Poultry

Orpington

Watchlist; Category 2, Endangered.

The Orpington takes its name from the village in Kent where it was created in the 1880s by William Cook. Using various crosses between Black Minorcas, Croad Langshans and the American Barred Plymouth Rock, he developed the Orpington as a good-bodied table bird which produced large brown eggs. He introduced the black variety in 1886, and the white in 1889. When he set out to produce the buff, instead of introducing the buff colour into his newly created black Orpingtons from another breed, he started from scratch, aiming for the same blueprint of requirements, but this time using a combination of Gold Spangled Hamburgh, Dorking and Buff Cochin. The new Buff Orpington was launched in 1890 and rapidly became as popular as the blacks, though its genetic origins were different. The Jubilee Orpington was named to mark the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and spangled, cuckoo, blue and red varieties soon followed.

The Orpington became a popular show bird, bred to become increasingly large and fluffy. Meanwhile, egg production was ignored and the utility traits of the original Orpington were lost.

The Trust recognises both the Orpington and the Buff Orpington separately as a result of their separate genetic origins.

www.theorpingtonclub.co.uk [1]

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