Small Farms

The Orpington chickens arrived in the United States in 1890.   they were bred by William Cook from Orpington in Kent, England.  Originally the bird was bred for its black plumage because it wouldn’t show the soot found in London at the time.  The black Orpington was introduced in 1886, the white in 1889 and buff in 1894.  Currently, the American Standard only recognizes the Buff, Black, White and Blue varieties.

Characteristics of the breed are:

• A medium single comb with five distinct points- the middle one is the largest
• The tail on the rooster is carried at 25 degrees and the hen at 15 degrees
• Their legs are short; the buff and white have pinkish-white legs whereas the black and blue have a dark slate color
• The eggs are medium-sized with a light to dark brown color

The current status of this breed is “recovering.”  My experience with this chickens is that they are a little high strung.  I own the Buff variety.  They are good layers though and generally get along with the other chickens they nest with at our farm- New Hampshire, Brahmas and Polish.