Lavender Orpington questions

[Nycolette]

I have two questions about my 10 week old lavender orpington hen with her back to you in this picture. First, her coloration is very dark for a lavender. I hatched her from a shipment of hatching eggs and a sister has the same dark lavender coloration. Is this normal? Second, does she have the infamous tail shredder gene that I hear about in lavenders?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Shading of lavender seems to vary from almost white to almost blue. Most Orpingtons have a soft looser feathering. It's hard to judge them until after the get their adult plumage and they are mature. Adult feathers come in at 3-5 months generally.

 

[Nycolette]

Shading of lavender seems to vary from almost white to almost blue. Most Orpingtons have a soft looser feathering. It's hard to judge them until after the get their adult plumage and they are mature. Adult feathers come in at 3-5 months generally.

Thanks for the reply. You just saved some emu looking hens from an early trip to the stew pot.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Orpingtons are generally slow to mature, so definitely give them some time. Many aren't fully mature and filled out until 2 years of age, but you should have a good idea by 6 months.

 

[Sneebsey]

I have Lavender Araucana over here and I find that a few pullets usually look a little ratty until maturity, when they start to smooth up with their big girl feathers. Hopefully the same is true of these.

I don't usually see so much variation in colour as you, though if they have additional melanisers, I could see why the colour would be darker, so I would hazard that that is the cause for the darker plumage.