Lavender Orpington project ....

[Fancy Feathers]

His legs appear to be white as well, yes I would say he is carrying the mottling gene. As he matures you won't be able to tell him apart too much from the others as the mottling starts to blend into the lavender coloring other than he will have white legs and the others will have slate.

Thank you for the explaination. That's a shame, since his lacing is SO pretty right now! Not really correct, though, regardless..

 

[Gardeningmama]

Wing (feather) sexing is only possible if you breed for it. You have to breed fast feathering to slow feathering, which will produce the fast or slow feathering offspring on the opposite sex. For example, if you breed a fast feathering roo to slow feathering hens, the female chicks would be fast feathering and the males would be slow feathering. I did not select for this in developing our lavender Orpington, so it is unlikely this would be very a effective way to sex them unless the person you got them from selected their breeders in order to match them up this way. Typically you can tell your cockerels from pullets pretty well by 6-8 weeks old.

Wow, I am so glad you told me that before I gave any away. I really thought I had it all figured out!

BTW your birds are beautiful, thanks for the time you've invested on this project.. I love mine!!

 

[Fancy Feathers]

Ah, simple and makes sense. Thank you!
My oldest Lavender Orpingtons are 11 weeks and I can easily tell which are pullets and which are cockerels.

Some newbies who are too young to tell yet!

 

[hinkjc]

A lot of people think it's as easy as looking at their feather tips, but don't realize breeders have to be selected for it. I would feel bad if you gave up your pullets not knowing this doesn't always work.

Fancy Feathers - I love that pic of your little lav babies. So cute!

Here is a pic of some we have growing out this season.


And Captain Howdy, hanging out with some white orp hens. He's now with black split hens.

 

[aveca]

Your birds are just wonderful Jody and Charlie..i feel so lucky every day to go outside and see them grazing the yard..very please with them..going to have to have more next year..we are building a bigger barn..16 by 20 ..we have the roof trusses, we are just getting through the hay season , then we will get it started..we are going to do a layout like faulkner barn and keep the other buildings as xtra coops..it will make a new york winter easier on all of us..give them a lot of elbow room in snow storms..

 

[cowchick11]

HinkJC - please explain the use of a Lav Orp. on white hens? Are you doing this as an experiment for color? Will that mating create splits? If so, what color will they be? Working to improve feather quality? Very curious!

 

[hinkjc]

Thanks Aveca. So glad to hear you are enjoying them. Is Mr Softie hitting up the show ring this year again?

Cowchick11 - it was a test to see what our white orps were "hiding" and also an opportunity to start a lavender cuckoo project for a friend of mine. I was able to confirm our whites carry the barred gene. Together, they produced black and barred offspring, all carrying the lavender gene. I do not personally intend to work on this project. It was more of a genetic test for me, but I did have several people interested in working on black and lavender cuckoo, so this gave them the opportunity to get a start with it.

 

[Thomas423]

Ok, I just finished reading all 175 pages.
I'll ask my questions later

 

[aveca]

Thanks Aveca. So glad to hear you are enjoying them. Is Mr Softie hitting up the show ring this year again?

Cowchick11 - it was a test to see what our white orps were "hiding" and also an opportunity to start a lavender cuckoo project for a friend of mine. I was able to confirm our whites carry the barred gene. Together, they produced black and barred offspring, all carrying the lavender gene. I do not personally intend to work on this project. It was more of a genetic test for me, but I did have several people interested in working on black and lavender cuckoo, so this gave them the opportunity to get a start with it.

sorry it took me so long to answer..big mr softie will be shown by a jr apa competitor this year..i will pm you more later..he is graduated from 4_h and little tired of his brothers winning cornish..so loaned softie to him until next spring , he might come home in fall..they might go tome shows later in fall , winter..they will be showing much further south.....i will let you know more a little later.they will be showering us with pics when they go....i will be showing 1 of your cockerals, hes a stunner..textbook comb , a pullet and mrs softie... i will pm you a little later with more..dont like to say too much here..some people get or are disturbed..i dont want them and their isues messing wit a jr compeditor whos trying to have a good time learning.

 

[aveca]

i forgot to add to that, they were going to cross him into their english blues, so that should be interesting..dying to see the pics..this family does AI and everything so doubt they will have any fertility problems..