Jumping in and saying hi, I'm glad I found this thread.
Beautiful birds everyone!
Figured I'd try to help while I'm here too...
Is it possible to make a Laced Lavender Orpington? I know nothing of genetics, so figured i would ask !
I'm not sure. Sorry. All my research has been dedicated to the Gold Laced Black. I wonder if the lavender is similar to blue genetically?
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.