Anyone know anything about Lavender Orpingtons????

[MotherofOrpies]

Oops, sorry, I read lavender Araucana nooo, I don’t know anything about lavender Orpington! I just had pheasant colored ones and right now gold laced, but I do know that lavender is a“new“ color, it takes some time to breed out the „kinks“

 

[elphabafalls]

They have a pea comb, so that is normal it isn’t very big, especially, if she isn’t laying, yet, and patience, the longest I had to wait for a pullets first egg was 11 months gh they are not bantam, but not a large breed either, so maybe she is turning out normal after all ?!

I'm pretty sure she'll never be normal lol. As long as it's normal for her to be maturing slowly, I'm ok. We're not anxious to get more eggs faster. We have 7 hens that lay 6-7 every day. We're overloaded as it is. Basically, she came from a hatchery that was the equivilant of a puppy mill, so we were worried that her little body was damaged. When we got her, she was about half bald. She smelled terrible. It took forever for her feathers to come in and for her to lose that smell. She had Blu Kote on her more often than not because the other chicks pecked at her bald spots and would break the skin. Now she's gorgeous and healthy and hopefully happy. Thank you!

 

[elphabafalls]

Oops, sorry, I read lavender Araucana nooo, I don’t know anything about lavender Orpington! I just had pheasant colored ones and right now gold laced, but I do know that lavender is a“new“ color, it takes some time to breed out the „kinks“

Your post still calmed me, but I wondered why you said they weren't a large breed because she's got the widest butt of all the chickens in my little flock. She's a pretty big girl. She looks like a feathery basketball running around the yard lol. To hear that there are others that don't lay for months and months is reassuring.

 

[elphabafalls]

Some mature slower that others also right now there’s less daylight for them to lay. Since she came from bad conditions it may take her longer. My LO is a year old and isn’t even close to laying. She has a small comb and pelvic bones are very close together. Just give her some time.

That makes me feel SO much better. The hatchery she came from was basically a chicken mill. It was terrible. We were just afraid her little body was too damaged to fully recover. She was in poor shape when we got her.

 

[elphabafalls]

I have had many LO and they seem to take longer to lay than most, but they are a big bird too, think about dogs, smaller ones mature sooner, and big dogs can take up to two years. My hens laid smaller eggs till they matured also.

That makes sense. I've had Labs all my adult life and they do take a full 2 years. Thank you!

 

[MorningGlory16]

Orpingtons are "beachball" shaped. I have 3 lavender orpington hens and they didn't start laying until 34-36 weeks. Someone at the feed store thought they might've been hiding eggs somewhere since they free range, nope, they were just taking their time. One of mine also has a very small comb and wattles compared to her sisters and she was the last to start laying, but she's a very good consistent layer now even in the winter. Her face reddened up about 2 weeks before she started laying- your girl might be close.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Most of the Orpingtons, other than Buffs that have been breed for production will lay later. My English Orpington pullets are over nine months and I got their first egg yesterday. It's also not the season for them to start up. Usually with daylight hours being shorter, pullets, especially late-blooming Orpingtons, will wait until the days start to lengthen and temperatures rise before they start laying. I wouldn't worry too much about her.

 

[Feath3rDust3r]

I have Lavender Orpingtons. Mine don't usually start laying till 8-9 months old. I don't usually plan to see an egg for a full year tho because I stopped using artificial light. The spring chicks are only beginning to mature by fall and then the days get shorter, so by spring they start laying.

 

[MorningGlory16]

I have Lavender Orpingtons. Mine don't usually start laying till 8-9 months old. I don't usually plan to see an egg for a full year tho because I stopped using artificial light. The spring chicks are only beginning to mature by fall and then the days get shorter, so by spring they start laying.

I don't use artificial light and I'm in Minnesota. I bought mine as day olds from a breeder in March and they started laying in November, and have continued to lay through the winter. I thought orpingtons were known for this?

 

[gimmie birdies]

If you have say 6 chickens the wait would kill you, if you have many chickens many laying ages, if one starts to lay you just go..."Oh, yeah, that one..."