Pros and Cons about the Orloff

     The Orloff chicken, like all chicken breeds, has its pros and cons. The original Orloff, as I have heard from one or two sources, was intended to be a meat bird, but further development of the breed has made it closer to a dual-purpose bird (i.e. bred for meat and eggs) than it used to be.

Pros: Very cold hardy, supposedly very capable of defending itself, good free-ranger, good winter layer (compared to some other breeds), ideally should be hardy and resistant to disease

Cons: due to larger size, probably not a very good flier; said to be a poor layer after the first year; some strains may suffer from lack of hardiness due to inbreeding

Joining the USOC

     I recently joined the United States Orloff Club and am proud to be a part of the effort to save and propagate this magnificent breed. As time goes on, I hope to acquire stock from a fellow Orloff breeder here in NC, and also other reliable sources.