weight at a consistant rate. If confined to a run & feed only a commercial feed they will gain quicker, but these birds do enjoy their freedom to roam and forage the confines of teh property. The finished birds are heavy framed, and could serve a dual purpose. If purchased Strait-Run, the Cockerels could easily be intended as meat birds while the Pullets are retained for egg production. Again keep in mind that they are not a fast growing breed, but they are steady in their growth.

Buffs are not very good flyers, as are some of the lighter breeds. This makes it a simple matter to fence off gardens and areas where you don't want the birds to scratch about. A simple 3 to 4 foot high fencing should work in most cases.

The trusting charactor of this breed can easily be destroyed and lost if the birds are chased or mistreated at all, but that could easily be applied to most any breed. Chickens don't like to be run ragged.

If you are looking for a solid reliable chicken breed for your home flock...there is a Bonus to found in the Buff Orpington.

Enjoy.

love love this bird. I have hens and a rooster. My roo protects me from some very mean roosters that I have, he chases them and stands guard over me. He also dances and woo's the ladies! He just plain makes me smile daily! If you don't have this chicken get it!!

The buff orpington makes a great addition to a starter flock. They are good foragers and free-rangers. Sometimes they are shy rather than friendly. They are not always at the bottom of the pecking order: I have a small, mixed flock, and 1 BO is at the top of the pecking order and 1 BO is at the bottom. Egg production was good for the first two years, with 1st year production around 6 eggs/week and 2nd year production about 4 eggs/week. 3rd year production (for my oldest BO) was 2.7 eggs/week, but she only laid from March 4 to June 11, so total 3rd year production was 41 eggs. One BO was taken by a predator. One of my BO went broody, but when I placed day-old hatchery chicks under her (after she had been incubating infertile eggs for a couple of weeks), she attached and killed two of the chicks and ignored the others. (purchased from Healthy Chicks and More, and Ideal Hatchery)

I have two sweet lavender chicks and they are so precious they are rare in these parts anyways probably other places too. But the eggs were shipped from overseas and the breeder has developed them quite well. They are awesome and so beautiful.

I think by their docile, calm manner buff Orpingtons make great birds for people who are just starting out raising backyard chickens. They are very sweet birds and grow up nice and large. Since the mothers go broody very easily you can have a set up where the flock reproduces and continues for many generations. They are very cold hardy birds and will and lay well through cold winters. Nice layers of large brown eggs.

I love my Buff Orpington rooster Chief. I would recommend this breed to those who wish to have a good rooster who is not mean at all.

As stated above, they are friendly, and docile birds. Easily contained. If I have to leave them in the coop for a day, they don't mind. Overall, I like them and would go with them again.

Only have had for about 3 weeks. They are more friendly, docile yet braver than my Ameracaunas
Love them, enjoy watching them grow! Look forward to seeing them become big buffs

Very docile hens, roos are like any breed, at times can be aggressive, but generally very sweet. Great layers and are soooo sweet. They jump up and down when they see me coming with the feed bucket. But need extra attention when it comes to shelter, predators, they don't have tons of 'survival' instincts, they are truely domestic.

This is my favorite breed, I have 13 breeds currently. We show animals in the 4H & FFA, this is always a Grand Champion. I have 1 hen and 3 pullets. Good egg layer, med tan. Demeanor is wonderful, sweet natured, mild manner-not flighty. Though very curious & smart. Okay all my girls(chickens) are spoiled, but Fuzzy Butt, Goldie, Flau & Loppy are far the worst.

We love this breed. They are great with our children.

Very great chickens! Most of our customers love the eggs because they are very large! These chickens lay about 5-6 eggs a week! EXCELLENT BREED!

I love my Buff Orpington chick! It loves to nuzzle up against my face when I'm hanging out with the gang!

Have several Budd Orpingtons. They are even tempered, healthy, good egg producers, heat tolerant, cold tolerant. dog tolerant, Barred Rock tolerant. Feed store chicks with never an issue.

this would be a good chicken for a farm, but shes not fun for the back yard.. the least favorite by far of my 8 chickens. she's a great forager and layer, but causes a lot of problems in the garden, with the neighbors, and is the least personable. wouldn't recommend to have at home.

We have purchased 3 groups of 25 each - 5/2009, 9/2010, 11/2011 from McMurray - very happy with them even though the last order of females included 6 of 25 that were males. The exotics that were included were a pair of Carmines that are a delight.

We have a long list of people waiting to buy eggs - the girls have two acres of pasture. Which helps to make the introduction of new chicks easier - we wait until they are 4-5 months before we combine them.

Great chicks - a favorite of kids that visit the alpaca farm - www.diastolealpacafarm.com

My BO is named Buckbeak. He was originally bought in the Fry Pan Bargain from Meyer hatchery. I had no intentions of keeping other than for food, BUT he quickly changed my mind. He was one of the first chicks to warm up to me. As he grew he began to seek me out. When I am doing yard work he will come and forage right by me or walks up to me and stares at me. lol Thats his way of telling me he wants to be picked up. All I have to do is put my hand down and he climbs right up. When I bend down to fill the food or water containers he perches on my shoulder the entire time. He also comes when called. By these behaviors he saved himself from the chopping block and has now become my keeper rooster. I diffinitly plan to get more BO's in the future. Buckbeak is now 7 weeks old and I love watching him grow. The only downfall I can think of is he sometimes doesnt let the other chickens near me. On a few occasions he has flapped his wings and chased them away from me.