What is the difference between Lavender Orpington and Isabel Orpington?

[geraldine87]

Hello, I ordered some lavender orpington chicks and som isabel orpington hatching eggs, but now it came to my mind, is there a difference between these two? coulg i breed them with one another? Im new to the chicken world.

 

[drswann]

Lavender orpingtons are on our chicken wish list once we get settled on our land. Have you had them before? I'd love to know how your thoughts on them. Thanks.

Being new to chickens and with no practical experience yet, it seems like you could mate them from what I've read. Again, no practical experience on my end, just research.

 

[JaeG]

They are just two different colour mutations. It will depend on which one is dominant as to what the chicks end up looking like, or they could turn out to be a completely different colour to their parents depending on which genes meet.

Isabel is a dilution mutation of a red and black based colour. It turns the black to lavender and the red to a soft champagne gold. Solid lavender are a dilution mutation of solid black.

 

[geraldine87]

They are just two different colour mutations. It will depend on which one is dominant as to what the chicks end up looking like, or they could turn out to be a completely different colour to their parents depending on which genes meet.

Isabel is a dilution mutation of a red and black based colour. It turns the black to lavender and the red to a soft champagne gold. Solid lavender are a dilution mutation of solid black.

Ok, I kind of understand, since I am new to all this some things I somewhat get the idea. Thank you so much for letting me know the difference, there's not much info on the web when you type this question. It's confusing when the results say, "lavender isabel orpington"

 

[geraldine87]

Lavender orpingtons are on our chicken wish list once we get settled on our land. Have you had them before? I'd love to know how your thoughts on them. Thanks.

Being new to chickens and with no practical experience yet, it seems like you could mate them from what I've read. Again, no practical experience on my end, just research.

I am getting them this friday, they haven't arrived yet. I'll let you know!

 

[The Moonshiner]

They're different patterns but have the lavender gene in common.
A lavender is a black bird with the lavender gene.
An Isabel is a partridge bird with the lavender gene .
Really besides both having tbe lavender gene they are quite different.
You can breed them together but that will produced mixed patterned offspring. Extended black is dominate to partridge so in theory the cross would produce black chicks. In reality the black isnt dominate enough and you can get some of the partridge pattern showing.
With hens you can get solid black or black with a little color on the hackle area.
Males can vary more and almost always have more of the partridge leaking through. Usually in hackles, shoulders and saddle areas.
Of course the offspring will get lavender genes and be diluted as the parents.
So if you cross them the pullets will look like the lavenders with a chance of the Isabel look in their hackles.
The male offspring will most likely look in between.
More solid lavender then the Isabels but with some of the straw coloring that the lavenders don't have.
Does that help?

 

[geraldine87]

They're different patterns but have the lavender gene in common.
A lavender is a black bird with the lavender gene.
An Isabel is a partridge bird with the lavender gene .
Really besides both having tbe lavender gene they are quite different.
You can breed them together but that will produced mixed patterned offspring. Extended black is dominate to partridge so in theory the cross would produce black chicks. In reality the black isnt dominate enough and you can get some of the partridge pattern showing.
With hens you can get solid black or black with a little color on the hackle area.
Males can vary more and almost always have more of the partridge leaking through. Usually in hackles, shoulders and saddle areas.
Of course the offspring will get lavender genes and be diluted as the parents.
So if you cross them the pullets will look like the lavenders with a chance of the Isabel look in their hackles.
The male offspring will most likely look in between.
More solid lavender then the Isabels but with some of the straw coloring that the lavenders don't have.
Does that help?

Wow, thank you so much for this information!

 

[shaw613]

They're different patterns but have the lavender gene in common.
A lavender is a black bird with the lavender gene.
An Isabel is a partridge bird with the lavender gene .
Really besides both having tbe lavender gene they are quite different.
You can breed them together but that will produced mixed patterned offspring. Extended black is dominate to partridge so in theory the cross would produce black chicks. In reality the black isnt dominate enough and you can get some of the partridge pattern showing.
With hens you can get solid black or black with a little color on the hackle area.
Males can vary more and almost always have more of the partridge leaking through. Usually in hackles, shoulders and saddle areas.
Of course the offspring will get lavender genes and be diluted as the parents.
So if you cross them the pullets will look like the lavenders with a chance of the Isabel look in their hackles.
The male offspring will most likely look in between.
More solid lavender then the Isabels but with some of the straw coloring that the lavenders don't have.
Does that help?

Moonshiner, I have a nice buff partridge pullet (brahma). If I mate her with my lavender brahma male, I understand I'd get splits, correct? And then to get isabel, you breed the splits? Is that how we get the isabel from partridge. Sure appreciate your insight.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Short answer yes.
You can breed a partridge to a lavender then breed the offspring together.
The cross will produce some isabel but it's also gonna produce a lot of other things. Black based birds, lavender on black based birds, partridge without lavender etc.
Thinking you'll only get about 1 in 16 that are isabel.
If your hen is a true "buff" partridge then you'll also have the mahogany and dilute genes to weed out drastically reducing the percentage of true isabel.

 

[shaw613]

Short answer yes.
You can breed a partridge to a lavender then breed the offspring together.
The cross will produce some isabel but it's also gonna produce a lot of other things. Black based birds, lavender on black based birds, partridge without lavender etc.
Thinking you'll only get about 1 in 16 that are isabel.
If your hen is a true "buff" partridge then you'll also have the mahogany and dilute genes to weed out drastically reducing the percentage of true isabel.

So interesting. So I have an isabel pullet, and will mate her with my lavender. I 'should' get more isabel as well as lavender? Here's a picture of the pullet I'm questioning. Also, I have to cockerels like this ... one is black, one has more blue. What would you call them? I've not seen brahmas with the black head and hackles. They hatched from eggs that were sold as partridge.