Lavender Orpington egg size

[Minky]

Last April I hatched out a bunch of chicks and ended up with 14 pullets.
After 3 freak accidents/injuries/deaths in October, I now have 11 pullets who all started laying in October or early Nov.
Three of these 11 pullets are Lavender Orpingtons. All my other pullets are laying regular sized eggs (normally 58-65 grams) but these 3 are laying eggs that are considerably smaller. 40-47 grams max. Is this normal? Such a small egg for an almost full grown orpington-no???

 

[gimmie birdies]

My LO have laid small egg for a long time. I have one who is 3 and she now lays a regular size.

 

[K0k0shka]

Maybe something happened to that particular breeding line? It's definitely not an Orpington thing. I have two different varieties of Orpington (none Lavender), also hatched last April, and they lay huge eggs. Won't fit in the carton kind of huge.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Did they stop for the winter? They could just be getting things fired up again. My Lavender Orpington lays eggs I'd say somewhere between medium and large..~50-57 grams.

 

[Minky]

Did they stop for the winter? They could just be getting things fired up again. My Lavender Orpington lays eggs I'd say somewhere between medium and large..~50-57 grams.

nope, they started in October, laying maybe 37 g and now they are up to 47 g. LOL they are just puny. I had a buff orpington once and she laid 70 g+.
Its all 3 of my hens that lay these tiny eggs. 50 g is largest, and those are few and far between.

 

[Minky]

Maybe something happened to that particular breeding line? It's definitely not an Orpington thing. I have two different varieties of Orpington (none Lavender), also hatched last April, and they lay huge eggs. Won't fit in the carton kind of huge.

yeah, makes me wanna sell the lot. and grey chickens are sorta boring IMHO.

 

[K0k0shka]

yeah, makes me wanna sell the lot. and grey chickens are sorta boring IMHO.

From reading around BYC and other groups, I get the impression that LO's are very popular... for some reason. I agree about the grey, haha. There are some cool looking grey chickens out there, but LO's aren't doing it for me either.

 

[jctocororo]

Last April I hatched out a bunch of chicks and ended up with 14 pullets.
After 3 freak accidents/injuries/deaths in October, I now have 11 pullets who all started laying in October or early Nov.
Three of these 11 pullets are Lavender Orpingtons. All my other pullets are laying regular sized eggs (normally 58-65 grams) but these 3 are laying eggs that are considerably smaller. 40-47 grams max. Is this normal? Such a small egg for an almost full grown orpington-no???

I have a lavender orpington and her eggs are small as well. she started laying in January 2022 and I thought the eggs were going to increase in size eventually. She has been laying nonstop sin January and the eggs still small.

 

[Chick mum]

Last April I hatched out a bunch of chicks and ended up with 14 pullets.
After 3 freak accidents/injuries/deaths in October, I now have 11 pullets who all started laying in October or early Nov.
Three of these 11 pullets are Lavender Orpingtons. All my other pullets are laying regular sized eggs (normally 58-65 grams) but these 3 are laying eggs that are considerably smaller. 40-47 grams max. Is this normal? Such a small egg for an almost full grown orpington-no???

My full grown lavender orpingtons also lay extremely small eggs. They’re great when one needs half an egg in a recipe (when halving a recipe with one egg) but they are large birds which eat a lot. I feed them layers mash plus they are free range so they are getting lots of protein. I won’t be getting more Lavenders that’s for sure.

 

[K0k0shka]

I replied to this almost 3 years ago and at the time didn't have any Lavender Orps, but now that this thread has been resurrected, I will say that I did have a Lavender Orp after that and she laid large eggs right from the start - didn't go through a pullet egg stage where they start out small. That's been my experience with all of my Orpingtons, 4 varieties total - they all start with big eggs, they don't ramp up from small pullet eggs (compared to my other breeds - Barnevelder and Wyandotte - which started out with small pullet eggs and their eggs got bigger as the birds matured). So maybe some particular lines of LOs just happen to lay small eggs?