pips&peeps :
Happychick,
Those are some nice looking eggs!
I believe most lavender stock originated with John Blehm. As his lavender stock is sold, individuals use thier blacks to create thier own splits and lavender. So eventually the lines will become more genetically diverse but they can be traced back to John.
Lavenders were developed by John Blehm, Michael Muenks and Harry Shaffer. John and Michael developed lavender bantams at first and then I believe only John went on with the large fowl. Harry developed some from a completely different start. I do think Harry eventually added some blood from John, but there is a lot genetic diversity there.
I have stock from Harry and John. I have crossed Harry and John's birds into my black flock which mainly consists of birds from Paul Smith. Paul has the best blacks in the country! So mine have genetic diversity also and this next year I plan to cross the two lines back together. This color does still need alot of work. Not only are the birds small, but I have noticed the eye color is off a bit and the lavender gene seems to produce poor feather quality. I think by continually outcrossing to blacks the color will be perfected in 1-2 years.
The lavender gene is also a wonderful tool for seeing if your birds are carrying any unwanted colors like red, gold or silver. These colors will show up on the splits and you can cull for them by doing test matings. I however, like silver in my blacks because it perpetuates the slate leg color instead of black. As long as I keep hatching birds without any bleed through it works for me.
Jean, just so you'll know, the 3 black splits I hatched from your eggs are on the smaller side, but so far no color in the hackles at all, and feather quality is top notch, could NOT be better. The green sheen is amazing, and I have many black chickens, including some very nice quality Black Langshans, so you're definately on the right track. The egg color is good, not as good as the eggs they hatched from, but very close. Oh, and the beards couldn't be any better!
