Lavender Orpington project ....

[aveca]

Quote:
strangley enough it was the other way around at one time the english came back over here and imported US version back to england they had been out of national square garden winners. , it was long time ago..the english were concentrating on the type and not on the size so they lost a lot of size once they got back on track they started doing what americans were doin and breeding to strapping big hens..lot of their small hens went into australorp projects.., it is in one of the old books we downloaded to kindle..there are some great old books out there and no one writes books as well today about the subject of orpingtons as the old timers...it is in standard orpingtons or william cooks book, I can find it and post it..these books go so much into detail about color and are so interesting that the are invaluable as a resource

 

[cukooformarans]

Quote:
I added ages to the pics.

I think they started laying around 5 1/2 months old.

Thanks! I got mine from Nancy, too. They are about 24 wks now and combs still very pink-they don't appear to be close to egg-laying, so I was just looking for a comparison. It may be the time of year though. Thank you again!!

 

[cukooformarans]

By the way, larkrise, they are beautiful!

 

[Lark Rise]

Quote:
I added ages to the pics.

I think they started laying around 5 1/2 months old.

Thanks! I got mine from Nancy, too. They are about 24 wks now and combs still very pink-they don't appear to be close to egg-laying, so I was just looking for a comparison. It may be the time of year though. Thank you again!!

They are really pretty. Didn't Nancy get them originally from hinkjc? All the credit does to them.

I'm trying to recall.....I do think one of the hens started laying first, then the other a few weeks later. They lay large eggs almost everyday.
I hope yours lay soon for you. How many do you have?

Here's a pic of only 1/2 of one, but you can see how lovely the lavender color is.

 

[cukooformarans]

Yes-hers are early generation hinkjc (and still carry the mottled gene). I ordered 12 and 9 hatched but I lost 2 early on (one drowned in the water bowl and I don't remember what happened to the other now but I seem to remember it was a failure to thrive). I ended up with 1 lav roo, 1 mottled hen, 4 lav hens and one blue orp roo. The auction was supposed to be for lavs but I guess the blue was added by mistake. No complaints though. The blue roo is the most gorgeous roo (type wise) I have raised and the lavs are absolutely gorgeous all the way around! And it is hard to complain about five hens, too!

I am really looking forward to them laying-just a big milestone, you know?

I keep thinking their combs will get really red any day now!

It's good to know they lay well. With them being early in the project, I had wondered. Have you had any go broody yet?

 

[feathers4fun]

Quote:
strangley enough it was the other way around at one time the english came back over here and imported US version back to england they had been out of national square garden winners. , it was long time ago..the english were concentrating on the type and not on the size so they lost a lot of size once they got back on track they started doing what americans were doin and breeding to strapping big hens..lot of their small hens went into australorp projects.., it is in one of the old books we downloaded to kindle..there are some great old books out there and no one writes books as well today about the subject of orpingtons as the old timers...it is in standard orpingtons or william cooks book, I can find it and post it..these books go so much into detail about color and are so interesting that the are invaluable as a resource

Thanks for the interesting info and would love to know the names of the books.

 

[Lark Rise]

Quote:
No broody hen yet. I got 7 LO eggs from Nancy. Of the 4 that hatched, I got 2 roos and 2 hens....all lavenders. When they were about 10 weeks old, one of the roos fell off the roost and broke his neck. I wasn't too upset because he was very aggressive and mean.

The surviving roo is very sweet and coos all day long, so we call him Tootles.
It's great that you got such a nice variety. I thought Lav x Lav = Lav...........I don't know much about chicken genetics.
Hope yo see some pics of yours.

 

[cukooformarans]

Here are just a few. I will try to get some more updated ones since these are a little old. (Few weeks or so old) Anyhow, lav x lav does give 100 % lav. I think she probably accidentally put an egg from her BBS pen in the box. This one is definitely a blue. I posted pics on this thread a while back. He is twice as broad as the others, taller, darker and has a significant amount of red leakage. But, he is really beautiful!

 

[crazyeggs]

Here is my LO pullet that I hatched from Nancy's eggs. She sure has beautiful birds

I also have a split black to lavender roo from her

This is an older picture I really need to get out there and take up to date photos of Lavender (my 5 year old names all our animals

) and some of the 9 LO's I hatched from another person

 

[Lark Rise]

My boys and I have a running argument of the color of these chickens. I say lavender. They say gray. OK, so maybe they are right....somewhat

, but gray is not as as charming lavender!

I see lavender! Hazy lavender:
http://colors.sanjeev.net/color-hazy-lavender/