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Cute! At this point, all lavender Orps need improvement because they are still a project. Their type and feather quality are what need the most work. The lavender gene messes with the feather quality so that they look ruffled. They don't lie flat and nice as a true Orp should. The type will also need work, because to get the lavender color into the Orps, black Orps were crossed with another breed that had the lavender gene. So, you just need to continue to cross the lavenders to high quality black Orps which will result in split black Orps (carrying the lavender gene). Then you cross the split together and cull all blacks and save only the lavenders. Crossing the split blacks will result in 25% lavender chicks, 50% split black chicks and 25% pure black chicks, and there is no way to tell which are split and which are pure in the black chicks, so you remove them from your program and only work with the lavenders. You then breed them again to high quality pure Black Orps (not splits), the resulting offspring will be 100% split black. Breed the splits together and keep the lavs. Do it again and again. Ideally also, you aren't breeding brothers/sisters together. So it's best to have at least two pens going, I have one pen with a pure black English Orp roo over lavender hens, and another pen with my Lavender Roo over pure black English Orp hens. When you grow out their offspring, tag them somehow so you know which ones hatched from the black roo's pen vs which one's hatched from the lav roo's pen. Then pick your best split combo's and pen them together similarly to breed. When their offspring hatch, tag the lavender chicks in a similar fashion, cull any black chicks, and repeat over and over. Eventually most of the bad type/bad feather quality will be bred out, but it could take lots and lots of repeating this process. CGG and I were chatting about this the other day because we both got our lav's from the same lady who got hers from Hinkjc who is really the beginner of this project at least here on BYC. I wanna say that Hinkjc is like up to generation 8 or something? Not 100% sure. I plan to breed my split's in late winter, and consider them my F1's, so their offspring will be my F2's. But before I got my lav's, they were probably already improved 4-5 times over so are actually just behind Hinkjc's a generation or two, maybe three. Anyway, hope that helps! Until the type and feather quality are excellent, don't worry about other little things. They come first and foremost and need the most work.
Cute! At this point, all lavender Orps need improvement because they are still a project. Their type and feather quality are what need the most work. The lavender gene messes with the feather quality so that they look ruffled. They don't lie flat and nice as a true Orp should. The type will also need work, because to get the lavender color into the Orps, black Orps were crossed with another breed that had the lavender gene. So, you just need to continue to cross the lavenders to high quality black Orps which will result in split black Orps (carrying the lavender gene). Then you cross the split together and cull all blacks and save only the lavenders. Crossing the split blacks will result in 25% lavender chicks, 50% split black chicks and 25% pure black chicks, and there is no way to tell which are split and which are pure in the black chicks, so you remove them from your program and only work with the lavenders. You then breed them again to high quality pure Black Orps (not splits), the resulting offspring will be 100% split black. Breed the splits together and keep the lavs. Do it again and again. Ideally also, you aren't breeding brothers/sisters together. So it's best to have at least two pens going, I have one pen with a pure black English Orp roo over lavender hens, and another pen with my Lavender Roo over pure black English Orp hens. When you grow out their offspring, tag them somehow so you know which ones hatched from the black roo's pen vs which one's hatched from the lav roo's pen. Then pick your best split combo's and pen them together similarly to breed. When their offspring hatch, tag the lavender chicks in a similar fashion, cull any black chicks, and repeat over and over. Eventually most of the bad type/bad feather quality will be bred out, but it could take lots and lots of repeating this process. CGG and I were chatting about this the other day because we both got our lav's from the same lady who got hers from Hinkjc who is really the beginner of this project at least here on BYC. I wanna say that Hinkjc is like up to generation 8 or something? Not 100% sure. I plan to breed my split's in late winter, and consider them my F1's, so their offspring will be my F2's. But before I got my lav's, they were probably already improved 4-5 times over so are actually just behind Hinkjc's a generation or two, maybe three. Anyway, hope that helps! Until the type and feather quality are excellent, don't worry about other little things. They come first and foremost and need the most work.
. I can't tell you how many times I drove back and forth to visit my parents as a young'un in EW all winter long. Also -- Sadie -- make sure she has good all weather tires maybe even with studs on? Front wheel drive does ok in yucky weather. And a momma's love gets a kid home too 
