Allie & Bino, the albino orpington chicks

[Mr Beaks]

That's SO exciting! Pleeease post pics once they fluff up! I still look at my old pictures of Bino, we had a love-hate relationship, LOL.

x2 I would love to see them.

x3!

 

[chiques chicks]

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Red eyed babies. Need to wait a few days to see their traits, let them fluff out a little and start to feather. I just moved them to the brooder. Hoping they survive.

I had set 13 eggs, two clear, 6 hatched, 3 died after piping, three never pipped. The other three that hatched have dark eyes, are light colored and yellow legged.

 

[pattyhen]

Oh my goodness you did good. I hope the little ones survive. Thanks so much for the update and the pics. They are gorgeous.

 

[chiques chicks]

I hatched these under less than ideal conditions. I documented the whole incubation on another thread, "Doing it wrong (so you don't have to)"

The fact anything hatched is kind of surprising!

 

[pattyhen]

I'll check out your other posts. I've only incubated one time and that was a small little dome incubater. One of the 3 eggs did hatch so I felt lucky in doing that.

 

[pattyhen]

That goes to show you even if you do things wrong it can still turn out. I didn't have a fan on my incubator, no humitity checker whatsoever I did use the little thermometer that come with the incubator. I didn't have lockdown I turned everyday. I still hatched one beautiful little baby silkie chick and I was happy and I must say very lucky to do so. Keep us updated how the little ones are doing. They are beautiful.

 

[chiques chicks]

Two of the three albinos have died. The other three are doing well. The albinos seem to be weaker and smaller overall.

There are 20 more eggs incubating. Assuming more albinos hatch, I'm going to need to reevaluate brooding practices for them. Not sure what their extra requirements may be.

 

[daskhan]

Two of the three albinos have died. The other three are doing well. The albinos seem to be weaker and smaller overall.

There are 20 more eggs incubating. Assuming more albinos hatch, I'm going to need to reevaluate brooding practices for them. Not sure what their extra requirements may be.

I would assume they would have a vitimen d deficiency since a lot of it comes from the sun? I'm assuming you have them inside?

 

[chiques chicks]

Yes, I keep them inside. They are only 6 days and it is cool here.

I do give vitamins, they are just very small and weak compared to their hatchmates.

 

[yellowherb]

This is interesting. I have not read the entire thread but thought I would post, it may have already been said and apologies if so.

In ornamental birds, cockatiels and English budgies, my experience says albino is sex linked. If you use a albino male with any, non albino female you will get ALL female albino chicks. Any other color are males which will carry the albino gene and pass it to their daughters 50% of the time(on non albino hens) and their son's 50% of the time will be split to albino, meaning you can't see it, but it's there and will express itself in their female offspring. It's only through breeding you can figure out which males are carrying the albino gene.

If birds used the same letters as humans, although birds are opposite of human..
Male birds are XX and females would be XY. This means a female can not carry a sex linked gene but can only express(show) it. So there would be no split to albino hens, they either are or are not albino. Only males can carry the hidden gene.

This would be a very easy way to sex the chicks right at hatch if it is sex linked as I suspect
Now I'll go read the rest of the thread and see how much I put my foot in my mouth haha.

ah one other thing. I've noticed with my cockatiels and English budgies, that albino (or white faced lutino) are slower to develop than non albino birds. They feather slower and if not bred properly can have a HUGE bald spot on the top of their heads, which might not affect chickens much since they have combs, but something to look out for. The bald spot is one reason it's never advised to breed albino x albino in cockatiels. I have also seen eye issues in albino x albino that other breeders have done. Where chicks have eye deformities or fail to ever open their eyes, which again may not affect chickens since their eyes are open at birth.

Beautiful chickens!!