Lavender Orpington Chicken Guide – What You Need to Know
Lavender Orpington Chickens have many desirable traits that easily make it a favorite among backyard chicken owners, including a calm temperament, excellent egg production, and beautiful appearance. Read on to find out all about these wonderful birds.
When the time comes to pick out your breed (or breeds) for your flock of chickens, you’ll probably spend some time thinking about the various aspects of purchasing and raising chickens, including the qualities that you would like in your birds. For example, do you want egg layers, meat birds, or dual purpose? Will you be free ranging them or keeping them in a coop and run? Do you have children that you would like to help with caring for the chickens?
I knew that I wanted a friendly chicken that laid plenty of eggs and grew to a decent size (dual purpose bird). I came across the Orpington breed online, which checked all of those boxes.
Our Lavender Orpingtons quickly became our favorite breed in our flock. This post is going to tell you all about why.
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History of the Lavender Orpington
The Orpington itself was developed in the late 1800’s by a man name William Cook in England. The breed was developed as a dual purpose bird – good for both meat and egg production. The lavender variety of this breed did not come out until the 1990’s, and is not currently recognized by the APA.
Appearance & Hardiness
When it comes to appearance, the Lavender Orpington is quite unique looking and sure to add some variety to your backyard flock. They have thick, light gray feathers, that sometimes give off a…you guessed it..violet/lavender color in the sunlight. When people see our chickens in person for the first time, we always get the comment “I’ve never seen a chicken that color!”.
In addition to their unique coloring, they have a single medium sized comb and weigh 8-10 pounds (although they sometimes look much larger due to all of their “fluff”).
This bird is also considered to be “cold hardy” which means they do very well in low temperatures. However, you can still raise these birds in hotter climates, like South Texas where I am located. On hot days, just ensure that your birds have a shady spot to stay in and plenty of cool water.
Where can you purchase Lavender Orpingtons?
You can purchase this breed from various hatcheries, small local farms, or even individuals on sites like Facebook Marketplace. Some of the more reputable hatcheries out there with Lavender Orpingtons are:
Hoover’s Hatchery Hoover’s Hatchery (hoovershatchery.com)
Meyer Hatchery : meyerhatchery.com
Cackle Hatchery: Cacklehatchery.com
We chose to purchase our birds through a small local farm with a breeding program specifically for Orpingtons.
Whatever option you choose to go with, be sure you follow the best biosecurity practices for introducing new birds to an existing flock.
How much do Lavender Orpingtons cost?
Prices vary greatly from hatchery to hatchery for Lavender Orpington chicks. You will find prices ranging from $5 – $30. In general, the larger quantity of birds you order, the lower the price per bird is. Prices are also affected by if you are ordering a specific sex or unsexed birds.
The small farm that we purchased from sold week old chicks for around $15 each.
All About Lavender Orpington Eggs!
Lavender Orpingtons are considered a fair egg layer, and lay approximately 180-220 eggs annually. The eggs are a medium size and will be light brown in color. They begin laying eggs around 24 weeks of age. This could be considered late compared to some other breeds that can start around 16-18 weeks.
Can you hatch your own Lavender Orpingtons?
Yes, this bird breeds “true” meaning if you breed a lavender Orpington rooster and hen, the result will be chicks of the same variety, with the same colorful plumage.
You can hatch your own eggs out by allowing a broody hen to sit on her eggs, or use an incubator. We use this one to hatch our own eggs. It is budget friendly, doesn’t take up much space, and we’ve had good hatch rates with it.
What is the temperament of Lavender Orpingtons?
These birds are some of the friendliest chickens, which makes them a highly selected breed among families with children.
Since we knew we wanted to free range our birds out in the yard, selecting a bird that was friendly was incredibly important to us. We want our kids to be able to run around the yard and go collect eggs without being fearful of the chickens. The Orpington has been a wonderful breed for our kids to help tend to.
But what about the roosters? Roosters have a tendency to be more aggressive than hens, especially once they reach sexual maturity.
Fortunately, our experience with the Orpington rooster has been good as well! We are able to let our rooster run about freely and he is a good guardian rooster for our hens, always working to keep the flock together.
All in all, this breed has been wonderful for our backyard flock and we have plans to continue raising them for many years to come.
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I was given a young lavender Orphington rooster who was hand raised and he was sweet and gentle until he came into his manhood and he is the meanest rooster I have ever had in my life and I have to watch my back all the time. But I do love him so I have not dispatched him yet! He is kind to the hens but the main reason I keep him is because he gives me some great stories to tell other people!
Hi Donna! Oh my goodness! Thankfully that hasn’t been our experience with ours. He’s the nicest rooster we have. We do have a Black Copper Maran that will make me a little nervous sometimes though!