It’s always been a goal of mine to take one of our chickens to a show to be judged. I love the idea of raising the perfect, gorgeous bird and bringing home the blue ribbon. Over the years, that goal has lingered in the back of my head while we dabbled with other venues of farming.
When I first got into chickens I understood very little about showing chickens. I raised Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, and Lavender Orpingtons thinking these rare breeds would be an especially popular show bird.
But I was wrong. Both of these breeds, like many others that we raised aren’t even recognized by the APA (American Poultry Association) and would only be allowed to be entered in a specific sub category meant for newer specialty breeds.
However, I loved our BLRW and our Lavenders. I thought they were beautiful examples of chickens. So I raised them for pleasure and my idea of showing a bird was set aside.
Over the years, I’ve had experience with many breeds of chicken. And when I decided to get back into the idea of showing a bird, I kept going back to one breed that I’ve always loved, that being the Buff Orpington.
They are like the golden retriever of chickens. Large, super gentle, lovable babies and that warm golden- buff color is such a soothing shade, like butter or honey or the sunset on a field of wheat. They’re simple, but beautiful. I also love that they are a traditional “chicken”. Meaning there’s nothing really fancy about them. I like that in a breed. I like that you have to focus on the subtleties of the feathering, the body type. It doesn’t rely on show-y plumage or patterns to make it a gorgeous bird.
We’ve been doing some evaluating of our flock and trying to decide which area we’d like to focus. Right now we have a menagerie of different chickens, great egg layers and beautiful birds, but I want a goal. I’ve never raised chickens for meat and eggs alone, I must admit that my favorite part about raising chickens is seeing what they develop into. Breeding the most attractive pairs and raising up the offspring.
However, to do this seriously, I have to pick a breed and stick with it. It’s too hard to try and do this with several breeds. We don’t have enough separation pens, and we don’t need that many different chicken breeds.
I also would like to keep room for our other species of poultry like our guineas, geese, turkeys and ducks which I enjoy very much.
I’d like to keep a small variety of colored egg layers. We have some old French Black Copper Marans that are still producing some nice dark eggs, and some Easter Eggers and Oliver Eggers to mix up the egg basket.
But our focus right now as far as breeding is concerned, is with the Buffs.
The Buff Orpingtons we have now, while beautiful birds, have some genetic aspects that don’t fit the breed standard for Buff Orpingtons. For example, one of our roosters has a few white feathers in his tail, his tail is also too long for a Buff Orpington rooster. The standard likes a shorter, blunt tail, similar to a hen. Most of the remaining flock has a bit of dark feathering in their tails as well. Which as I’ve read, isn’t necessarily a bad thing to have in your breeding stock.
While these particular birds wouldn’t show well, it’s not a bad thing to have their genetics mixed into the flock. Some say the peppering of the tail helps keep the buff color true from generation to generation.
Our females also have a bit of inconsistency of texture to the saddle feathers which is common in Lavender Orpingtons as well. When I raised Lavenders, feather quality was always something I tried to focus on.
My plan is to work with the genetic lines we have now. We have the Buffs separated to keep the lines clean from other breeds of rooster we keep. This also allows me to easily compare one bird to the next. I can also “baby” this breed. Right now we are feeding a special show formula feed that is supposed to produce attractive plumage and nice body type. This is now do-able and cost effective because there’s only the 4 chickens on this more expensive feed.
Take the video tour of our new Buff Coop!
I am happy with the body type that these birds posses. The rooster is not leggy and has a nice square back. The hens are also well proportioned according to the standard.
I plan on hatching out buffs from this flock come springtime and seeing what the offspring become over the summer. I also have my “finders” on, in search of even better quality Buffs to add to our flock.
I will keep you updated as our Buff experiment continues.
Have you raised Buffs? I’d love your advice, what do you love about this breed, and what suggestions do you have for people like us who’d like to begin showing? Leave a comment below, or visit the Community Chickens Facebook Page.
5 Comments
I have a mix of chickens as well. Mostly Ri Reds, but I do have one Buff and she has always been a beautiful bird. She’s going on ten years old this spring and summer and still lays an occasional egg. I quit going to chicken shows and fairs many years ago and dropped out of the APA mainly because I was working on and MA in history. I also sold my registered Appaloosa to move closer to the area where I was going to school. Both were mistakes, but that’s an old lesson learned now. Anyway, it took a while before I figured out I could have chickens here in town. I could have a rooster, but I like my neighbors and they like me, so I want to keep it that way. It would be nice to breed some buffs from Buffy, but with no rooster, that’s impossible. She has all the good qualities of a show buff-pure gold, small comb and wattles, fluffy with soft feathers, very stout build, low to the ground, and very calm. She tries to hatch eggs that will never hatch every spring and I humor her for about two weeks before I kick her off the nest. I understand that that’s what buffs do best-hatch and raise peeps, so I try to let her have some fun in her old age. Back when I went to shows, my mother raised a mixed flock too and had a beautiful buff rooster. King George. He was so gold, it almost hurt your eyes. Nice calm rooster too, not mean to the hens or people like the Reds can be. I would have traded her for George, but I had Buddy, a huge, wonderful light brahma that was probably the most gentle rooster I’ve ever had. Now, I raise chickens for eggs, entertainment, and to help out with the yard and garden work. They do a good job, especially Buffy. Since, I don’t have a rooster, she’s assumed that job and alerts the others to dangers. Very nice breed for kids too. Calm, gentle, soft, and fluffy.
Hi Jennifer, I raise Buff Orps too. I don’t show, but the lines I have are from show stock – heavy, fluffy, blocky and gentle. I have hens from a very old line, the Louis Clevenger line. I also have 2 Fred Farthing roosters. I am a big fan of genetic diversity which is why I have roosters that are unrelated to the hens. I have hatching eggs available, see my webpage (below). I have also heard to keep hens with ‘smut’ in their tail feathers for breeding to keep the color vibrant. I also keep roosters with good color. No light colored roosters make it into the breeding program.
Am looking for buff orpington fertile eggs
Do you still have BO hatching eggs available? I don’t see your website listed.
Raised and showed buff Orpingtons, Silkies, and Bronze, Narragansett, and Royal Palm turkeys for show. I went to shows for two years before starting and asked a lot of questions and even talked to the “official” poultry judges. I also joined my local poultry club that held an annual show; one thing I learned from the club members is how they actually “bathe” and “blow dry” their birds. Unless you actually go to a show and SEE what wins, you may think you have perfect quality but they don’t meet what the judges look for. I started my flocks from multiple sources and bought eggs or chicks, I also watched for local birds being sold. I never bought commercial “show” feeds, but made my own and the birds were rarely allowed to free range – reason is because the become too leggy and healthy looking for show. For Orpingtons, judges like very stocky compact thick looking birds, and free range birds have a slightly sleeker appearance because of all of the exercise. Also the birds with less exercise have more feathers and less get damaged, same with their combs/wattles and leg skin; they also tend to be less uniform in color due to direct sunshine. And lastly, it takes a lot of “luck”. Each judge has his/her own preferences and they see standards differently; your birds may win with one judge but not with another.
I quit with showing chickens because “EVERYBODY” shows chickens and it is a “crap shoot”, but very few people show turkeys (it costs more and they take up a lot more space for transport) and I won several shows, including best in show. I quit after a couple of wins and now just show at my county fair.
Good luck, it’s an interesting experience. And if you win, your birds, “hatching eggs”, and chicks will have more value if you sell them. My turkey eggs tripled in price when auctioned on eBay.