Lavender Orpington project ....

[Shaffer]

I am such a newbie. So breed him to the silver birchen? Would it be easier to search for a different roo to cover the two pullets with the squirreling? I got them from the same place and did not notice it much when they were little.

If you have a nice UK black hen or two use him over them and your lavender pullets and hatch a bunch to get a few good ones. Even the best breeders average only one in ten to replace their own stock. Then if nothing is great and you have some good ones buy a good male somewhere if you can. Don;t go crazy and keep buying birds.

 

[WVduckchick]

If you have a nice UK black hen or two use him over them and your lavender pullets and hatch a bunch to get a few good ones.   Even the best breeders average only one in ten to replace their own stock.  Then if nothing is great and you have some good ones buy a good male somewhere if you can.  Don;t go crazy and keep buying birds.

Can you give some pointers in what to look for in the babies, or do you recommend growing them out to evaluate?. If growing them out, at what age do you make decisions?
Thank you so much for your insight.

 

[Shaffer]

Keep an eye on the slow feathering offsprings seems like the K-gene(poor feathering) is hard to separate from it for some reason. You will need to learn what they look like as they feather out.

 

[WVduckchick]

Thanks again.
I think I have a new layer. Got a darker egg today, although it was busted.

 

[miasria]

I am working on a lavender project. My rooster is a lavender. Some of my hens are split ( lavender x buff). Here are some of my newly hatched. It looks like I have a black. Of course some lavenders. I'm hoping I will have some Isabels.

my Orpington hen out of a lavender rooster x buff hen

my lavender rooster

my hen out of a lavender rooster x buff hen

 

[guest21]

Can anyone tell me what I might get for chicks if I breed a lavender rooster with this sweet blue hen?

 

[kittydoc]

@guest21 You will get 50% blue and 50% black chicks. Lavender is a recessive of black. Blue operates differently on black, so you'll get the same ratio of blue and black chicks as you would breeding a black roo to a blue hen. The chicks will all be split to lavender (carry lavender), which is fine is someone is looking for black split to lav chicks (which are needed for maintaining feather quality), but it's considered a no-no with blues. At minimum, if you did this breeding you'd have to tell people that the blue chicks are split to lavender (even though it doesn't work the same way as black split to lavender). It's complicated since the blue gene and lavender gene work completely differently.

 

[guest21]

Ok so basically sell off the blue chicks as layers or something and keep the black ones for breeding next year?

 

[kittydoc]

Yes, that's one option. 4H families may not care because blue is an accepted show color. Only people doing real color breeding will care, just be honest.

 

[ksbratton]

Would anyone be willing to take a stab at this one for me please? This is supposed to be a sexed pullet that I got from a hatchery, 7 weeks old. The comb and wattles have me concerned, although the leg length and thickness, stance, demeanor, etc is not that of a cockerel. Thoughts?

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