# first lavender orpington egg



## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Those are lovely! What kind of personality do Orpingtons have?

I sure miss my chickens, but will not rebuild the coop and get more chickens until I have the garden fence rebuilt. That darn bear sure did an awful lot of damage. I'll have to string hot wire before I move any chickens in.

On a positive note, Henrietta, the chicken the bear injured but did not kill, is doing well. I'm not sure I ever posted the fact that we took her to a teenager who wants to be a veterinarian and she treated her wound (a big hole in her neck). Now Henrietta has moved in with the flock at their house. She even grew feathers on the damaged area on her neck.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

That's a beautiful egg. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost. Glad your chickens are doing well.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Johanna I think you would love Orpingtons. They are calm and sweet. It is easy t pick them up especially if you handle them a lot as chicks. They are good solid layers. Buffs are very common (and inexpensive). Lavenders are a rare breed but beautiful and I think will also be great layers. There are also blue Orpingtons. Orpingtons are said to tend to go broody, but my previous buff girl never went broody. My blue ameraucanas by contrast do go broody and I have had to work hard to break them of it (not so much because they don't lay, but they don't eat while brooding!)


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I know we had winter solstice and I can feel the daylight lengthing too. 

Given the miserable weather I’m surprised they are laying eggs. I can see how fun it is to have different kinds of birds so you get different eggs.


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Catherine, how to you interrupt brooding? When Henrietta went broody, I tried the cold water bath method with some success. I was amazed that she did not seem to object to being held in a tub of cold water.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Skylar I am also pretty impressed that they are producing under these conditions. There are probably all sorts of reasons they should not be laying now, but hormones and day length seem to be winning out at least for the youngsters. Unfortunately yesterday one of the buffs laid and I didn't find the egg until it had frozen solid and cracked. I feel badly that the young lady's effort has gone to waste.

Johanna my best strategy for interrupting brooding is to keep the bird under consideration away from the nest boxes. I often actually made that bird sleep in the run and totally blocked her from the coop too if needed. With the new coop it may be harder to use that method without physically collecting the broody and locking her out from the coop. The new coop doesn't ahve a way to block them from the nest boxes without also totally locking them away from the coop and their main feeder and waterer. We will see how things go once the weather is warm and the days are truly long enough to put them to brooding.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

Ooh, very pretty egg! The girls and I used to love collecting eggs; it was always a surprise as to what you would find. Our Orpingtons were always big babies. They got handled a lot, and seemed to like it.The challenge was making sure the pooping end was not overhanging your body, oops.


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Glorious egg - you are so lucky to have the girls. Excuse my ignorance but what is being broody?


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## Mufar42 (Jan 1, 2017)

What pretty eggs. I've never had chickens except as a very young child. I remember at Easter the shoe store would give out half dozen baby chicks when you purchased new shoes. We always ended up with roosters. My mom would cook them, yuck I can't imagine the anymore. My niece lives rural and her son wanted chickens so they have a few and get fresh eggs everyday.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Asta's Mom hens go broody when their levels of progesterone rise. It makes them want to incubate the eggs rather than laying and then leaving to go about their business. After a few days of laying other eggs they then stop laying to await the hatching of chicks to care for. If you want to produce chicks, having a few broody hens is good since they will be good moms, but when all you want is eggs brooding throws a little wrench in the works.

Charmed, I was able to pick up my first buff Orpington anytime I wanted to and she was happy to be carried around the yard. They are very sweet birds. I have generally avoided breeds with ornery reputations. With the exception of one of my lighter colored Ameraucanas everybody is pretty relaxed. That one girl was resistant to integrating the new birds and will still give other birds the business, but never to the point that it is really worrisome.


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