Lavender Orpington Thread

[cmobley]

I have 23 lavender orp eggs set to hatch March 18th. Its my first ones I've always had barnyard mixes and wanted a pure breed for a change.

 

[TallChickMagnet]

This is Shela and a few of her girlfriends...

 

[OrpieLover31]

OKAY, here are the chickens now! SOOOO SORRY IT TOOK SOOOO LONG TO GET THESE PICS ON HERE! I tried a couple times but it just deleted ALL of the pictures I had! There names are Ava, Ella, George, Lexi, Lyla, And Quincy. I have some more pictures, but I will try uploading them later on today I hope

 

[OrpieLover31]

Well.... yesterday four big raccoons came for our chickens again! We went out there screaming and yelling. But that was not the only animal that came, a red tailed hawk swooped down hoping he would grab one of our chickens!

The raccoons were able to grab hold of Quincy's face and drag him into the woods. We thought we lost him for good..... then a miracle happened and he ran out of those woods! He was able to find his flock and hide, but then we remembered the hawk..... We all started looking for all the chickens to make sure the hawk did not catch one. We finally found them all and put them in the coop. We caught Quincy and put some stuff on his comb and neck. We checked him today and he seems to be doing just fine. Plus we saw crow for the very first time!!!! Im soooo blessed that he did not die

 

[OrpieLover31]

A Lavender Laced Gold Orpington would be possible, but it would take several generations to perfect. Crossing a GL Orp over Lav hens would be the start to the project, you'd produce visibly Black chicks with varying degrees of gold leakage and possible incomplete lacing, all whom would be carrying the Lav gene recessively.

From there breed the F1 offspring together, this hopefully will produce some chicks that are (1) visibly Lavender and (2) more completely laced.

Here's where it gets kinda hinky- the Lav gene will dilute/modify Black in the bird, paling it to the silvery gray color we refer to as Lavender. However it will also dilute/modify the gold color throughout the birds plumage making it a much paler blonde-creamy gold. Lemme see if I can find a picture to reference...

Once you have something similar to the above color established you can outcross again to "regular" Gold Laced Orps to further improve lacing, type, etc. Crossing a Gold Laced Orp with the hypothesized Lavender Laced Gold Orp will produce all visibly Gold Laced Orps recessively carrying the Lav gene, breeding these offspring together will produce a percentage of Lav Laced Gold Orp offspring.

Lavender is a recessive gene so it takes 1 "copy" of the gene from each parent bird for it to be visibly present.

***ETA: I strongly suggest against using "American"/APA style Lavender Orpingtons for this project as most (if not all) of these birds lack good Orpington type IMO. You would only be taking multiple steps back by using birds of lower quality/type, you still want your Lavender Laced Golds to look like Orpingtons, right? The Imported English Lavenders are becoming more and more prevalent and would be the birds I would use if I were attempting this project.


I think I found something talking about how to get Gold laced Lavender Orpingtons....

 

[OrpieLover31]

This is Quincy crowing


Quincy

Lexi

Lexi

Ella eating

Lexi

Quincy getting ready to crow

Quincy and Lyla

Quincy

Lexi

Lyla

Ava

Quincy

Quincy

Quincy flapping his wings

George

George crowing

Quincy

Quincy crowing

Quincy

George

Quincy

Lyla

Lizzie

Lizzie

Lizzie

Ella and Ava cuddling next to me

Lyla

Millie

Quincy

Ava

Millie

QUINCY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!

And George



Those are all the pictures I was able to get today and maybe for the rest of the month... And, yes you did see Quincy doing you know what with Lizzie.... But just look... almost 6 months ago these guys were little puff balls full of poop, and now they are grown up young adults.

 

[OrpieLover31]

HAHA! I would love to see what your friends Lavender Orpingtons look like! Maybe one day I will just HAVE to get some of hers!!!!

 

[Coupe]

Awesome!!! How old will the chicks be? And you better show us some pics !!!

 

[Coupe]

Thats a great find! And goos looking chicks! Im waiting for spring to come around so i can buy more Lavs. Hopefully the guys birds will start laying soon!

 

[annmichele]

How adorable!!!!!!!