Lavender Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

@robinwhiskers
You're really good with naming colors and making things sound appealing.

I call 'em "Dusty." (It doesn't seem to increase their allure.)

 

[Faraday40]

They're back......

Either I have all 7 females or some very slow to mature boys!
6 wks

Tonight: 7.5 weeks (Blue purple & teal are my best chance for males, but not obvious like my past males who had decent comb height by 5 weeks.)

Does anyone want to agree or disagree? I'd love the input. Click below if you want to see more pics.

Spoiler: more pics

Two on left: (pink & black)

Two in middle: (green & blue)

Three on right (purple, teal, white)

BTW- All the flashes woke up my laced orp. She looks very grumpy w/o her beauty sleep.

 

[WVduckchick]

Gosh @Faraday40 I'm no help with your youngens. Mine is 16 weeks, and I've been sure it was a boy for several weeks, but still is very slow developing!

There isn't any chance this is female, right?

He and another were saved from a broody hatch (leftover eggs that I incubated, but momma wouldn't take them afterwards). I thought one was female and this one male all along. Lost the female a few weeks ago with an impacted crop. Now this fella hangs out with my bachelor bantam cochin boys and lone blue marans pullet, so he has been very shy. The cochin boys are much more rowdy. He hasn't crowed, and I haven't seen him try to mount any of the others, nor dance around them. I'm perplexed.

All these pics were taken this morning. His feather quality isn't great. I need to breed some black back in.

Spoiler: Bunch of pics

 

[Faraday40]

Gosh @Faraday40 I'm no help with your youngens. Mine is 16 weeks, and I've been sure it was a boy for several weeks, but still is very slow developing!

There isn't any chance this is female, right?

He and another were saved from a broody hatch (leftover eggs that I incubated, but momma wouldn't take them afterwards). I thought one was female and this one male all along. Lost the female a few weeks ago with an impacted crop. Now this fella hangs out with my bachelor bantam cochin boys and lone blue marans pullet, so he has been very shy. The cochin boys are much more rowdy. He hasn't crowed, and I haven't seen him try to mount any of the others, nor dance around them. I'm perplexed.

All these pics were taken this morning. His feather quality isn't great. I need to breed some black back in.
View attachment 1186759

Spoiler: Bunch of pics

View attachment 1186760 View attachment 1186761 View attachment 1186762 View attachment 1186763 View attachment 1186764

At 16 weeks, I'm leaning toward female. I think a male would have more red by now. Also, the males often look like their walking on stilts. (leggy & awkward) Yours has a sort of female shape.

The one in front is a slow developing male at about 13 weeks. The one in background has a good example of what I mean by "leggy."

 

[WVduckchick]

At 16 weeks, I'm leaning toward female. I think a male would have more red by now. Also, the males often look like their walking on stilts. (leggy & awkward) Yours has a sort of female shape.

The one in front is a slow developing male at about 13 weeks. The one in background has a good example of what I mean by "leggy."
View attachment 1186819

See, I was thinking I was crazy for even considering female, because it was so much bigger than the other one when they were babies. So thanks a bunch. The tail feathers bother me a bit, but I guess time will tell one way or another. I'm keeping this one anyway. Sweetest lav I've ever had.

 

[Faraday40]

Still trying to figure out the genders from my last hatch.
Sept 22; Almost 10 weeks old!
Any guess would be appreciated!

I nicknamed them by colors. I sold Black & Green, so I have 5 left.
Here they are: (You can click to enlarge pics)

BLUE
??? gender



PINK
??? gender



PURPLE
I think male.



Teal
possible male?



White
*This one is from another hen. The mama (Jewel) had very large wattles & pink comb as a chick. "White" has always looked & acted like a female. The comb is pale.
Leaning toward female.



You can click on pics to make them larger.
One problem I keep having (besides all being lavs) is that they can look completely diff from one second to the next.

Here's what I mean:
See the possible male walking along the fence? Now look at the chick, front left. See how the wattles hang down?

One second later, you can see the same 3 chicks...... But where did those wattles go?

 

[WVduckchick]

White definitely looks the most feminine to me, but like you say, they seem to change from minute to minute.

Maybe time of year is making them develop more slowly?? My 18-week one still looks male to me, but no crowing, no mounting females, it's just starting to stand up to my much smaller bantam cochin cockerels! Never been so baffled with a LO.

 

[sheherazae]

I have a Lavendar Orpington Roo that hatched the end of May. I gave him to a woman who was looking for a rooster to protect her small flock of hens. He was the biggest roo of any breed of my spring chickens (appx 150 chickens). The woman actually just recently brought him back because he doesn't crow and doesn't mount the ladies. I reintroduced him to my flock and the smaller LO roo that hatched out with him is now mean to the bigger one. His feathers are all in and he's clearly a roo. I am bringing him from my farm to my city coop since I have a number of my favorite hens here and I thought if he does mount the ladies without crowing I can at least hatch out babies of my favorite ladies. So very odd that he doesn't crow though. I will post a pic tomorrow of him.

 

[Faraday40]

While looking through some pics, I happened to find this one. Isn't he cute?!

This was "Mr Nice Guy" who I was hoping to breed next spring. (before he died from an extreme heat wave in Sept.) Sadly, there are no male chicks looking this good in my current batch. It doesn't help that can only identify 1 definite male.

 

[Faraday40]

Maybe time of year is making them develop more slowly?? My 18-week one still looks male to me, but no crowing, no mounting females, it's just starting to stand up to my much smaller bantam cochin cockerels! Never been so baffled with a LO.

This one?

For 18 weeks, I'd guess female based on the body shape. Males tend to get "leggy" & their stance looks different. This one has wattles, but some of my females get pink wattles just like this. The males should have more red & much taller comb by 15 weeks. (Not to mention the lack of saddle feathers.)

My laced orp who hatched June 17th just started crowing. (Well technically he crowed just once 4 days ago.) He doesn't mount either, but he's definitely male. I think my other roo handles all the crowing & breeding, so the new guy (Mr Wonderful) is taking his own sweet time to grow up.