Blue/Splash Orpingtons

My Brother has Blue and Splash Orpingtons. My Brother feels they are the most colorful of the Accepted Orpingtons, and My Brother is about out of new things to talk about on the specific Breed!!. So My Brother feels a little history of this magnificent Breed is a better topic on this page. My Brother got his information from the United Orpington Club.

 

It was not easy for the Orpington to be accepted by the American Public. Objections to chickens with black legs and white skin were lodged against Black Orpingtons and later the white or pink legs and white skin of Buff and White Orpingtons was considered a serious market flaw!! Americans demanded the traditional yellow-skinned and yellow-legged poultry when roasting their dinner.

 

The Orpington in America was doomed if it had not been for a  master hand at promoting and advertising new breeds in England. By lavish use of printers' ink, the superior qualities of Orpingtons were "laid on with a thick brush," the defects kept in the background. The result of all his claims of superiority over all other breeds is that Orpingtons are today the most popular fowl in England.

 

The originator, William Cook, died in 1904, just when Orpingtons were beginning to boom rapidly. It was when Mr. Cook appeared at the Madison Square Garden, New York, in 1903 with a great string of English Orpingtons and received fulsome press notices in the daily papers of his exhibits that the real Orpington boom in the United States was launched. Just imagine how proud he would be today just knowing how much we love his birds! William Cook was in a class by himself. He was a salesman! He was a star! And the prices for Orpingtons at that memorable show were exceedingly high. The purchasers were men of wealth, as a rule, who realized that aside from the beauty, they would be a good business investment!.

 

Single Comb Black Orpingtons and Single Comb Buff Orpingtons were exhibited at the Madison Square Garden Show, New York , in 1899, twelve single entries and one pen being the total. By 1909-1910 in New York, a total of 478 Orpingtons were entered! A remarkable showing for any breed of English origin in a country where there was supposed to be little demand for poultry with white skin and white or black shanks!!

 

My Brother, too, has fallen for the Orpington. We know that you will too!

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