Rarest breed of chicken in the US?

[hinkjc]

Thanks Mark!

I hope you're right and things turn around for this color variety. I did get a PM from someone who is working on them. Kudos to them and any others who may have missed the post or didn't want to post publicly. It's exciting to hear and as always, I'm happy to help them progress to make them better.

 

[misschickenlittle]

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I've not ever breed any chickens and I don't know much about the breeds. I wish I did so I could help you with the project. It sounds very intense and interesting... Happy breeding!

 

[Happy Chooks]

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It will. And even if it doesn't, you alone will make them what they should be. ETA: just look at how far you've come already.

 

[onthespot]

I have lav project birds from hinkjc line. This spring I got some black orp hatching eggs from BamaChicken to improve my flock with. I hatched out three roos and three pullets. I gave one roo away, and one died this summer in a heat wave. My best roo I still have. He is not yet crowing or acting roo-ish, but I have high hopes for him and his three penmate girls to really help me improve my lavender flock, get them bigger, broader, shorter backed, better tails, more profuse plumage. I have struggled a couple years with the mille fleur cochin improvement program, so I realize how frustrating it can be to do colors. At least lavender is straight recessive, and I have the right color orps to cross on each other. Time will tell how things turn out with that effort. I really like both flocks and hope they compliment each other the way i think they will. Here are bad pics of my black orps. Sorry I missed your other thread.

 

[muddyhorse]

I have some project lav orps one of the pullets went broody about two weeks after she started laying

I need a very typey black orp boy to cross with if any body has one

mine need to be broader and larger overall I've been comparing them to buff orps at shows.

 

[Happy Chooks]

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That's how I would have done it if I got any lavs. (but I didn't - no space at the time) I figured the best way to improve them would be to cross them to a really nice black Bama roo.

You're going to have a beautiful flock there Patti!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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"up to the waste" - that's a good one!

Until people actually breed the lavender project birds towards a breed standard, they will continue to look like that. I don't think they are worse than hatchery stock, but they are not good enough to call pure orpingtons either yet (and there are no pure lavender orps out there yet). As far as I know, I am the only one still working to develop/improve them. My hopes when I shared the project were that others would too, but when I posted asking for others to share their progress, I got zero replies on anyone working to improve them.

So I may still have some of the rarest color varieties in the country for orps yet. I'll keep working on them.

Problem with breeding in a new colour is that you need to breed for both colour quality AND type, and sometimes you have to sacrifice one or the other. If you breed for type and don't pay attention to colouring, what was the point in breeding in the new colour? And if you breed for colour and ignore type then it takes that much longer to return the birds to the standard.

A lot of folks jump on the bandwagon, thinking they can get a new colour in a year by crossing X with Y, and it simply does not end up that way. The lavender silkies that are in the process of recognition have been worked on for TWENTY years. Showgirls have been worked on for around 12 or 15 years, and yet people still want to create their own. Same with sizzles. It takes many generations to get all the genes lined up correctly after an outcross so that the birds are breeding true to type and predictably for colour/pattern.

 

[onthespot]

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That's how I would have done it if I got any lavs. (but I didn't - no space at the time) I figured the best way to improve them would be to cross them to a really nice black Bama roo.

You're going to have a beautiful flock there Patti!

Thanks Chooks. I was thinking if I sell eggs this spring to offer both varieties in one auction, so when people buy lavender, they get the "improvement" strain right in the same shipment with their lavs, so they won't be stuck breeding sideways until they can find good black orps. Hopefully that will help people get started out with what it takes to improve their lavenders, good for all of us in the long run.

 

[danhonour]

It was the general policy or at least the most successful method over the last century,to work on the quality in both type and color for new varieties and breeds.When the quality was good and the flock was breeding fairly true,then the originator would offer them to the public.

 

[Country Living Farm]

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Sorry but that isn't a Rhode Island White..

Chris

Exactly what I was going to say. RIW's have rose combs.

I have RIW as well. Hatched out 8. 6 made it. 4 roos and 2 hens. Rose combs..

I have RIW Single comb as well. they are RIW but kind of the EE version of the real thing. Hope that makes sense.

The RIW single combs are hard to find as well and they are not quite as big as the rose comb ones. Now I hate to butcher 2 RIW rose comb roosters as well.

AGHHHHHHHH