A
Anonymous
Guest
Hello all
I finally managed to add to my flock today.
I'm now the proud dad of five Buff Orpington hens and one Buff Orpington cockeral! After being used to my welsummers and two pekins, this lot looks enormous, the smallest hen is about the same size -ish as the bigger welsummers. The biggest hens are BIG, and cockeral is a monster. He's easily five times the size of little Rambant the hooligan pekin. He's been named Odin and the hens are becoming known collectively as 'The laydees'. They remind me of big buxom women with big frilly bloomers and rosy cheeks but with a hint of Little Britain added. A bit of an overactive imagination me thinks!
I took a big precaution in bulding a separate enclosure for the orps so there's no battles between them and my original gang. The welsummers came and had a look then wandered off, even Rambant didn't seem too bothered after his initial look.
What I wasn't prepared for was the orps fighting amongst themselves! This is the worst fighting I've seen from any chickens. They were ripping each others feathers out, squaring up to each other, jumping on each other, even ragging each other around by the back of the neck! Eventually Big Odin stepped in and calmed things down a bit but there's been so much squabbling in the hour I had them before bedtime. I hope this is just a reorganising of the pecking order while they settle into their new home. :?
They didn't know where bed was so they took a bit of guiding into their house. I had to upgrade the perches because those flimsy little sticks would never have lasting with those big bruisers all sitting on together. I was out until 9pm last night fiinishing the enclosure and had to hold a torch under my chin so I could see while screwing the roof on. Building a new hen house in gale force wind, in the dark has been one of my least enjoyable experiences so far this year :evil:
The weird thing now is that being after some orps for so long, now I've got them I don't feel the same way I did when I got my first lot. I'm sure they'll grow on me but so far they seem to have completely different temperament to my welsummers. I'd always understood orps to be very placid and docile birds. I hope this lot settles down soon. I'd hate to see feathers fly the way they did today :shock:
I'm planing on keeping them in their enclosure for around two weeks so they all get used to seing each other then do a supervised opening of the gate to see how they go. I'm a bit concerned about having two cockerals on the same turf. I'm planning on having their houses at opposite ends of the garden so they've plenty of land between themand hopefully they can patrol their own territory without meeting too often.
Odin is a big lad but Rambant is a hooligan who doesn't back down. I'd rather have one big happy flock but if needs be I could always have two separate runs. I know it's been covered on other threrads but I'm more than open to any tips and suggestions you all might have for me. Anything for a peacful life, preferably without bloodshed or flying feathers!
Osric
I finally managed to add to my flock today. I'm now the proud dad of five Buff Orpington hens and one Buff Orpington cockeral! After being used to my welsummers and two pekins, this lot looks enormous, the smallest hen is about the same size -ish as the bigger welsummers. The biggest hens are BIG, and cockeral is a monster. He's easily five times the size of little Rambant the hooligan pekin. He's been named Odin and the hens are becoming known collectively as 'The laydees'. They remind me of big buxom women with big frilly bloomers and rosy cheeks but with a hint of Little Britain added. A bit of an overactive imagination me thinks!
I took a big precaution in bulding a separate enclosure for the orps so there's no battles between them and my original gang. The welsummers came and had a look then wandered off, even Rambant didn't seem too bothered after his initial look.
What I wasn't prepared for was the orps fighting amongst themselves! This is the worst fighting I've seen from any chickens. They were ripping each others feathers out, squaring up to each other, jumping on each other, even ragging each other around by the back of the neck! Eventually Big Odin stepped in and calmed things down a bit but there's been so much squabbling in the hour I had them before bedtime. I hope this is just a reorganising of the pecking order while they settle into their new home. :?
They didn't know where bed was so they took a bit of guiding into their house. I had to upgrade the perches because those flimsy little sticks would never have lasting with those big bruisers all sitting on together. I was out until 9pm last night fiinishing the enclosure and had to hold a torch under my chin so I could see while screwing the roof on. Building a new hen house in gale force wind, in the dark has been one of my least enjoyable experiences so far this year :evil:
The weird thing now is that being after some orps for so long, now I've got them I don't feel the same way I did when I got my first lot. I'm sure they'll grow on me but so far they seem to have completely different temperament to my welsummers. I'd always understood orps to be very placid and docile birds. I hope this lot settles down soon. I'd hate to see feathers fly the way they did today :shock:
I'm planing on keeping them in their enclosure for around two weeks so they all get used to seing each other then do a supervised opening of the gate to see how they go. I'm a bit concerned about having two cockerals on the same turf. I'm planning on having their houses at opposite ends of the garden so they've plenty of land between themand hopefully they can patrol their own territory without meeting too often.
Odin is a big lad but Rambant is a hooligan who doesn't back down. I'd rather have one big happy flock but if needs be I could always have two separate runs. I know it's been covered on other threrads but I'm more than open to any tips and suggestions you all might have for me. Anything for a peacful life, preferably without bloodshed or flying feathers!
Osric
.Did the seller have them all together?
.
.Best description of an Orp hen I've heard 
.
