- Cuckoo Stud
-
Orpingtons '101'
- Orpington Club Membership
- Orpington Type and Main Colours
- Non APS colours - new and pre-existing but not approved Orpington colours
- Blue Cuckoo Colour Standard
- Lavender & Lav Cuckoo Colour Standard
- Buff Cuckoo Colour Standard
- Red Barred (Cuckoo) Colour Standard
- Chocolate Orpington colour Standard
- BREEDING SPLASH to carry the silver gene >
- Buff Orpington improving Type
- White Orpington improving Type
-
About us
- the Stud colours/breeds
- NEWS and UPDATES
- Breeding Cuckoo Orpingtons >
- Cuckoo and Black original lines
- Blue Cuckoo Orpington development
- Buff Cuckoo Orpington development
- Crele, Partridge and Gold Barred Buff Orpington development
- New Colours, acceptance of the colours
- Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Orpingtons in the backyard
- the Chocolate Orpington >
- Cuckoo Double Bar and Single Bar factor
- the Blue Gene - theory of Mendel's Law
- Blue Cuckoo and Mendel's Law
- Developing multiple related lines
- Orpingtons - larrikin mateship = our first birds
- Our Cuckoo Silkies
-
Gallery
- Show results
- Lavender & Lavender Cuckoo Orpington, bantam and large >
- Crele, Partridge Orpington
- Blue Cuckoo Orpington AORC, large >
- Buff Cuckoo Orpington, large >
- Cuckoo Orpington, bantam
- Black Orpington large
- Splash Orpington, large >
- Choc, Choc Cuckoo & Mauve Orpington large
- Choc Crele, Choc Partridge and Choc Birchen large size
- Black Orpington, bantam
- Gold Barred Buff Orpington
- Phoenix
- Silkie
- For Sale
- Contact us
- Acquiring and caring for your Orpingtons
- Feeding - what we feed our birds
- Heat waves, hot days, Summer and Liquefaction
- Artificial UV lighting
- Chook Saddles
- Fertility and my secret recipe
- Posted chickens - how to make them
- Embryonic developmental stages of a chick
- Mareks Disease
- Hatching larger std size birds
- Size = breeding down
- Brooder - recycled and effective
- Growth patterns and assessing birds
- Microchipping your birds
- Secure housing
- Lime - Hydrated and Garden (AG) Lime and their uses in the chook pen
- MOUSE/RAT TRAP chook friendly
- Appraisal pictures of your birds
- Showing - training your birds
- Coccidia Oocyst cycle and treating Coccidiosis with Baycox
- Lymphoid Leukosis – Avian (The Wasting Disease)
- Coryza Avibacterium Paragallinarum
- Crop problems in poultry
- Mosquito control
- Maremma - training a pup
- Fox Traps
- Snake Bite
# update = as of 2022 (decades after its development in the breed) these colours are still not recognised in the APS* for Orpingtons -
the Lavender Cuckoo** is not in the APS for any breed
note however that the Lavender is now recognised by the Club to be exhibited in the Open section (against APS listed colours) in Club Sponsored/Sanctioned Shows
* Australian Poultry Standard
Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Orpingtons in the backyard
by the Cuckoo Stud
Some years ago Dr Seuss wrote a book = 'Green Eggs and Ham'
Many poultry people have eaten 'green eggs' over the years.
Hopefully no one has eaten 'green ham', and if so I wonder how the hospital stay went.
But isn’t the Araucana a lovely green egg layer.
In late 1999 I thought it would be nice to have our Orpingtons in this colour. I had heard there was a breeder who had them but after seeing the birds and asking a few questions I found these 'Lavenders' were in fact very pale Blues and I knew they would
be no good for my project.
So I did some research and discovered that 3 breeds in OZ had the pure Lavender in them at that time = the Belgian (too small) and the Araucana (both sizes) and F1 in Pekin. More research came up with 3 people that had the Araucana in large not too far away. I acquired a breeding pair from the closest.
I also acquired offspring of the F1 Pekins as pets for my youngest.
Pair 1 on test breeding = Black, Blue, 1 Lavender and some odd mismarked young hatched = the pair were no good so re-housed.
The other 2 people with large were contacted and a short road trip later I had 2 more pairs, 1 from each.
Pair 2 as we will call it, gave Black and Lavender (the Black was a surprise giving rise to the suspicion of one of them not being true Lavender) but the pair were possibles.
So a 2nd hatch was done = all Lavender, I decided to use the young only.
Pair 3 gave all Lavender = definites.
Gen 1 =
using the std size Araucana
I set the pairs into 3 pens. Pens 1 & 2 were a pairing up of the Araucana roosters with 3 lrg Black Orp hens each =
pen 1 young were a combination of Black and 1 Lavender young - I was not expecting any Lavender in this cross. None looked Orpington but none looked Araucana either. Some had leg fluff, 2 of the 25 in pen 1 had muffs and those 2 were deleted.
The Araucana rooster in pen 2 was a late bloomer but made up for it in stamina once he realised the Orpington girls wouldn’t eat him. This mating produced a number of good sized young.
Pen 3 the Araucana hens were put together with a Black Orpington rooster. All Black young, most looking like very oversized Araucanas with a few looking an odd mix of the breeds.
This 1st cross gave a mix of pea and blade comb young = only the blade combs were kept as none looked Orpington at this stage.
Gen 2 =
pen 1 best/largest and the 1 Lavender were mated brother sister - a good number of Lavender young, all looking a mix of the breeds all had some degree of leg fluff none had muffs all were larger than their parents.
pen 2 mated largest/best brother sister producing young similar to pen 1, combination Black and Lavender young.
pen 3 best/largest mated brother sister all black again, I was starting to worry. All looked slightly more Orpington than their parents.
Across pens 1 & 2 only the Lavender were kept. in pen 3 the largest most Orpington looking were kept.
Some pea comb young hatched, these were deleted, unless they looked Orpington otherwise.
Gen 3 =
pens 1 & 2 ckls mated back to Black grandmothers, pullets grown out to 1st year then mated back to Araucana grandfathers
pen 3 girls to Black Orpington grandfather, ckls to Araucana grandmothers.
from Gen 3, all pens = only the most Orpington like were kept regardless of colour, this cross gave a good number of Lavender in all pens allowing pen 3 to 'get with the program'. All young hatched were blade combed.
Gen 4 =
All pens higher numbers of Lavender hatched, some looking Araucana, most Orpington = only the Orpington looking Lavenders were kept. A few young hatched pea comb and were deleted.
Gen 5 =
pens 1 & 2 mated Lavender to Lavender producing all Lavender young with varying 'types' = only the most Orpington kept
pen 3 Lavender to Lavender producing all Lavender young, most looking like giant Araucanas = largest kept
(at this point I put some of the largest most Orpington like Lavender ckls with some of my Cuckoo hens = mismarked for Cuckoo Lavender/Cuckoo crosses)
Gen 6
I decided to cross the pens over by equally splitting the offspring not in with/from the Cuckoo and resetting the 3 pens.
All the offspring from this 'cross setting' were Lavender but some still too Araucana. Only Orpington looking Lavenders kept.
(mismarked Lavender Cuckoo brother/sister mating produced some that looked Lavenderish Cuckoo)
Gen 7 =
Lavender ckls mated to different Black Orpington hens, pullets grown to 1st year and mated to different Black Orpington roosters =
75% Lavender in all pens. Only Lavender and most Orpington looking kept. (Cuckoo Lavender mating brother/sister again, producing 'almost there' Lavender Cuckoo)
Only blade comb young were hatching by this stage.
It was at this time I decided to delete out those F1 Lavender Pekins by developing them into the Orpington bantams instead.
Gen 8 =
75% Lavender in all pens. Only the Lavender/most Orpington looking kept
Gen 9 =
All 3 pens all Lavenders both sexes. 90% looked Orpington with just above average to good type. The only real problem at this point was the tail feathers. They were still 'ratty and scruffy'. But the next generation was being looked at to hopefully solve this problem.
Gen 10 =
This generation did not happen in the Spring of 2009 as in the February of that year we lost all but 1 of the large Lavender hens directly due to the heatwaves and fires that decimated parts of the state. So the large were put on hold until the 2010 season.
The heat/fires took its toll across all the Orpington colours and I decided to concentrate on rebuilding the Crele and Partridge instead of the Lavender at that time.
Gen 10 'mark II' =
Surviving Lavender hen mated to Black Orpington rooster = all offspring Black. She was then mated to one of my best Regular Cuckoo roosters = all young mismarked for Lavender Cuckoo
Gen 11 =
An exceptionally good hatch of Lavender young. None survived past 4 weeks = Gippsland experienced a freezing snap that blew in from Antarctica one night. The same night the heat lamp in the brooder broke. All the little bodies were in a huddled pile when I went out the next morning. 7/8ths of the large chicks, across all colours, were dead.
The bantam Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo did not do much better but some of these did survive.
I collected and set another lot of eggs across all colours, but no Lavender or Lavender Cuckoo in either size hatched.
The hens all stopped laying not long after as the Summer heat was setting in.
At this time, for about a week, I asked myself daily "WHY do I do this?!?"
Then one morning I just looked at what did hatch/survive = looking forward to the 2012 season
Bantam Lavenders
I have owned various colours of Pekin for many years but I decided I did not want to keep feather footed breeds -
but my youngest liked the bantams = so I asked her the 3 colours she liked most telling her I would convert these into bantam Orpingtons. Her answer = Lavender, Lavender Cuckoo, and Buff.
She also liked the Mottled that she had seen at a show, so I filed that Mottled information for another time.
So the cross over started (I was already working on bantam Cuckoo of course)
Gen 1 =
The Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Pekin roosters were put with both a Black bantam Orpington and a Lavender bantam Araucana I had acquired.
You could easily tell the bantam Araucana chicks! Most young were Lavender with some Lavender Cuckoo.
The Black Orpington hen's chicks were all Black some had heavy foot feathering some only residual.
The most 'round' from the Araucana, and the most Orpington looking from the black hen were kept.
Gen 2 =
Brother Sister matings = Orpington young all black again. Araucana young 50/50 Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
About 25% had leg fluff, some had residual feathers on the legs. So the chicks with the least amount of fluff were kept.
Gen 3 =
The best Orpington / Araucana young mated together. About 40% looked bantam Orpington.
Only residual leg fluff. All chicks Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
Gen 4 =
The most Orpington like mated brother sister. All Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
By this season I had acquired a Black bantam ckl of reasonably good type = all Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo girls mated to him
(note I was just trying to get them Orpington and not really paying attention to colour by this time as I knew it was 'there')
Young from both pens = 50/50 Black and Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
Only the Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo were kept - there was no leg fluff or foot feathering on any of these young
Gen 5 =
I acquired (from 2 separate Breeders) several Black bantam Orpingtons of good quality.
The very best were chosen for a trial mating to the Gen 4 Lavender/Lavender Cuckoos =
25/25/50 Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo/Black - only the Lavender and Lavender Cuckoos that looked Orpington were kept.
None had any hint of foot or leg feathering
Gen 6 =
All Lavender run together = 100% Lavender bantam Orpington
All Lavender Cuckoo run together = 100% Lavender Cuckoo bantam Orpington
When 4 weeks old as mentioned in the large development above = a freezing snap blew in one night. All but a handful of both bantam colours died.
None of either colour hatched in the replacement setting. However the few Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo bantams that did survive are growing out well
Cheers
the Cuckoo Stud
# 2015 update = as of 2015 all Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo bantams are being run in the same pen with the APS colour
Cuckoo bantams as they are all genetically related = meaning all 3 colours can hatch from the one pen
** large Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo are being kept SEPARATE from the large APS Cuckoo =
NO risk of Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo hatching from the large APS Cuckoo pen
# all content in 'Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Orpingtons in the backyard' is documented, is all The Stud's work, and subject to copyright laws of Australia
the Lavender Cuckoo** is not in the APS for any breed
note however that the Lavender is now recognised by the Club to be exhibited in the Open section (against APS listed colours) in Club Sponsored/Sanctioned Shows
* Australian Poultry Standard
Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Orpingtons in the backyard
by the Cuckoo Stud
Some years ago Dr Seuss wrote a book = 'Green Eggs and Ham'
Many poultry people have eaten 'green eggs' over the years.
Hopefully no one has eaten 'green ham', and if so I wonder how the hospital stay went.
But isn’t the Araucana a lovely green egg layer.
In late 1999 I thought it would be nice to have our Orpingtons in this colour. I had heard there was a breeder who had them but after seeing the birds and asking a few questions I found these 'Lavenders' were in fact very pale Blues and I knew they would
be no good for my project.
So I did some research and discovered that 3 breeds in OZ had the pure Lavender in them at that time = the Belgian (too small) and the Araucana (both sizes) and F1 in Pekin. More research came up with 3 people that had the Araucana in large not too far away. I acquired a breeding pair from the closest.
I also acquired offspring of the F1 Pekins as pets for my youngest.
Pair 1 on test breeding = Black, Blue, 1 Lavender and some odd mismarked young hatched = the pair were no good so re-housed.
The other 2 people with large were contacted and a short road trip later I had 2 more pairs, 1 from each.
Pair 2 as we will call it, gave Black and Lavender (the Black was a surprise giving rise to the suspicion of one of them not being true Lavender) but the pair were possibles.
So a 2nd hatch was done = all Lavender, I decided to use the young only.
Pair 3 gave all Lavender = definites.
Gen 1 =
using the std size Araucana
I set the pairs into 3 pens. Pens 1 & 2 were a pairing up of the Araucana roosters with 3 lrg Black Orp hens each =
pen 1 young were a combination of Black and 1 Lavender young - I was not expecting any Lavender in this cross. None looked Orpington but none looked Araucana either. Some had leg fluff, 2 of the 25 in pen 1 had muffs and those 2 were deleted.
The Araucana rooster in pen 2 was a late bloomer but made up for it in stamina once he realised the Orpington girls wouldn’t eat him. This mating produced a number of good sized young.
Pen 3 the Araucana hens were put together with a Black Orpington rooster. All Black young, most looking like very oversized Araucanas with a few looking an odd mix of the breeds.
This 1st cross gave a mix of pea and blade comb young = only the blade combs were kept as none looked Orpington at this stage.
Gen 2 =
pen 1 best/largest and the 1 Lavender were mated brother sister - a good number of Lavender young, all looking a mix of the breeds all had some degree of leg fluff none had muffs all were larger than their parents.
pen 2 mated largest/best brother sister producing young similar to pen 1, combination Black and Lavender young.
pen 3 best/largest mated brother sister all black again, I was starting to worry. All looked slightly more Orpington than their parents.
Across pens 1 & 2 only the Lavender were kept. in pen 3 the largest most Orpington looking were kept.
Some pea comb young hatched, these were deleted, unless they looked Orpington otherwise.
Gen 3 =
pens 1 & 2 ckls mated back to Black grandmothers, pullets grown out to 1st year then mated back to Araucana grandfathers
pen 3 girls to Black Orpington grandfather, ckls to Araucana grandmothers.
from Gen 3, all pens = only the most Orpington like were kept regardless of colour, this cross gave a good number of Lavender in all pens allowing pen 3 to 'get with the program'. All young hatched were blade combed.
Gen 4 =
All pens higher numbers of Lavender hatched, some looking Araucana, most Orpington = only the Orpington looking Lavenders were kept. A few young hatched pea comb and were deleted.
Gen 5 =
pens 1 & 2 mated Lavender to Lavender producing all Lavender young with varying 'types' = only the most Orpington kept
pen 3 Lavender to Lavender producing all Lavender young, most looking like giant Araucanas = largest kept
(at this point I put some of the largest most Orpington like Lavender ckls with some of my Cuckoo hens = mismarked for Cuckoo Lavender/Cuckoo crosses)
Gen 6
I decided to cross the pens over by equally splitting the offspring not in with/from the Cuckoo and resetting the 3 pens.
All the offspring from this 'cross setting' were Lavender but some still too Araucana. Only Orpington looking Lavenders kept.
(mismarked Lavender Cuckoo brother/sister mating produced some that looked Lavenderish Cuckoo)
Gen 7 =
Lavender ckls mated to different Black Orpington hens, pullets grown to 1st year and mated to different Black Orpington roosters =
75% Lavender in all pens. Only Lavender and most Orpington looking kept. (Cuckoo Lavender mating brother/sister again, producing 'almost there' Lavender Cuckoo)
Only blade comb young were hatching by this stage.
It was at this time I decided to delete out those F1 Lavender Pekins by developing them into the Orpington bantams instead.
Gen 8 =
75% Lavender in all pens. Only the Lavender/most Orpington looking kept
Gen 9 =
All 3 pens all Lavenders both sexes. 90% looked Orpington with just above average to good type. The only real problem at this point was the tail feathers. They were still 'ratty and scruffy'. But the next generation was being looked at to hopefully solve this problem.
Gen 10 =
This generation did not happen in the Spring of 2009 as in the February of that year we lost all but 1 of the large Lavender hens directly due to the heatwaves and fires that decimated parts of the state. So the large were put on hold until the 2010 season.
The heat/fires took its toll across all the Orpington colours and I decided to concentrate on rebuilding the Crele and Partridge instead of the Lavender at that time.
Gen 10 'mark II' =
Surviving Lavender hen mated to Black Orpington rooster = all offspring Black. She was then mated to one of my best Regular Cuckoo roosters = all young mismarked for Lavender Cuckoo
Gen 11 =
An exceptionally good hatch of Lavender young. None survived past 4 weeks = Gippsland experienced a freezing snap that blew in from Antarctica one night. The same night the heat lamp in the brooder broke. All the little bodies were in a huddled pile when I went out the next morning. 7/8ths of the large chicks, across all colours, were dead.
The bantam Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo did not do much better but some of these did survive.
I collected and set another lot of eggs across all colours, but no Lavender or Lavender Cuckoo in either size hatched.
The hens all stopped laying not long after as the Summer heat was setting in.
At this time, for about a week, I asked myself daily "WHY do I do this?!?"
Then one morning I just looked at what did hatch/survive = looking forward to the 2012 season
Bantam Lavenders
I have owned various colours of Pekin for many years but I decided I did not want to keep feather footed breeds -
but my youngest liked the bantams = so I asked her the 3 colours she liked most telling her I would convert these into bantam Orpingtons. Her answer = Lavender, Lavender Cuckoo, and Buff.
She also liked the Mottled that she had seen at a show, so I filed that Mottled information for another time.
So the cross over started (I was already working on bantam Cuckoo of course)
Gen 1 =
The Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Pekin roosters were put with both a Black bantam Orpington and a Lavender bantam Araucana I had acquired.
You could easily tell the bantam Araucana chicks! Most young were Lavender with some Lavender Cuckoo.
The Black Orpington hen's chicks were all Black some had heavy foot feathering some only residual.
The most 'round' from the Araucana, and the most Orpington looking from the black hen were kept.
Gen 2 =
Brother Sister matings = Orpington young all black again. Araucana young 50/50 Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
About 25% had leg fluff, some had residual feathers on the legs. So the chicks with the least amount of fluff were kept.
Gen 3 =
The best Orpington / Araucana young mated together. About 40% looked bantam Orpington.
Only residual leg fluff. All chicks Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
Gen 4 =
The most Orpington like mated brother sister. All Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
By this season I had acquired a Black bantam ckl of reasonably good type = all Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo girls mated to him
(note I was just trying to get them Orpington and not really paying attention to colour by this time as I knew it was 'there')
Young from both pens = 50/50 Black and Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo
Only the Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo were kept - there was no leg fluff or foot feathering on any of these young
Gen 5 =
I acquired (from 2 separate Breeders) several Black bantam Orpingtons of good quality.
The very best were chosen for a trial mating to the Gen 4 Lavender/Lavender Cuckoos =
25/25/50 Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo/Black - only the Lavender and Lavender Cuckoos that looked Orpington were kept.
None had any hint of foot or leg feathering
Gen 6 =
All Lavender run together = 100% Lavender bantam Orpington
All Lavender Cuckoo run together = 100% Lavender Cuckoo bantam Orpington
When 4 weeks old as mentioned in the large development above = a freezing snap blew in one night. All but a handful of both bantam colours died.
None of either colour hatched in the replacement setting. However the few Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo bantams that did survive are growing out well
Cheers
the Cuckoo Stud
# 2015 update = as of 2015 all Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo bantams are being run in the same pen with the APS colour
Cuckoo bantams as they are all genetically related = meaning all 3 colours can hatch from the one pen
** large Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo are being kept SEPARATE from the large APS Cuckoo =
NO risk of Lavender/Lavender Cuckoo hatching from the large APS Cuckoo pen
# all content in 'Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Orpingtons in the backyard' is documented, is all The Stud's work, and subject to copyright laws of Australia