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Show ORPINGTON IS PRAISED BY A BREEDER (By S Bosgleter, Ogden i No wonder White Orpingtons are in favor offering the largest income from the smallest labor The adent of the White Orpington has meant a great deal to the poultrv Industry ol this and other counties It has been said that a need of a parti) ular thing has been the cause of most all great Inventions So with the Orpington fowl. It was created b our English brother who realize the need among breeders of poultry of a fowl that would lay more eggs than any of the breeds then existing especially in the winter, when eggs are usually scarce. They saw ibr-need ibr-need of a breed that would stand either ei-ther hot or cold climate a harch fowl that would withstand aderse circumstances circum-stances 8uccessfu''y. and above all, lhe saw the need of an aristocrat looking fowl that would have a handsome hand-some appearance and that would make a fine table fowl with good, fine grain of meat It vas in 1S76 that our English brothers started out to produce the Orpington breed I be ups and downs they encountered encoun-tered is a long story in Itself II will suffice to say that within a tew yea) after crossing Whit? Leghorn males and Black Homlsung females and us Ing the females from this cross by mating them to white Dorking males that what was several years ago fir termed White Orpingtons were produced. pro-duced. They soon became very popular pop-ular on thpir own merit Once thej were kept b a resident of some com munity it was not long until a major lt of all poultry breeders in that section were keeping the White Orpingtons Or-pingtons and singing their praises to their neighbors and friends It has been a good man) yearn more. In fact than most believe, siix . the White Orpington was first bred iu this country, bul It has been during the last four or six years that it real ly became looked upon as one of the best known and most extensively bred varieties in America As stated above the natural result of tins extension of White Orpington Orping-ton breeding has been a great boom (o the poultry industry. Just as toon as the American farmer In every' tlon of this broad land of ours learns the facts regarding their heavy winter win-ter egg production, their hardiness, quick growth and heavy meat, thej will take them up with a im. resulting result-ing In our good fanners' wives making mak-ing more clear money from poultrv than ever before. The natural result of this has been that each and every day finds mor" farmers taking up the White Orplng I tons, purchasing their stock of eggs Troni their neighbor farmer or llio smaller fancier, who. thus encouragi 1 by their salts, have improved the jiialit of their stock by purchasing till better and higher priced sto ! from the larger breeders The strug ! gle we breeders have had has been to get them white. I do not mean by this that they are susceptible to an foreign color to an alarming degree, de-gree, but their greatest color fault has been the tendency of the females j to show a tinge of creamlness in the first half of the wing closest to the fleeh; also in undercolor, showing pri martly in the shaft of the back, hack i el and fluff The stay-white color of plumage In the breast, thigh and tail 'sections on females has not been hard I to attain. It has been with the males that we have had the greatest color obstacles I to overcome during the past few years It seemed a few years ago that it I would be next to Impossible to pro-I pro-I duce a male bird that after a season i in the breeding pen where the rain and sunshine hit his plumage, would ! stay white On the contrary, if seem-I seem-I ed that every bird having experience of this kind would not only turn creamy, but the surface of his hackel back, saddle and wing plumage would turn a yellow color. I do not believe that any one can honestly claim lo have a strain today that will produce even a majority of males that will ; stay w hite Yet I do know that sev eral of us produced some during the season of 1912 that have remained as white as any one could This is a very encouraging feature lo be sure, and tends to show thai within a few vears the best and most careful breeders will be raising as large a percentage of males and (e- males that will stand the weather, feed and all else as do the best breeds oi Leghorns. Rocks or YVyundoltes Personally, I have worked alonp; a certain line in my efforts to produce the stay-white birds and I am convinced con-vinced that I base made no mlBtake, as my birds raised the last few sea sons indicate I watched tu young stock as it matured When they begin be-gin to grow their third and last set of feathers. I watch them closely so as to note the new feathers as they start to ktow' Some birds produce feathers having a creamy color when about halt grown out. Others would have a pinkish white color a9 the feathers grow out Later of course, the feathers on botn biids would bleach as the new oil. dried out from the feathers, and both for the time being would look while t the time of mating I allow the color col-or of the new undeveloped feathers 'o influence I always handed or other wise marked those that produced the : pmking white feathers, and these are the ones I would select as my breed ers from the next year or season. 1 have found that this class will come nearer staying white and will breed more stay white birds than will those where their new feathers break a creamy yellow-Regarding yellow-Regarding the shape of White Or p'.nplons, 1 want to say: A perfect comb has five even points, but this does not mean that evor five-pointed five-pointed comb is perfect, as many beginners be-ginners seem to think Every terra-tion terra-tion more or less than five Is cut one-half one-half point more severely. First, you cannot get them too lare. By large I do not mean fat. I mean a largeness made possible by big bone, a long, deep and broad can ass heavy Orpington is much desired so long as it does not have any excessive exces-sive fat on it I have followed another an-other plan of my own regarding shape and w hich I am pleased to recommend as it has worked out successfully with me. To explain. 1 must go back to the young birds referred to that I marked on account of their pinkish while new feathers. 1 watch them carefully as they finish up or round out. Some will appear to finish quick or than others. They will plump out grow their tail nnd neck feathers quickly and will soon have the appearance ap-pearance of a finished bird for showing. show-ing. AJ1 well and good. It is nice to have a few like that to show at earh winter shows, but this class will never make the largest boned birds. I say never perhaps that is not right, as once among several of this kind one of these young birds that finished lis plumage quickly will develop large bone and frame, but it is seldom they will equal in size the young birds which appear to have a larger frame, big bone and carry themselves move or less outwardly and look as though they Blep tw ice as far as other classes. This type of youngsters seldom finish In plumage early enough to exhibit as a cockerel, but they mo3t always make a large-boned bird that will carry car-ry a long deep body, broad breast and I back An a cock bird, they can be depended upon to make elegant exhibition exhi-bition birds as breeders. I have iu-n iu-n ;ins found that a male of this type will pmduce a larger portion of large, good-shaped birds My only reason for writing this is that I believe it will interest some of your readers. If any one wants lo become thoroughly successful In poultry poul-try rnising he must commence at the bottom of the ladder He must not make his first venture at a dlsvy height- that poultry height that poultry poul-try men with years of experience have not yet attained |
