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AliA

Buff Orpington in luxury accommodation

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Hi again,

 

Do you think a buff orpington could live happily in an eglu cube (with 2 additional extensions) and one other playmate of a smaller size?.

 

Some breeders say the orpington in suitable, others say not.

 

Please help?.

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Omlet themselves say that the Eglu is not suitable for large breeds, and you don't get much bigger than a Buff Orpington.

 

I think she would get through the door of the Eglu (a lot of the side width is just feathers), and there would be room inside: but there isn't enough head room in the run. Hens like to jump sometimes, and she would hit her head on the roof.

 

If you are able to let your hens out a lot, she might just manage.

 

I've got a baby Orp (20 weeks) and she is already much larger than my full-grown hybrids. She is with the other big "babies" in the Eglu, but already it is looking too small for them, and I am going to swap hens around in another week or so.

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Sorry, ALi not only meant the Cube, she said the Cube. I am just being stupid.

 

Given that my huge Cochin gets into the Cube without any difficulty, I am sure a Buff Orpington would. (It had better fit in: otherwise when my Buff Orpington gets bigger I am going to be in trouble myself.)

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Orpingtons are certainly large! We took two of our bantams to be rehomed today, with a lady who keeps Orpingtons and pekins, and the size of Orpington cockerels has to be seen to be believed - they are at least 2 feet tall! :shock: The hens are rather smaller, but still a good bit larger than your normal chicken.

 

They are also a very placid breed - apparently the little pekin cockerels are more than a match for the Orpington boys! The people we visited had them in with some Light Sussex and Wyandottes, so I think an Orpington hen would be fine with a normal-sized companion.

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I also wanted big Orpington birdies and I e-mailed Barbara. Her reply was:

 

"I think a Cube would be better for larger birds as it has more space inside and also more height in the run which is much more suitable for large birds such as Orpingtons. It also gives you the option to add more if you want at a later date as the Cube is probably large enough for 6-8 Orpingtons or up to 10 slightly smaller breeds with the 3m run."

 

Hope this helps.

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It might be because they are all feathers which tend to lay loosely rather than close to the body and don't have much body underneath. Just look how big some Persian cats are - they are skinny little rats when they get wet! Although having seen the cube, I don't think I would want more than 6 in there, but 3 for starters is quite enough.

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Hi, I had four Buff Orpingtons and three hybrids in a cube and they were very comfy. They kept very warm inside as well. I dont have the Buffs any more as they all turned out to be cockerals, great shame!

I hope this helps. They had no problems getting in the cube either. So go for it, they are beautiful birds.

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We have 2 Orpingtons and 2 Sussex in our cube. We had originally planned to get a couple more hens for the cube, but have decided that the 4 of them are enough in the cube, we could probably get 2 more in okay. The Orps get in and out fine (although Rosy seems confused as to how to get in every night!) But I would want to have them too squashed in at night.

 

We have a big run for them - it is 9' x 15'. This is because they don't get much chance to get out to free range. We would not have been happy having them in a smaller area as it seems that it would be too confined. But if they are free ranging everyday, then a normal cube run and extension might be fine.

 

This is all just what we think, others with Orps may be better informed than us. But they definetly fit in the cube!

 

Angela

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