Thursday 15 September 2016

O Is For The Orpington Chicken

O is the latest letter in the Craft Barns Alpha/Dictionary challenge. I was looking at O words in my dictionary when I came across the word Orpington - I live in Orpington and wondered why it was in the dictionary, turns out it was talking about the Orpington Chicken.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about it.
The Orpington is a breed of chicken named after the town of OrpingtonKent, in south-east England, which was made famous in part by this breed. It was bred to be an excellent layer with good meat quality. Its large size and soft appearance together with its rich colour and gentle contours make it very attractive, and as such its popularity has grown as a show bird rather than a utility breed. Hens often become broody and are good mothers. Although rather heavy, they are able to fly small distances but rarely do so.
The original black Orpington was bred by William Cook in 1886, he chose a black bird so that it would hide the dirt and soot of London. 

I got the images for my postcard of the Internet and found that the chickens come in a variety of colours now.


I covered my postcard with a copy of an Orpington road map, I used a credit card to scrape some acrylic paint over it. I left the top right hand corner clear of paint because my road is there quite close to the station.

Thank you for looking.
xxx Hazel.

16 comments:

  1. I never knew a) that you were in Orpington b) that there is such a chicken.....I love how we can always learn something new in all sorts of places! Cracking post :-)

    Sally

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  2. Hazel, this is wonderful. It's amazing how you can relate it to your own town, too. Those are gorgeous birds, but I would never, ever be able to kill one just to eat it. So glad I'm a vegetarian, because these are simply too pretty for anything other than show. This is an excellent word choice, and I'm certain yours will be the only Orpington Chicken entry under O!

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  3. Lovely card, great idea to use 'Orpington' as your word. Hugs, Valerie

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  4. Brilliant idea to depict the Orpington chicken. I've never heard of it before but now I know!!

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  5. How interesting Hazel, I never knew there were different types of the Orpington chicken. I only knew of the Buff Orpington. Great postcard! xxx

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  6. Terrific post about the chickens Hazel and a wonderful collage of them

    Love Chrissie xx

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  7. I learned something new about chickens! Great collage page Hazel!
    I love chickens!
    Happy weekend!
    oxo Susi

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  8. What a fantastic and very original piece Hazel. I was interested to read about the Orpington chicken - those lucky show birds eh! What a great idea to use the map as your background and highlight where you live too. I love it! Barbxx

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  9. What a fascinating post. I love the personal element in your postcard and the relevance it has for you.

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  10. I've learned something new today about Orpington Chickens. Its a super post and a wonderful postcard.
    Yvonne xx

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  11. So informative! Lovely illustration and creative too!

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  12. They are very handsome chickens indeed :) xx

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  13. Well, I did not know there was a chicken named Orpington. What a great idea to choose this for your page. I love it.

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  14. Well, well always good to learn new stuff. Mighty fine specimens they look too. Great idea to use the map as the background.

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  15. And I though a chicken was well, a chicken! Super card Hazel. Thanks for entering the alpha/dictionary challenge and good luck in the draw xx

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  16. What a great choice of word and so near to home! A super collaged postcard.

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