Description
The Lavender Orpington chicken is a large breed with a upright stance and medium-sized single comb. They are a cold hearty and have full and fluffy plumage. Though they are not recognized by the APA they are a rare variety to add to your flock. They are a fair egg layer of medium to large size light brown eggs. Therefore making them a better choice for someone interested more so in their uniqueness. They are super docile and great with children, making them one of the best options for your backyard flock.
The lavender gene is different than the blue gene in genetics in that it will produce consistent lavender color in all the offspring. The “lavender” gene (lav) in the chicken causes the dilution of both black and red/brown pigments, so according to color background, dilution due to “lavender” gives a sort of plumage color patterns: On an extended background, this condition causes the entire surface of the body an even shade of light slaty blue, which is the typical phenotype known as ‘”self-blue”‘.
“The shredder gene in lavender chickens causes the feathers to split and the barbs to detach, resulting in rough looking feather development,” To learn more about please see our Shredder Gene blog.
hillarybrooke4280 –
My partner ordered us 5 breeds (Lavender Orpington, Rhode Island, Cherry Egger, Rhode Island Exhibition and Blue Ameracauna), 3 of each, we received a bonus chick of every breed EXCEPT the orpys, in the first three days 2 of the 3 orpys passed. All the other chicks are still fine, some are a bit lethargic and have been, (we’ve had them for a week) but on unboxing we immediatey noticed that all 3 orpys were half the size of the rest of the chicks and extremely fragile. When we placed them in the brooder you could feel the ridges on every bone, they were very puny, not very active and overall they acted sickly. I’m quite sad as we didn’t receive any “extras” of this breed (the one we were really looking forward too) and it doesn’t look good for the 3rd one so we will probably have no orpys soon and there’s nothing we can do but order more, which I will be doing from the hatchery we previously received chicks from and lost none and they were all of a normal size and active.
Terry –
Interesting
All I have left are pictures of the Orpington’s I purchased….the Raccoons ate them all, plus most of the other ones…I think I have 3 of the original batch I purchased from you. Actually, Coons didn’t “eat” them, they murdered them solely for the thrill. A valuable lesson was learned on this hobby farm – Chickens must be kept in a vault like pen, which we now have!