In the USA our variety of Russian Orloffs is extremely limited. We have Spangles for the most part, and a very small number of Mahogany Orloffs, nearly all of which come from a single line, started by Erhard Weihs of Kummer Poultry in Washington state. There are other varieties that are experimentally being worked on by dedicated breeders all over the country. I myself am planning an experimental self-black line (the original Orloff color), but it takes a great deal of time and effort to develop colors from scratch.

I began asking around about Mahogany orloffs, and just had the luck to see someone rehoming their beautiful Mahogany cockerel, called Popcorn. They adore him, but as so many people find, their neighbors have complained about his crowing, so now they must find him somewhere else, rooster-friendly to live. This coming weekend we will be making the drive to pick him up, and he'll join my bachelor flock (after a quarantine period).

Mahogany Orloffs have a very shallow gene pool in the USA, as they all come from one line. Popcorn is from Green Fire Farms, who do not really breed toward the proposed standard, but do have the luxery of being able to import from other countries. I am still waiting to hear back from them on whether or not their Mahoganies are purely American or include import bloodlines. Either way, I plan to pair Popcorn with a spangled hen and then breed out the white over-time, to start a new Mahogany line and diversify the gene pool.

As I've mentioned, starting a new color line is very time-consuming, so my outcrossed Mahoganies will not be ready to share for some time, but in the future I hope to be able to share both Mahoganies and Black Russian Orloffs with others.

Photo courtesy of Lia Wolk Short, Popcorn's current owner.