There are lots of differences in the various breeds in their performance and their attitudes towards you and towards the rest of the flock. Orpies are one of the more gentle breeds and seem to get along well as a flock. The roosters are average in their behavior I would say, that meaning that they will most likely kill any brooded chicks you may hatch if you don’t protect them and the rooster will start to get kind of feisty on you after a couple of years.
Rocks have much the same sort of behavior, the roosters are typically more gentle, although my current rooster, Fred, puts the lie to that theory. He will try to put the spurs to you if you let him. I keep an old flyswatter by the door to the pen for when Fred gets that rowdy look in his eye. Rocks lay at about the same rate as an Orpie, I get about 6 eggs a day from 10 hens, give or take.
The best laying chicken that I ever had was a Black Australorp (sp) a cross between Orpington’s and something from Australia. They are the world record layers. I believe the record is 500+ eggs from a single hen in a year. I got an egg every day from the one that I had and sometimes two.
Must have chicken book: “Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens” by Gail Damerow. It’s all in there. Good luck.
Thanks for your reply.
Australorp was another one I was wanting to get eventually.
We don’t want any roosters even though they are gorgeous regardless of the breed. Just too noisy and I dont want to deal with an a$$ of a chicken LOL because memories of 30+ years ago , my brother and I both got attacked by our roosters when we were little kids. So no roosters ~!
I didnt know that about the record egg layer Australorp ~ Wow. That’s pretty incredible to say the least ~