We began with our first clutch of fertile hatching Isabel Cuckoo Orpington Eggs in 2021 and are in the process of establishing our lines for clan mating. Last year we brought in a clutch of eggs from Greenlands Farm Crele Cuckoo Orpington lines, to help darken our Isabel colors (which tend to fade over 3-4 generations). Our goal is Large healthy beautiful English Style birds with friendly personalities who are also good layers and brood mothers. We believe that broodiness is not something we necessarily want to breed out of our hens, as inconvenient as it can be sometimes! Our chickens are like family to us, so we felt moved to share some little stories about each of our breeding flock members below.
Check out availability for pullets, hens, and hatching eggs on our home page.
Contact us directly to verify availability, make special requests, or order fertile hatching eggs.
Isabel Cuckoo Orpingtons
Rising Moon – 2021-2022 Rooster (Foundation Rooster from MyPetChicken in 2021)
Mooney was retired from our flock in 2022 after giving us some lovely hens and roos from a mating with Dancer. He was a sweet boy with very pretty gold and silver coloring and an English Orpington body type, although a bit smaller than we would like. When Mooney was just a young cockerel sharing the flock with our Ameraucana rooster, a Hawk landed in our yard. He led all his hens to safety and afterwards did not crow for 2 weeks! Thanks to his quick thinking we did not lose any birds, and have not had any further trouble with hawks. Not to mention that the hawk looked quite perplexed at how large the chickens were – he decided our birds would be a little too heavy to lift, I think!
Dancer – 2021 Hen (Foundation Hen from MyPetChicken in 2021)
Dancer is a tough little hen who rules the flock with an iron beak. As a chick, she hatched along with 2 other eggs – the smallest of the 3. At about 3 days old we almost lost her, she was unable to stand and couldn’t walk. What saved her was her tremendous love for food and some very diligent nursing on the part of my partner and myself. We learned all about the value of fresh egg yolk to save a chick when you have nothing else on hand! She made a full recovery and aside from a bit of an awkward leg position, she is none the worse for wear. She is a good layer of light brown eggs that have a somewhat golden speckled sheen to them and has given us some beautiful babies (see below).
Iris – 2022 Hen (Dancer Hen x Rising Moon Rooster)
This is the first breeding year for Iris, but we don’t yet have an unrelated rooster to mate her with. Generally we don’t do brother to sister matings or line breeding due to problems that can come from inbreeding. In the meanwhile, Iris has proven to be a good layer with a sweet and friendly disposition. She also successfully hatched and raised a brood of our Ameraucana babies this year and we are so proud of her!
Degas – 2022-2023 Flock Rooster (Dancer Hen x Rising Moon Rooster)
Degas is Dancer’s son, and his sire is “Rising Moon” – a rooster from the same batch of eggs as Dancer. Degas is larger and brighter in color than his Daddy, but still has the sweet disposition we require in all our breeding birds. He is a phenomenal flock rooster – breaking up hen fights, gentle and respectful with mating his hens, and just the other night helped me round up an errant pullet and get them into the run! We have some brand new babies from him hatched in July 2023 and may have one or two pullets available soon. All his babies so far this year are Crele Split to Isabel, from an outcross to our GORGEOUS Crele Cuckoo Orpington hen, Alex (see her photo below).
Crele Cuckoo Orpingtons
Alex (Greenlands Farm, 2022)
It is hard to get a photo that does Alex justice, she is just a spectacular hen. Alex was raised as a singleton after the batch of hatching eggs proved to mostly be not fertile and her only sibling had to be culled due to a leg deformity than rendered him unable to walk. She was in the house with us for many months, since she hatched in September. Because she had no siblings, we tried introducing her to a Silkie roo that we were fostering. This went well and kept her company through the winter months indoors. Needless to say she is a bit quirky! When Alex is fussed about waiting for the nest box she makes a sound that reminds us of a peacock! Eventually she was able to move outside with a brooder plate heater in her coop and has blossomed into an ENORMOUS fluffy English Orpington. She comes from Greenlands Farm in Bolivia, N.C. and is the proud mama of 4 beautiful babies so far.
Bobbie – pullet hatched July 2023 (Alex Crele Hen x Degas Isabel Rooster)
Bobbie looks to be one of our “keepers” for the 2023 breeding season. She has and intense mahogany color that we have not seen before in a Crele Cuckoo Hen. As if this beauty isn’t enough, she is the most friendly of our Orpingtons and loves pets and cuddles. We hope to breed her in the 2024 season and get both Crele and Isabel pullets from her.
(photo coming soon!)
Drummer – pullet hatched July 2023 (Alex Crele Hen x Degas Isabel Rooster)
Drummer was originally not on our “keep” list, as we were trying to be conservative about the number of birds in our foundation flock. But after an injury brought her inside for a week of first aid, we just fell in love with her. She has a calm solid and friendly temperament, and as she is growing up, is becoming almost identical to her mother in color, conformation and FLUFF. We are glad for this happy accident that led to keeping our “little drummer girl” with us.
(photo coming soon!)
Amos – cockerel hatched July 2023 (Alex Crele Hen x Degas Isabel Rooster hatched July 2023)
Amos is our reserve cockerel and may become the foundation of clan B as we move into establishing our clan mating pools. He is developing beautiful orange and mahogany barred coloring. He has the same sweet personality as his sire, Degas, and is currently learning the ropes of being a flock rooster from his papa.
(photo coming soon!)
Rainbow Orpingtons (our breeding experiment)
Because I’m a geneticist by training, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to experiment a little. In 2022 our sweet Buff Orpington Hen, Ivy, (from MyPetChicken American Orpington lines) unexpectedly died from toadstool poisoning. At the time we serendipitously had a fertility test running with one of her eggs. To preserve her genetics, we decided to let that egg hatch and were rewarded with our sweet and quirky hen Frankie (more about her below).
The goal of our Rainbow Orp breeding program is to preserve the sweet personality of our beloved girl, and to create a line of genetically diverse, healthy, friendly birds from mixed American and English Orpington lines. Buff Orpington color genetics are still a little bit mysterious so it’s also an opportunity to collect some data on color genetics.
Frankie (Ivy Hen x Rising Moon Rooster)
Frankie is the apple of our eye, hands down our favorite Orpington hen! When she first began laying eggs, she demanded to be let into the house and lay her egg in the pet crate that we use to transport our young pullets between the brooder and the outdoor playpen on warm days. She decided that was the safest place to lay her egg and turned up her beak at the plethora of nest boxes we provided. (Check out this video on my instagram account if you want to see her in action)
Red (Frankie Hen x Degas Rooster)
From birth, Red was an unusual girl. She was the largest of her clutch, with extremely long and fluffy down feathers. We were so SURE she was a rooster! This happened with her mama too, who was such a placid chick that we figured she had to be a roo. Much to our surprise, Red has grown into a beautiful young hen with red feathers that have a lighter lacing. We are excited to see what she grows into.
(stay tuned for photos)
Check out availability for pullets, hens, and hatching eggs on our home page.
Contact us directly to verify availability, make special requests, or order fertile hatching eggs.