Lavender Orpington project ....

[DonaldFan]

Our Orps are birds that my hubby rescued so they are really friendly to us. They love their new home. Although, Celeste may start thinking she's an eagle soon ;p

 

[JeffJustJeff]

Here are my first Lavender Orpingtons I've hatched. I got them off rockin paints. Looks like I got lucky and got a cockerel and a pullet. I think they look like they have great potential. What do you think? I have 3 more in the brooder from eBay eggs. I have some Buffs that are almost laying age and really like their personality.

 

[rockinpaints]

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Very nice! Looks like a pullet and roo to me

What kind of luck is that! Good luck with the ones in the brooder.

 

[klf73]

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Celeste is very pretty. Is she a Mottled Java?

 

[rancher hicks]

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Celeste is very pretty. Is she a Mottled Java?

I was gonna ask that too. I will control myself though.

 

[Schroeder]

I purchased 17 lavender and 3 black orpingtons as day olds, born 6/14/11. Soon after I got them I noticed one of the lavenders developing black feathers. Here he? is. What do I have? Is he mottled, split or what. Is there value to be had by breeding him to the lavender hens or should I stick with the black x lavender with the first breeding next spring?

 

[flgardengirl]

Looks blue. Is that a fleck of copper up on his head?

 

[SteveH]

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Might be a lav, might be a bl, might be a mix of both; the latter is a cross I don't support.
Neither lav or bl work perfectly 100% of the time; both blues and lavenders can possibly have feathers not evenly diluted, and even an occasional feather that looks solid black, and most will not breed such. Since bl is supposed to make a feather that is darker towards the edge, and does produce splash when there's two copies, I'm of the opinion that the two should not be mixed in purebreds.

 

[herbandteas]

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I have 6th generation going on now and all have the broken feather type. That's why it's a project bird! Putting these back on english blacks, just not the look that I want.

Thanks for responding! I love the look of these and have been having lots of conversations with my husband as to if we want to keep these on for project or not. I had no problem selling the excess roosters and hens with the bad feathering. I made it very clear to everyone that bought them that they are project only but no one seems to care. They just love the coloring and look of them. A few people just wanted pretty lavender roosters for their flock, that's all.

We're down to two hens and one rooster and waiting for a couple chicks to feather out. I'll try to get pics soon. All of our birds are free-ranging and it's just photo-op nightmare to get any decent photos. Thanks to everyone for keeping this thread going.

Where are you located I would like to have lavender chickens in my yard
pm me

 

[cows and chickens]

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First question - is that another "lav" behind the first bird?
Second question - Is there some red feathers on the head?

If the answer to both these questions is yes, I'd not use any of them to do a lavender project as it APPEARS the birds were crossed with something else.

When working in this project, keeping the lines clear of anything besides black and lav is very important, IMO. When people start throwing in blues or crossing the "splits" with splashes the genes get muddled. The project is in such early stages with great hurdles over body type, throwing in color issues makes the whole thing worse.

You would save yourself a great deal of wasted money and headache to cull anything and EVERYTHING that is showing even the slightest bit of color deviation. And then hope and pray you weren't sold a bill of goods on the rest.

BEFORE everyone jumps on me, I understand the black bleed through and the color variences in the lav itself. I get that, i've had birds with it. That is NOT what I'm talking about.

I've had blue orps with red leakage. And I've had supposed "pure" orps sold to me that are not. These issues are what I'm talking about. If those supposed "lav" and splits have red leakage, they have blue in them. They will be so much much harder to correct.

It would be better to start over with better birds than to spend all the time and money "fixing" messed up ones.

Just my two cents.