Lavender Orpington Chickens: The Full Guide

If you’re just getting started with keeping chickens, or you are a veteran keeper, one of the most fun and also most challenging aspects is picking the right breed.

There are many dozens of breeds out there from all around the world, each with its own unique attributes, temperaments, and characteristics.

Picking the right breed ensures you’ll have an easy and enjoyable time with your flock, and that you will fulfill your objectives. But picking the wrong one is bound to lead to frustration, expense, and lots of wasted time.

To help you pick out the right chickens, I’m bringing you a guide that will tell you everything you need to know about the Lavender Orpington, one of the most stunning, friendliest, and also most versatile birds around. We’ll get right into it.

What Are Lavender Orpingtons?

Lavender Orpingtons are a beautiful color variety of the standard Orpington chicken, but one that’s not officially recognized by the APA in America or poultry associations in the UK.

These large birds are known for good egg production, a tendency towards broodiness, but also for being famously friendly with people, making them a wonderful all-purpose chicken for large or small flocks.

History of the Breed

Discounting the unique plumage color, which is a relatively recent innovation cultivated through careful breeding, the Lavender Orpington is, in all other essential characteristics, a typical Orpington chicken.

Developed in the late 1800s in England from breeding experimentation involving Plymouth Rocks, Minorcas, Langshans, and other birds with the intention of producing a superbly productive chicken kept for meat and eggs alike, the breeders succeeded by the standards of the day.

A mainstay in the UK and increasingly elsewhere in Europe, the Orpington has been a popular domestic breed ever since, and one that has experienced surprising surges in popularity since it was first unveiled.

Although these birds had a strictly utilitarian purpose commercially and for private keepers, their plump build and overall good looks quickly led to them becoming favorite pets and exhibition birds.

Before too long, Orpingtons were no longer being bred just for carcass yield or egg production, but instead for various colors, patterns, and other hallmarks of beauty.

Consumer demand for these birds primarily for non-production characteristics, along with the development of ever more efficient and cost-effective breeds, saw the Orpington slowly sunset out of commercial and mass market use.

But unlike so many other heritage breeds doomed to fade away under the same circumstances, the Orpington has endured thanks to its excellent temperament and suitability to backyard raising.

For anyone who’s nervous around more aggressive birds, or just needs a stellar dual-use performer, it is very difficult to go wrong with an Orpington, and you’ll hardly find a more beautiful variation than the lavender one.

Breed Standard

According to the APA, or American Poultry Association, the Orpington breed standard writ large is as follows:

The body is large, broad, and deep with a wide, short back and a broad breast that is well-rounded with a comparatively deep keel. The wings are of medium size and carried close to the body, and the short tail should be held at a 45° angle to the back.

The eyes are large and bright, while the beak is short, stout, and well-curved. A single comb is of medium size with five points, wattles are of medium length and well-rounded, while the earlobes are smooth and of moderate size.

The legs are short, stocky, and set well apart, and each foot will have four straight toes with a well-defined spread.

The distinctive feathering of the Orpington is abundant, soft, and noticeably fluffy. As mentioned above, lavender is not an officially recognized color variety in the United States or the UK, and only black, blue, buff, and white are.

Mature roosters will weigh 10 pounds, hens will weigh 8 pounds, with cockerels and pullets tipping the scales at 8 1/2 and 7 pounds, respectively.

Size, Weight, and Build

Lavender Orpingtons, like all Orpingtons, are big, chunky chickens, and they look even bigger thanks to their soft, fluffy feathers.

Though they aren’t quite as heavy as they look, they can still be quite a handful at around 8 lbs for the ladies or up to 10 lbs for roosters. Pretty impressive!

Compared to other breeds, Orpingtons are not built for speed and agility. These chickens are slower and more deliberate when afoot and cannot fly owing to their small wings and great size. Wing clipping is completely unnecessary.

Lavender Orpington Plumage Color and Pattern

The most interesting characteristic about the Lavender Orpington is its color. What kind of color is lavender anyway? Lavender, truly, is not a pale purple as you might expect, though in perfect lighting conditions it might have a shimmery and slightly lavender tone.

Lavender instead refers to a light, smoky gray, a plumage color that results from a genetic mutation that dilutes black or blue feathers, or more rarely red or dark brown feathers.

This mutation is not otherwise harmful and doesn’t have any side effects, but it does produce this wonderfully unique color.

Most notably for enthusiasts and breeders, it is difficult to ensure that this genetic mutation will breed true and consistently, even when starting with excellent exemplars of this variety.

Accordingly, this makes Lavender Orpingtons somewhat uncommon in broods, and combined with the demand, can make them downright rare on the open market.

What Are Lavender Orpingtons Good For?

Most Lavender Orpingtons are kept by fanciers as exhibition birds or pets since they are easy to get along with and beautiful. That said, they remain about as productive and useful as all other Orpington varieties.

Historically, these birds were raised for meat owing to their good carcass yield and dependably good quality. They’re also good egg layers today, though they don’t quite meet the same heights of historical performance that they did over 100 years ago.

Nonetheless, they are a good choice for a dual-purpose bird, though not without a few quirks you’ll need to overcome.

We’ll talk more about their laying capabilities and drawbacks in just a few minutes.

Temperament

Famously good! Orpingtons are among the friendliest chickens around, and they are loved the world over for their easy-going attitudes and ease of handling. Orpingtons get along great with people, kids, and even other animals if they are raised alongside them.

Orpingtons are so laid back that they are prone to bullying in mixed flocks; it’s no exaggeration to say that they rarely defend themselves even if directly provoked, and true aggression from them is almost unheard of.

Mothers that are taking care of their chicks or guarding eggs are most likely to sound off or show aggression if approached, but outside of those cases, you shouldn’t expect any issues…

Rooster Aggression

Very low. Roosters, as any veteran keeper will tell you, can be a huge pain in the butt owing to how territorial, noisy, and aggressive they can be, both with birds inside and outside of their immediate flock.

You can never rule this out, but it is going to be very low on the list of concerns with a Lavender Orpington male.

For many generations now, these chickens have been continuously selected to reinforce their temperament, and as mentioned previously, they have become so docile and easy-going that they are the ones vulnerable to bullying.

A Lavender Orpington rooster will do a decent job of keeping a flock of Orpingtons in line, but don’t count on him to protect them from bullying from other birds or roosters, and definitely not on him to decisively deal with a predator attack.

Noisiness

One of my favorite traits about these birds is how quiet they are. As a rule of thumb, hens only cluck to themselves softly or make quiet cooing noises. Noisier birds aren’t unheard of, but if you hear a ruckus, chances are good there is a problem.

Roosters, as ever, will crow, but they aren’t particularly loud and don’t do it very often. This makes Lavender Orpingtons a great bird if you have neighbors nearby or if you yourself just don’t like putting up with a lot of noise pollution.

Are Lavender Orpingtons Good Layers?

Yes, they are! Lavender Orpington hens in the prime of life can be expected to lay anywhere from 175 to 200 eggs a year for the first few years of their life, steadily diminishing after that as with most chickens.

Historically, Orpingtons were originally bred to lay closer to 300 eggs, but as breeding has continually gone on to select for looks and aesthetics, they have diminished somewhat from this lofty standard.

When Will Lavender Orpingtons Start Laying?

Typically between 5 and 6 months, though some individuals might take as long as 7 months to start laying. This is about on par with most other breeds.

Egg Color

Lavender Orpingtons lay light brown eggs.

Broodiness

Extremely. If there’s one thing you can count on out of Lavender Orpington moms, it’s that they will be intent on hatching nearly all of the eggs they lay. They are truly dedicated mothers, and really good at it!

This, obviously, has advantages and disadvantages that you can maximize or will have to manage respectively: if you want to expand your flock the old-fashioned way, you can certainly count on Lavender Orpingtons to do it. They even make great surrogate moms for hatching the eggs of other breeds.

The downside is that broody chickens stop laying eggs once they have a large enough clutch, and that means your actual, practical egg production can be greatly diminished from the stated maximum I gave you above.

If you want to keep your girls laying at the maximum rate, you’ve really got to stay on top of egg collection, and in all cases, simply assume that at least a certain percentage of your hens will go broody and cut off the supply from time to time.

Although some keepers swear up and down there are reliable ways to break a chicken from going broody, none are truly reliable and some are inhumane. This is one fact of life you’ll just have to accept with these birds.

Lavender Orpington Lifespan

Lavender Orpingtons have a pretty long lifespan for chickens, usually between 8 and 10 years.

Although you can’t depend on them to lay eggs for their entire life, if you want your chickens mostly as pets, this is a great thing because they’ll be with you for a significant fraction of your own life.

What Do Lavender Orps Eat?

No surprises here, Lavender Orpingtons are much like any other chicken when it comes to diet.

If you’re smart, you’ll give them food consisting predominantly of nutritionally adjusted chicken feed for their stage of life, one with adequate protein depending on whether or not they are laying, and plenty of vitamins and minerals.

Other than that, they can eat various fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and things like that in limited quantities as part of a well-rounded menu.

Orpingtons are not known to be particularly good foragers, but they’ll eat all the usual suspects in the form of worms, bugs, grubs, snails, small reptiles, and similar creatures.

There is no harm in letting these birds forage, and some exercise will do them good: if kept confined and fed a rich diet, they will quickly become overweight.

However, never count on Lavender Orpingtons, more than most other breeds, supplying their own calorie requirements when free-ranging, even on very rich land.

And as always, don’t forget to provide grit to help them digest their food.

Special Health Concerns

Prospective owners should be aware of a few special health concerns with Lavender Orpingtons, or I should say the Orpington breed generally.

As mentioned, more than most breeds, they are prone to becoming overweight. These are heavy birds with short legs, and they prefer to just hang out rather than run around.

With excess calories or a particularly rich diet, they will quickly pack on the pounds, and this can exacerbate problems like fatty liver syndrome, joint issues, and more.

A more practical concern is that they are somewhat more prone to bumblefoot and other foot and leg injuries generally. These birds aren’t nimble, don’t fly well, and will easily get hurt if they stumble and fall or try to jump down from an elevated location.

Because of this, you always want to make their ramp into the coop shallow and wide, and consider lowering roosting bars to make them easier to access.

The last consideration is the threat posed by external parasites. The heavy, dense, and fluffy feathers that all Orpingtons have make them a haven for mites, lice, ticks, fleas, and other bothersome critters.

In my experience, I’ve noticed that infestations around the vent, beneath the wings, and around the thighs can be very severe and show no outward signs without close inspection.

For that reason, you must stay on top of pest eradication and periodic inspection to make sure your flock is flea-free.

But assuming you take preventative steps against these relatively mild concerns, you’ll find Lavender Orpingtons to be quite healthy and hardy otherwise.

Typical Predators

These birds are vulnerable to all the usual predators, including large birds of prey like eagles, hawks, and owls, terrestrial mammals like coyotes, foxes, domestic dogs, raccoons, bears, mountain lions, and so forth, and smaller predators like rats and snakes, which can be a threat to both chicks and eggs.

The size of these Orpingtons might deter some birds of prey, but considering that they’re extremely docile, slow, and somewhat clumsy, they are easy prey and represent a big meal for any hungry predator.

Predator awareness and deterrence should be top priorities if you own Orpingtons.

Is the Lavender Orpington Right for You?

Consider Lavender Orpingtons if you want a dual-use bird that’s really easy to get along with and handle.

They provide a great yield of meat that is of good quality and flavor, and they will routinely produce around 200 eggs a year for a couple of years—assuming that they don’t go broody!

If you want a pet chicken, or anticipate spending lots of time with and look forward to interacting with your flock, they are a singularly good choice since they are so friendly.

Orpingtons generally get along so well with people that it’s hardly unusual for them to hop into your lap if you are sitting down, and many owners, myself included, will confirm that they will follow you as faithfully as any dog.

Lastly, for folks who want a photogenic or truly beautiful bird, the Lavender Orpington is among the very best: the smoky, shimmering lavender color is beguiling and largely unique among chickens, and something that is sure to get compliments from friends, neighbors, and fellow keepers.

I’d urge you to think twice about these birds if you want a flock that is mostly self-sufficient, capable foragers, or good on defense against predators, or if you cannot abide the idea of a broody hen. Other than that, Lavender Orpingtons get top marks from me, and I would recommend them to anyone.

Fun Facts

Lavender Orpingtons Aren’t Really Lavender

Lavender Orpingtons don’t really have a purple tone or tint to them; this lavender color is actually a light, shimmery gray that results from a genetic mutation that dilutes a typical dark color.

Lavender Orpingtons are Considered a Rare Orpington Type

Even though they are not an officially recognized color, Lavender Orpingtons are a rare variety of this breed.

This is because the mutation that gives them the unique color does not breed true all the time, and their sheer popularity means you might have a hard time tracking them down on the open market!