Our Buff Orpingtons
The Orpington Duck is a dual-purpose breed used for meat and egg production. It has been known to lay up to 220 eggs a year. It was created by William Cook of Orpington, Kent, UK. The breeds used in the development of the breed included Cayuga, Indian Runner, commercial Aylesbury and Rouen.
There are five colours of Orpington, Buff, Blue, Black, Chocolate and White but only Blue and Buff are known to be in Australia.
As a breed the Orpington is quite useful. Of medium size, giving excellent full breasted and plump ducklings, hardy, vigorous, and quite good layers of excellent-sized and generally pure white eggs. They are most suitable for fanciers and private persons who want a useful yet good-looking bird - ideal, in fact, for the hobbyist.
Standards of Perfection
THE DUCK
Head: Fine and oval in shape. Skull narrow.
Eyes: Brown iris with blue pupil, set high in the head; large and bold, giving the head a look of alertness and activity. A deepset, scowling eye is objectionable.
Bill: Proportionate to the head in size, upper mandible straight from bean to base in line with the highest point of skull.
Neck: slender, of moderate length, upright.
Body: long, broad, and deep, particularly at the shoulders; free from any sign of keel. Full, round breast. When in lay, the duck's abdomen should be nearly touching the ground. Strong wings carried closely to the sides. The back should be perfectly straight in line, the tail being small, compact and rising slightly from the line of the back.
Legs of moderate length proportionate to the body of the duck, strong and well apart; straight toes connected by web.
Plumage tight and glossy.
Carriage should be slightly elevated at the shoulders, not quite so horizontal as the Aylesbury, but avoiding any tendency to confusion with the upright carriage of the Pekin or Runner.
THE DRAKE
The type and general physical characteristics of the drake should be identical with those of the duck after allowing for sexual differences. The chief sexual differences are as follows: Slightly increased length and weight, curved feathers in tail, longer bill, and colour differences, lack of depth in abdomen.
Colour and Genetics
THE BUFF
Duck: Plumage a rich shade of fawn/buff, even throughout, the head and upper part of the drake's neck at least two shades darker than his body colour. Free from lacing, barring and pencilling, blue, brown or white feathers.
Drake: Colour is the same as in ducks, and as level as possible throughout with the following differences:
Head and neck, seal brown with bright gloss, but complete absence of beetle green. The seal brown of the drake's neck should terminate in a sharply defined lie all the way round the neck.
The rump should be reddish brown as free from "blue" as possible.
Common faults to be avoided are blue in rump, pale colour or deep brown under tail, white wing. Serious faults are grey, silver, or blue head, white feathers in neck, brown secondaries, beetle green in any part, very green bill, and any of the physical defects mentioned against the duck.
Bill: orange with dark bean.
Eyes: brown iris and blue pupil.
Legs and Feet: bright orange red in colour.
The Orpington duck is available in three colour varieties: Buff, Blond and Brown. The Buff Orpington is an unstable colour due to a blue dilution gene which means that from the offspring, all three colour variations will appear.
Scale of Points
Colour: 30
Type: 25
Size: 25
Head: 10
Legs and Feet: 10
Our Buff Oprington
We started this project in 2022, sourcing quality birds from breeders around the country. During this time we have bred birds with an overall focus on type, colour and size. We are excited to see how are birds go in the 2023 shows, this is the first year we will be exhibiting these birds. Wish us luck and stay tuned.
