Total chicken newbie here, first chicks last spring, first eggs last week......
Thanks to you wonderful folks at BYC, I was able to identify a feed store mix up...I bought sexed RIR pullets at age one day, but half of them ended up being Splash Russian orloffs that were for sale in the next tank....apparently some got picked up and put down in the wrong place and I ended up with a total of three that I kept among my flock of eight buff orpingtons, seven RIR and one buff orpington roo. Was going to sell all the orloffs but I like their personalities.
I have really found very little information about these birds online except one blurb about them from a hatchery and here on BYC, where I have found out the most.
However, I know some of you out there must know tons about them because you were able to identify them for me so nicely.
At first I was dissapointed to have them, as I read they were considered more a meat bird and have smaller eggs. We were hoping for eggs, not meat except for the extra cockerels.
However, I have found some good attributes. For one, these three birds really are submissive to everyone else in my flock and we have no fighting or pecking, everyone gets along great. Also, they look distinct and we can actually tell these ones apart vs. our other breeds where we seem to have all twins. We can't even name the others because we can't tell them apart.
Also, we live in a cold winter climate from Nov-March here where we are (Cascade mountain forest) and we are hoping these are the girls who will continue to lay for us when we get snowed in again, even if the eggs are small.
But on the other hand, the prettiest one of the three, who I've given the dubious name Pretty, is an escape artist who flies over the fence and goes where no chicken has gone before.....She flies better than all the rest. I can't free range here because of predation so this is risky behavior and I hope she does not become coyote dinner some day when I'm not here to put her back. I'm considering clipping her wing?
So far we think we have two RIR pullets and one BO pullet already laying and they are only four months old so we are excited! We were hoping when those two breeds taper off for the winter the orloffs will kick in for us....are we being too optimistic?
Can someone tell me more about these birds in general and how they may interact with my flock?
We want to raise buff orpingtons only and would also like a good way of identifying the eggs if anyone could help with that, I'd be eternally grateful. We would not mind the occasional RIR/orpington cross but orloff/orpington might be pretty ugly.....or who knows, maybe not?
Advice?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks to you wonderful folks at BYC, I was able to identify a feed store mix up...I bought sexed RIR pullets at age one day, but half of them ended up being Splash Russian orloffs that were for sale in the next tank....apparently some got picked up and put down in the wrong place and I ended up with a total of three that I kept among my flock of eight buff orpingtons, seven RIR and one buff orpington roo. Was going to sell all the orloffs but I like their personalities.
I have really found very little information about these birds online except one blurb about them from a hatchery and here on BYC, where I have found out the most.
However, I know some of you out there must know tons about them because you were able to identify them for me so nicely.
At first I was dissapointed to have them, as I read they were considered more a meat bird and have smaller eggs. We were hoping for eggs, not meat except for the extra cockerels.
However, I have found some good attributes. For one, these three birds really are submissive to everyone else in my flock and we have no fighting or pecking, everyone gets along great. Also, they look distinct and we can actually tell these ones apart vs. our other breeds where we seem to have all twins. We can't even name the others because we can't tell them apart.
Also, we live in a cold winter climate from Nov-March here where we are (Cascade mountain forest) and we are hoping these are the girls who will continue to lay for us when we get snowed in again, even if the eggs are small.
But on the other hand, the prettiest one of the three, who I've given the dubious name Pretty, is an escape artist who flies over the fence and goes where no chicken has gone before.....She flies better than all the rest. I can't free range here because of predation so this is risky behavior and I hope she does not become coyote dinner some day when I'm not here to put her back. I'm considering clipping her wing?
So far we think we have two RIR pullets and one BO pullet already laying and they are only four months old so we are excited! We were hoping when those two breeds taper off for the winter the orloffs will kick in for us....are we being too optimistic?
Can someone tell me more about these birds in general and how they may interact with my flock?
We want to raise buff orpingtons only and would also like a good way of identifying the eggs if anyone could help with that, I'd be eternally grateful. We would not mind the occasional RIR/orpington cross but orloff/orpington might be pretty ugly.....or who knows, maybe not?
Advice?
Thanks in advance!
