Lavender Orpington project ....

[Braclin]

Quote:
Oh yes!

Very nice! Any more pips or chirping going on?

Not that I can tell. I picked them up when trying to clean up some of the egg pieces and I felt movement. They arent due till tonight into sunday. This little guy was early. Not sure why. Hes running around chirping. Hope they hatch soon so he can have a friend,lol. I say he but really hope its a she. Thanks again for talking me down last night!!

 

[kathyinmo]

You are very welcome. I have had that happen, too .... one chick just gets in a hurry and is hatched a day or so before the others. I don't know why that happens.

I hope you have a great hatch!

 

[Braclin]

Quote:
Thanks!

 

[ChooksChick]

Well, I have tons of folks wanting these lately!

For some reason day-olds seem to be the way they are wanted, rather than eggs. Many of the folks asking have had terrible luck hatching (I know I did last year with eggs shipped to me)- has anyone else noticed that the Lavender eggs do more poorly than others in shipment? I haven't had any complaints about my eggs, but folks have come to me after buying on ebay and whatnot many times, having had terrible trouble.

In other news, the Isabel F1s are getting pretty big and I'm shocked to find fantastic lacing in many of them!

I knew the offspring would have both the gold and the black showing through in this generation, but I hardly expected this:

This is at the base of the neck as the teenager feathers aer coming in.

This is the way they look at about 10 weeks. Not that different from my double-laced Barnevelders, but gold and black, rather than brown and black.

More of the same in another pullet.

Who knew?! I may end up with Isabel-laced rather than the Columbian I expected. This is a fun adventure. If any of you who have gotten eggs from me have some of these growing out, do share- I guess when someone pipes up I'll start a dedicated thread.

I'm incubating my first batch of Go-lizas (5 mo-old Goliath over Eliza) now- they will be a Split with a third line of new blood added. Eliza's my best Lavender hen, and Goliath is my gargantuan young Black cockerel with fantastic rump action. His hiney is a ginormous fluff-wagon.

He's standing next to a giant front-load washing machine.

I'm not a small girl, really- look at the size of his cankles!! Ignore the weird face...kid took a pic when I wasn't looking & was in the middle of talking.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quite the opposite, actually... I had more lavenders hatch. Of course, I've only hatched 5, but still... that's way more than I usually get on shipped eggs.
I think the Lavender Orpington is the next big fad chicken...

 

[Tuffoldhen]

This is Gertie, her type and coloring made her go into the latest breeding pen with an English Black Orp roo.

 

[ChooksChick]

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Gertie is adorable, and very full! Lovely!

 

[TheReidHomestead]

Gertie is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

We got eggs in May from a breeder in state....I would say local, but I drove 4 hrs down and 4 hrs back, so not really. I picked up 29 eggs from her, and an assortment, with only 3 Lav Orp eggs. Out of the total hatch I had only 2 Lav Orp eggs hatch and one Black English Orp, although the black one died a few hours after hatch. None of the other eggs hatched! So no, I haven't had trouble hatching them, just everything else!

I did however, just get live chicks from the same breeder a week ago, and can't wait to see them grow out! My first two lav Orps are both cockerels, so I'm praying for at least 1 pullet. I also got 3 Black English Orps and 1 blue, and I already can't wait for them all to start laying!!!!

 

[hinkjc]

Gertie is very pretty!

She has nice thickness and great color.

I've never had issues hatching any of my orp eggs. I think shipping can be tough on any eggs and individual POs handle them differently as well, so one person in one state may get a 100% hatch and another person in another state may get nothing. It's all part of the risk with shipped eggs sometimes. All of my lavender lines have had excellent laying abilities, fertility and hatchability. These are some important aspects in developing a strong line. Sounds like we have some more folks working on them, which is great news. So happy to hear that!

 

[kathyinmo]

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I was new to hatching when Sarah (scbatz) sent me Lavender eggs. My hatch was like 16 out of 18, or something like that. It was a fabulous hatch, and very special to me. I still hatch out tons of these lavenders with no problem at all. They are great layers, too.

Sandy,
Gertie looks great, and I can hardly wait to see what she produces with your English Orps!