
Our Story
We kept our first Orpington chickens in 2008 with just a couple of birds, but as the rest of you know it never ends there!
Dedication
In 2010-11 we travelled the country to collect birds from some of the UKs leading Orpington chicken breeders and exhibitors to add to our existing stock.
In the following years we have built what we believe to be the largest collection of large fowl Orpington chickens in the United Kingdom.
Exhibition quality
We have all the breed standard colours, most of which are of exhibition quality, as well as many non standard colours which we have developed to a very high standard.
Garden Bird
With a very docile temperament and striking good looks the Orpington chicken has become a very popular garden bird.
The fact that they don’t tend to jump fences or fly out of pens due to their size and weight is another added bonus for the home hen keeper!!
Egg layers
The Orpington chicken are not prolific egg layers but will still give 150/200 medium sized light brown eggs during the first year.As with all chickens this will decrease year on year.

New Site
The enthusiasm shown to our previous Orpington chicken website has led us to create this new site, which will allow us to post many more images and gives us the platform to provide much more information regarding Orpington chickens as well as our topical events.
Our flock
As well as our extensive breeding stock of over 250 birds, we have a few sexed Orpington chickens from our 2015 breeding season that will be made available in early springtime.
We will soon begin hatching our 2016 offspring in most of the colours on our website.This year however we will be concentrating on improving the quality of our flock by very selective breeding which will mean a limited amount of growers made available to the public. Also for 2016 there will only be a very limited amount of hatching eggs available.We plan to resume breeding and supplying hatching eggs eggs in the 2017 season.
Vaccinations
From 2016 Essex Orpington’s has taken the step of vaccinating all offspring against IB, EDS, etc… with a multi-vaccine from Nobilis Laboratories as well as vaccinating for mareks and coccidiosis.
Good health
This will assure that no challenges affect the growth and development of the Orpington chickens which is vital in achieving the maximum size, feather quality and general good health.
This also gives peace of mind when integrating new birds with your existing flock.

Success story!
Essex Orpington’s is very proud to have been the first in the UK (to our knowledge) to develop the wonderful colour of Lavender Isabel in large fowl orpingtons.
Through our hatching eggs this colour is now established throughout Europe and America.
Genetics
We will continue to enjoy the challenge of genetics in developing more wonderful colours on these beautiful Orpington chickens and sharing them with you.
Improvement
Whilst we are happy to list and show pictures of some of the Orpington chicken project colours in their development, we are not prepared to sell eggs or birds from certain colours that we think still have much room for improvement and awaiting confirmation of breeding continuity.

Beautiful Feather formations
THE ORPINGTON CHICKEN BREED STANDARDS

Carriage : Bold, upright and graceful; that of an active fowl
Type: Body deep, broad and cobby. Back nicely curved with a somewhat short, concaved outline. Saddle wide and slightly rising with full hackle. Breast broad, deep and well rounded, not flat. Wings small. nicely formed and carried closely to the body, the ends almost hidden by the saddle hackle. Tail rather short, compact, flowing and high, but by no means a squirrel tail.
Head: Small and neat, fairly full over the eyes. Beak strong and nicely curved. Eyes large and bold. Comb single, small, firmly set on head, evenly serrated and free from side sprigs. In the black variety, comb may be single or rose, the latter small, straight and firm, full of fine work or small spikes, level on top (not hollow in centre), narrowing behind to a distinct peak lying well down to the head (not sticking up). Face smooth. Wattles of medium length, rather oblong and nicely rounded at the bottom. Ear-lobes small and elongated.

Neck: Of medium length, curved, compact and full with full hackle.
Legs and feet: Legs short and strong, the thighs almost hidden by the body feathers, well set apart. Toes, four, straight and well spread.
Plumage: Fairly profuse but close, not soft, loose and fluffy as in the Cochin or close and hard as in the Game Fowl.
Handling: Firm.
Female: The general characteristics are similar to those of the male. Her cushion should be wide but almost flat, and slightly rising to the tail, sufficient to give back a graceful appearance with an outline approaching concave.
More information on the Orpington chicken can be found here on this website.

Customer Reviews of Essex Orpingtons
For all reviews please click ‘view more’.
We collected our three little hens today, and we are really pleased. The hens are all vaccinated and in great condition, with plenty of room to roam on fresh grass, with places to sit in the shade,. There's plenty of choice of colours, and it's clear from talking to Steve that he loves all his animals! Really lovely to see, and have no hesitation in recommending!!
We picked up our beautiful buff cockerel from orpington chickens at the weekend, really impressed with the amazing hens and especially the cockerels. Steve keeps all his birds in a clean and healthy environment, with plenty of space and green grass! well worth the long way we traveled and would definitely go again. Many thanks
My hubby took me there last week to collect 3 beautiful hens and a very handsome fella so pleased such a lovely temperament too. Best Mother's Day gift ?? Steve was really helpful he knows birds ????????????
I'd just like to thank you Steve for some great birds! I only bought them by pictures & collected by courier, so had to put my trust in Steve! I can say I am not dissapointed! Beautiful birds & great communication too! Well done Steve for breeding such lovely stock! I will be back in the future! 🙂
We picked up our 2 Black Orpingtons today and we are delighted. I have never seen so many Orpingtons which were all gorgeous, well cared for and we saw around the flock also which was amazing. Steve and his assistant were super, very helpful and knowledgable. I can't recommend them enough for Orpingtons and we will be back. Thank you for Bumble and Bramble, they are gorgeous.


