Lavender Orpington Thread

[TLWR]

I've read a bit about feather issues with LOs. The pic below is my 4 week old LO and there is a strip down the wing feathers, on both sides, where it is translucent. Kind of neat, but well, weird too. Should I expect that to stay or will normal, non translucent strip, feathers appear after a molt?

 

[WVduckchick]

Remember price does not dictate quality.   The market dictates price for the average type birds.  Some are over priced and some are under priced.  Some breeders are perticular what they are breeding and some think that two lavenders are sufficient enough to make money.

That is a good point. When I have excess eggs and list them with a lower price, I add a note saying "low price does not indicate low quality, I just have excess eggs". But its always good to see the adults and consider the local market.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I have Lavender Orpingtons coming in August.

I was planning to line breed for dual purpose. However, after more research I think the feather issue of Lavs will make it more difficult to keep good quality. So now I am considering another color. Maybe blue.

My Lavender Ameraucanas have the same translucent stripe described by @TLWR .

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks

 

[abileneiniowa]

I was hoping someone here could tell me a little bit more information on some things. I am new to Lavender Orpingtons although not really that new to chickens. I had a mixed flock before of good egg layers but when I got my new coop and run, I decided to settle on one breed and hatch some eggs and raise some chicks to sell. I wanted something that wasn't just a pretty face, but could hold it's own in the egg laying department and was kid-friendly as well so I went with the Lavender Orpington. I have a dozen eggs in the bator right now that I picked up from a local lady but when I went to pay for them, she told me to just take them because some of hers were hatching and they looked buff. Well I've done a bit of reading and have seen that a Lav bred to a Lav should produce 100% Lavs. I think they were only day olds or so, so maybe they just appeared buff to her? But all the pics I've seen have clearly looked lavender. So question #1 is:

Do your chicks appear to be buff when hatched sometimes?

I also picked up a trio at a small animal auction a couple weeks ago. One of the hens appear to be older but she's still laying daily. When comparing them to the first pics in the thread, I noticed a few things, a few differences. I'm new to breed standards for chickens and I know that Lav. Orps. aren't an APA recognized breed yet but certainly there are some breed standards to strive towards. One thing I noticed was that a lot of birds pictured have black/dark eyes. Mine have a light brown. Is one preferred over the other? Also, my birds have deep, bright red combs and I've seen others with much paler combs. Just differences or is one preferred over the other? So question #2 is:

What breed standards do you find most important for LO's?

I've included a pic of my birds for a little more information! Thanks guys!

 

[ShanandGem]

I was hoping someone here could tell me a little bit more information on some things. I am new to Lavender Orpingtons although not really that new to chickens. I had a mixed flock before of good egg layers but when I got my new coop and run, I decided to settle on one breed and hatch some eggs and raise some chicks to sell. I wanted something that wasn't just a pretty face, but could hold it's own in the egg laying department and was kid-friendly as well so I went with the Lavender Orpington. I have a dozen eggs in the bator right now that I picked up from a local lady but when I went to pay for them, she told me to just take them because some of hers were hatching and they looked buff. Well I've done a bit of reading and have seen that a Lav bred to a Lav should produce 100% Lavs. I think they were only day olds or so, so maybe they just appeared buff to her? But all the pics I've seen have clearly looked lavender. So question #1 is:

Do your chicks appear to be buff when hatched sometimes?

I also picked up a trio at a small animal auction a couple weeks ago. One of the hens appear to be older but she's still laying daily. When comparing them to the first pics in the thread, I noticed a few things, a few differences. I'm new to breed standards for chickens and I know that Lav. Orps. aren't an APA recognized breed yet but certainly there are some breed standards to strive towards. One thing I noticed was that a lot of birds pictured have black/dark eyes. Mine have a light brown. Is one preferred over the other? Also, my birds have deep, bright red combs and I've seen others with much paler combs. Just differences or is one preferred over the other? So question #2 is:

What breed standards do you find most important for LO's?

I've included a pic of my birds for a little more information! Thanks guys!

Your rooster seems underweight. All three birds don't seem heavy bodied enough to be true Orpingtons. My three month old Orps look bigger and heavier than that. Pretty birds though.
As for the eye color, do they have any kind of barring or cuckoo coloring ? My lavender cuckoos have light eyes.

 

[abileneiniowa]

@ShanandGem I thought the same thing about the rooster. And since I just picked them up a couple weeks ago, it's likely he is. The hens are similar to my buff hens I had before though. They have no barring and look true lavender color to me but their eyes are hazel almost. Very pretty, but I'm not sure what the breed standard is. I have the eggs in the Bator and 3 young pullets and will be ordering another dozen eggs soon, so these likely won't be used to produce hatching eggs, but I'd like to educate myself to know what to look for.

 

[wynn4578]

I was hoping someone here could tell me a little bit more information on some things. I am new to Lavender Orpingtons although not really that new to chickens. I had a mixed flock before of good egg layers but when I got my new coop and run, I decided to settle on one breed and hatch some eggs and raise some chicks to sell. I wanted something that wasn't just a pretty face, but could hold it's own in the egg laying department and was kid-friendly as well so I went with the Lavender Orpington. I have a dozen eggs in the bator right now that I picked up from a local lady but when I went to pay for them, she told me to just take them because some of hers were hatching and they looked buff. Well I've done a bit of reading and have seen that a Lav bred to a Lav should produce 100% Lavs. I think they were only day olds or so, so maybe they just appeared buff to her? But all the pics I've seen have clearly looked lavender. So question #1 is: Do your chicks appear to be buff when hatched sometimes? I also picked up a trio at a small animal auction a couple weeks ago. One of the hens appear to be older but she's still laying daily. When comparing them to the first pics in the thread, I noticed a few things, a few differences. I'm new to breed standards for chickens and I know that Lav. Orps. aren't an APA recognized breed yet but certainly there are some breed standards to strive towards. One thing I noticed was that a lot of birds pictured have black/dark eyes. Mine have a light brown. Is one preferred over the other? Also, my birds have deep, bright red combs and I've seen others with much paler combs. Just differences or is one preferred over the other? So question #2 is: What breed standards do you find most important for LO's? I've included a pic of my birds for a little more information! Thanks guys!

is it possible that they're english/american orpington mixes?

 

[Faraday40]

My sebright went broody. (so much for everything I read that says they seldom go broody.) Because she's so small, our roos can't mate with her. She hatched some Orpington eggs instead. She's now the proud Mmama of 2 lavs & 2 blk/lav split orps. They're 3 weeks old and almost the size of the mama.

 

[WVduckchick]

My sebright went broody. (so much for everything I read that says they seldom go broody.) Because she's so small, our roos can't mate with her. She hatched some Orpington eggs instead. She's now the proud Mmama of 2 lavs & 2 blk/lav split orps. They're 3 weeks old and almost the size of the mama.

Oh that is sooo cool! My sebrights haven't gone broody either, but now I know if they do, I can stick some LO eggs under them! haha

I have more of both in my incubator right now. Day 9.

 

[kimthom66]

Can someone give me some advice as to whether these two chicks are pullets or roos? They are 4 weeks old and seem to be the same in comb and leg size right now so I am thinking they are either both roos or both pullets (hoping) ? Or is it just too early to tell? Sorry for the blurry pics they are hard to photograph.