White Orpingtons

My Brother loves saving the rare breeds. Can you believe the White Orpington was created and accepted by the American Poultry Association long before the famous Buff Orpington? Now, the White Orpington is on the Critical list for endangered breeds. This means there are less than 500 breeding birds in the United States. My brother is one of those breeders. A surge of popularity in people wanting rare and unusual colors in common breeds has helped to increase the White Orpington numbers, however they are still not out of the woods yet.

The original Black Orpington was bred by William Cook in 1886 According to the British Poultry Standards, the White was bred in 1889, the Buff in 1894, and the Blue in 1905. When the breed was shown in Madison Square Gardens in 1895, its popularity here in the United Stated soared.

The original colors are black, white, buff, blue and splash. Between My Brother and I, we have all these colors and dabble in a few of the new colors.  Although there are many additional varieties recognized throughout the world, only the original colors are recognized by the American Standard, the Buff being the most common.

The Orpington was bred to be an excellent layer with good meat quality. Their large size and soft appearance together with their rich color and gentle contours make them very attractive, and as such its popularity has grown as a show bird rather than a utility breed. We continue to breed only the best and are working with the White Orpington to increase in size to obtain the Continental United States version and the APA Standard of Perfection.

My Brothers White Orpingtons are the friendliest on the farm.  They are sweet and will crawl up into your lap. Roosters stay very people orientated. The hens go broody very often, and make great mothers. Being rather heavy, they are able to fly only small distances and rarely do, so they work well as backyard birds for anyone. Due to their build they do well in very cold climates laying eggs throughout the winter. The fluff of their feathers allows rain water to penetrate, so they must be kept out of the rain which is not a problem for My Brother, as we live in the desert.

We have White Orpingtons in the incubator and would love to spread the wealth of these wonderful birds to anyone that would like to have the White Orpington in their back yard, or to join us at the APA shows!

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