Lavender Orpington Thread

[HerbGir1972]

Our guy has thickened up
We need to weight him

Really is an armful.
Looking forward to welcoming 5 of his babies into the world in 7 days

 

[Southguy]

We have 4 baby chick Lavender Orpingtons. They are doing well - such a great breed!

 

[MsKay]

This girl makes me smile.

English Lavender Cuckoo Orpington.

 

[Chickynik]

I have 5 Lavs. 4 girls, 1 boy

 

[jhhess]

Finally got some pictures of the ladies free ranging. I love their fluffy butts. - Janis

 

[Faraday40]

Cuddles. The BEST chicken in the world to me.
April 23, 2014 - May 14, 2016
She died in my arms a few moments ago. Sadness beyond words....





Cuddles not only responded to her name, but she was trained to do several tricks. She was trained to peck at certain targets & would "talk" to an audience by pecking at the chosen words. She also played her part in the "physic chicken" magic trick. Besides all that, she was my friend & beloved pet. I have other lav orps, but none like Cuddles.

 

[Faraday40]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the genetics...lol I'm a horse/dog professional so I'm trying to pick up on chickens and there are soooo many breeds out there it's hard to know where to start. Where does a lavender splash come into play? My pullet is mostly white with some darker feathers and a dark head, slate legs... Where is a good resource for photos/genetics?

Thank you sooo much!

The lav gene is recessive so a chicken must have 2 copies in order for it to look lav. There's no way to tell the difference (visually) between a pure black orp & a blk/lav split orp.

Black x Lav = blk/lav splits. those chicks will all LOOK black but have one copy of the lav gene.
Lav x Lav = all lav (since both parents have 2 copies of the lav gene)
Blk/Lav split x Lav = 50% lav & 50% blk/lav splits
Blk/Lav split x Blk/Lav split = 50% blk/lav splits, 25% lav, and 25% pure black.... problem is that you can't tell which are black & which are splits until you mate them & see the the offspring.

The reason why breeders add a black (or black/lav split) is to keep decent feather quality. If one always breeds lavs to lavs for several generations, the line can get feather issues.

 

[Kiki]

Sorry, I got eggs locally and hatched mine myself, and have not dealt with any of the hatcheries personally.

This thread will be busier through the week, so maybe someone else has a suggestion.

Thank you! I really like this kind! Really really like it.

 

[Faraday40]

It says on the back..
for chicks 4-6 weeks of age use 17 fluid ounces per 1 gallon..I believe that is the correct dosage.

I don't think you mean 17 oz. That's a lot. But, the back of the bottle should have a dosage recommendation to follow.

 

[Faraday40]

The black looks very female & the lav looks more male. The lav's comb doesn't have a lot of color, but it looks too tall for a female. I added some pics below for you to compare.

Here's a blue orp female at about 10 wks. (She had me stumped for a while because her wattles dropped & looked pink at 4 weeks, while everything else looked like a pullet.) Glad I waited until I was sure of gender.



This next pic is of my 7wk old male lav orps. (next to their bantam orp mama)