Orpington

I have a 6 soon to be 7 Orpington hen she is still one of my best layers! They are my favorite breed so far.

My two BOs came in the mail from Meyer Hatchery, and I was immediately in love with their personalities. Being almost a year old now, they are by far the friendliest in the flock and love attention. One of them walks up for hugs and loves trying to eat my hair and more curious than anything. The other enjoys riding in the basket of my bike and traveling to parks with me.
Definitely a must have breed for me.

Our “Mauve” was a wonderful lavender orpington. So friendly and gentle- generally much nicer and less aggressive than the other girls in the flock. And survived several predator attacks, but just lost her and a bunch of others a few weeks ago. Great forager always seeming to get best morsels. Just ordered a few buffs for first time.

I have been keeping chickens for 7+ years. Of all the breeds I love the Orpingtons and have kept the buff variety. I had one die of sudden chicken death syndrome at 15 months, then to get a day old that dies on day 4 and then replaced her with another that died of sudden chicken death syndrome at 9 months. As others have stated they are super friendly and wonderful, but I can't handle the heartbreak and there are other breeds that I have kept that are thriving and laying at 7 years of age

I don’t know if it’s just because my chicken was an overall meanie, but I only got one of the lavender Orpingtons and he turned out to be a boy. He constantly attacked the girls and would also attack humans. He was just overall very aggressive and a very dominant bird. He did get along very well with the other rooster he was raised with though and was very pretty, he just wasn’t nice at all to humans and hens. Again this is my personal experience with the rooster of this breed. I have never had the hens so can’t speak on them.

Lavender Oprington, Bubbles.

My buff orpingtons are some of my friendliest chickens. When their not broody they lay almost every day, and when all their feathers are in perfect condition they are beautiful! They need to be on a diet with at least 20% protein, like an all flock or flock raiser feed to be kept that way though. They make great pets and are great for your first chickens or if you want 4-6 chickens for eggs. Totally recommend them.

I love Hex Nut my Buff Orp. She's so pretty and lays lovely brown eggs. She does try to hatch them on occasion but since we don't have a rooster she gives up pretty quick! I love my bird!

Most of this is based off of my experience with Orpingtons. And all I have is one Buff Orpington. She’s fairly ok, but not as amazing as my other birds. Worth getting if you want the classic, yellow, chicken (buff)

All negativity aside, I really want a lavender Orpington some time. Here’s a few pictures of Emily, the BO

Talking about buff Orpington and what is good and bad about them

We have 10 birds total, three of which are Buff Orpingtons. They are by far my favorite birds of our flock. They are very energetic, love to be around us, and very curious. I start and end the day by feeding all my birds a few mealworms in their coop and every day, one of my Buff girls roosts on my arm simply to be with me and not particularly interested in the mealworms..more interested in being pet. They also enjoy our 9 year old's company. They are still young so I cannot speak as to laying abilities, but we are enjoying their company and personality at this point!

I have a GL orp hen and rooster and both are extremely calm, and never shown any signs of real violence.
The rooster is protective and placid and offers any food he finds to the hens
The hen is often happy and content and is a good broody. Always calm and when laying, produces good light creamy coloured eggs.
The rooster is in the foreground of the picture

I love the buff Orpingtons. They have a beautiful blonde tan color and very fluffy butts. I have found that they are very friendly until you try and take eggs out from under a broody hen. The Roosters are beautiful as well and they are the same color as the hens. In my experience they don't protect the hens very well from predators. So make sure you make their pens and runs safe.

I love my Buff Orpington hens. They are good layers, have a good personality, and are cold hardy. They are well mannered and get along well with everyone in the flock. However, I did have a rooster that was aggressive and had to re home. He was a beautiful rooster and treated his hens well, but was very aggressive towards humans.

Beautiful bird to see however when no egg production becomes less beautiful to watch.

The info on the breed was great! And I felt very informed!

There were two Buff Orpingtons among the first dozen or so birds I bought when I started raising backyard chickens back in 2015. I found one dead in the chicken yard about six months later for no apparent reason (at that time I didn't see any point in sending her off for an autopsy). The other one in that bunch is still alive and well and one of the queens of my roost.

They've been great layers and some of the friendliest birds in my flock - and that has led to some heartbreak.

I've had some girls I've really loved. We name our girls and color-code band them so we can tell them apart more easily. There was "Goldie" a Golden Orpington we got as a complimentary chick from our hatchery. She was my shadow when I was in the yard and sometimes would get in front of me wanting to be picked up and held. I found her a couple summers ago during our heat wave dead trying to get into our laying area. She was about a year and a half old.

Buffy was our drama queen. When she would lay an egg the entire area knew of it. I had to cull her when I caught her egg eating.

Then we had the Lavender Orpingtons - Lilac and Iris. I had to cull Lilac for egg eating (we had a bad outbreak a couple summers back - it cost us about a dozen birds); Iris got Bumble Foot. My brother is a vet and came over and helped me treat it doing surgery I didn't have the heart to do. We nursed her back to health just to have to cull her when I caught HER egg eating.

Since then, I have about a half dozen Buff Orpingtons who are doing well and are productive members of the flock. They have been lovable birds and productive birds with great personalities, but if and when something happens to the ones I have now I probably will not replace them with Buff Orpingtons.

We have many types of chickens, and while they are all wonderful and different in their own ways, the Buff Orp is my overall, hands down, favorite chicken. They just have the best personalities. Love being held and petted, they are what I call "mid to upper pecking order packers". They are not bullies, but they don't put up with any bull, either! I have one girl HunHun, who is as faithful as my labrador to me. Every night, she requests to be "tucked in" haha. She likes me to pick her up and put her in the coop, on her perch. If I'm running behind, she'll come up to the backdoor and start pecking at it and looking in like "hey, mom, you ready to put me to bed? I'm waiting." It's adorable. They have the most serious little faces, too. I just love this breed so much, mostly because of the overall "hit the marks" they have. Excellent egg layers, great personality, mild temperament, and affectionate. They get along great with the other birds, too. We ended up getting several more after the first three we purchased were so awesome, and the newest members are turning out to be much the same. They love mama holding them and will even greet me at my car haha. Great birds, you'll love them!

I love my orpingtons they're the best chickens I have!! I have so many varieties too love the colors