**Mottling on my Split/Black Lavender Orpingtons**

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

I think the mottles that I have are all pullets. Now what? Breed to black hoping for a motled cockerel? Or breed to a lavender roo? Or some of both? Advice needed!

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Let's see how Jody did hers.

I did find this link from Jody

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1359696#p1359696

 

[Krys109uk]

I think the mottles that I have are all pullets. Now what? Breed to black hoping for a motled cockerel? Or breed to a lavender roo? Or some of both? Advice needed!

If they are 'split' for mottlng it will be difficult to work without a male. You could breed to a black (pattern would show better) & hope that those carrying mottling might show as slightly mottled, but that can't be certain to work. Or you could repeat the mating which gave the possible 'split' birds in the first place. Or you could buy mottled Orps.

Jody, where were those chicks, on another thread?​

 

[Krys109uk]

I did find this link from Jody

Wow, Jody, those very pale chicks with a few black spots feather up really different from my mottled on extended black. Mine feather up with large patches of white, particularly on the front, & mostly black (or blue) on the back. The mottling evens out when they lose juvenile plumage.​

 

[hinkjc]

Sandy, thanks for posting. I was wondering if they were from Jack/Jill. I only found one grouping here that threw the mottleds. Lil Bear's did not. When I took the same hens from Big Bear's pen back to Lester, I got a random mottled as well (those chicks were black). Big Bear's chicks were cream colored mottled as babies. If anyone is interested in working on Mottled Orps, I should have plenty of extra cockerels in the fall if you need one.

Krys, which pics are you looking for? Do you mean the baby chicks I posted this past week?

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Your welcome Jody. Majestic and Nivrocco, if you want me to incubator some more Split Black Lavs and you two take the Splits just let me know, it's not a problem. Majestic I'm hoping another mottle or two will show up and maybe a cockerel from them.

 

[Krys109uk]

Krys, which pics are you looking for? Do you mean the baby chicks I posted this past week?

I misunderstood the post. I'd seen your chicks you posted earlier (& the chicks you'd posted on the other thread). I've never seen mottled feather up like that. Not in black mottled & not in mille fleur pattern. Those, presumably, are from the light chicks? I notice the legs are very light. How even is the mottling when mature?​

 

[hinkjc]

Yeah, this is the unusual mottling I had asked about on a few occasions, but no one seems to know what it is. I do know it breeds true and feathers in as typical mottled (black with white tips on the feathers). The cream chicks were a throwback originally from Lester and the Black Orps F2s, when I bred certain offspring siblings together. They are not from the jubilee project at all. The jubilee/mottled chicks are the usual black type.

Here they are for comparison again..
From the Mottled/Lavender Orp project:

From the Jubilee project:

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
I do not believe the bird is mottled. The legs have too much black pigment and the juvenile feathering should have a lot more white. Young mottled birds have a pied plumage and white feathers in the primaries.


Jody,

The chick down color may be different because they have a different E locus than other birds. If I had to guess, I would say the birds are mottling on a eumelanized wheaten.

Tim

 

[hinkjc]

Thanks for posting Tim. I was just coming back to say it is entirely possible that chick is not mottled and just need to wait for that to moult out to true black. Since I've never gotten this type of mottled from this breeding, I was wondering if it was possible to just show up.

Do you have any thoughts on the cream colored mottleds?