I wanted to show off my lavender cockerel prospect for the 2012 season. He is a son of a a very blue-egg laying split hen that I hatched out of eggs shipped to me from Jean out of her 2010 splitxsplit pen. I\'ll try to post a picture of the hen, too. He is young and I have not been able to find where I wrote down the hatch date. Right now he weighs 5lbs 1oz. He did not exhibit slow feather, has no brassiness, and tail and wingset seem to be greatly improved over what I have grown out previously. I am hoping he carries a double copy for muffs/beard. His color is nice and even with minimal ticking. His sire is going to be a Shaffer male I had, but not the one everyone has seen pictures of previously from Pen B. I have two split pullets in with him that were made by crossing my Pen B lavender Shaffer male over a #12 Paul Smith black hen that I had that laid a huge (yes, large to extra large in size - really) egg that was nice and blue. Paul is also sending me a split to add to the pen that he made using his #10 hens and a Shaffer male. I have a couple dozen of these in the incubator due to hatch the first of December. I think they\'ll be good. Let me see if I can compress those pictures of his mother.