About a week ago I contacted Alex, the wonderful man that we bought the French Black Copper Marans from. When we picked up the Black Copper's he said that he would have some Lavender Orphingtons hatching in about a month. So I marked it on the calendar and we called him about a week ago.
Sunday, off we went to pick up our new chicks, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of setting up a brooder again, but now that we can keep the chicks in the coupe outside in a brooder, it isn't so bad. And of course you can't buy just one, so when it was all said and done we came home with two Lavender Orphingtons, One Black Orphington (he might be a rooster?), and three (hopefully) Coronation Sussex, which as I understand it, will be white with the lavender ring at the neck.
Coronation Sussex are supposed to be extremely rare. One lady, I read on-line, imported some in 2007 from Australia, and to her knowledge were the only breeding pair in this Hemisphere. They were "bred to honor the Coronation of King George". What was amazing is that all three of these chicks came from two Lavender Orphingtons. One of the hen's throws these three types of chicken. Totally messed up my understanding of how chicken breeds are created. I thought Lavender's came from Lavenders, Sussex' cam from Sussex' etc. But I guess not.
(Black Orphington shown left, not a Maran)
We also learned why our Kukoo Maran's eggs have been getting lighter and lighter in color. Alex told us that chickens go through a cycle and at the beginning the eggs are the darkest, as the cycle continues the eggs get lighter and then they stop laying for a while and molt. Then the cycle starts over and you'll get the dark eggs again.
Zach is doing some commission work for Alex, he is going to forge a couple of saddle hooks and we are delivering them next week. Alex said, "Who knows what I'll have when you come next time." Zach responded "You know my wife too well." Going to Alex's is definitely a dangerous place for a chicken addict!
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