Our first chicks from incubator...

[JuliaHeid]

Our first incubator babies have hatched and they are really cute! They will be in a big tote with heat lamp and a warm dry area. Fresh feed and water always available to them. What else do I need to watch for? They are from a Jubilee Roo and Buff hen.

 

[sourland]

Congratulations. How many hatched ?

 

[JuliaHeid]

Just 4, but we are not disappointed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You probably already know this but the spots (mottling) on the Jubilee is a recessive trait. You might see a few spots on the juvenile plumage but should not see any on the adult plumage. I anticipate a nice reddish orange plumage. I don't think you will be disappointed.

The basics: food, water, protection from predators, and protection from the environment. You've already mentioned food and water. Fresh clean water is very important.

If you are brooding them outside everything likes to eat baby chicks. If you brood inside your pet cats or dogs could be a predator. Unsupervised children could also cause harm.

Baby chicks need protection against cold winds that can chill them. If they are wet they can chill. Extremes of heat or cold can kill them, too much heat can be really dangerous, it's not just cold. A brooder needs one spot that is warm enough in the coolest of temperatures and cool enough in the warmest temperatures. Even straight out of the incubator my baby chicks are great at choosing the right temperatures when they have those choices.

If you brood in your house you probably have pretty stable conditions. Brooding outside is more challenging. My brooder is outside in the coop, I've seen temperatures swing from below freezing to the mid 70's Fahrenheit in 36 hours. My brooder has to be able to handle that.

I also use a heat lamp but my 3' x 6' brooder is probably a lot larger than your tote and is well ventilated. One risk with a heat lamp and a tote is that it may get too hot in there. Be careful about that. Also, a danger with the heat lamp is that it might fall and cause a fire. It needs to be secure. I suggest tossing the clamp that comes with it so you are not even tempted to use it and using wire to hold it in place. Not string or plastic cord that can burn or melt, but wire that will remain in place.

Keep the brooder dry. A wet brooder is a disease waiting to happen and will probably stink.

I think that's the basics. Good luck and congratulations n the hatch.

 

[JuliaHeid]

You probably already know this but the spots (mottling) on the Jubilee is a recessive trait. You might see a few spots on the juvenile plumage but should not see any on the adult plumage. I anticipate a nice reddish orange plumage. I don't think you will be disappointed.

The basics: food, water, protection from predators, and protection from the environment. You've already mentioned food and water. Fresh clean water is very important.

If you are brooding them outside everything likes to eat baby chicks. If you brood inside your pet cats or dogs could be a predator. Unsupervised children could also cause harm.

Baby chicks need protection against cold winds that can chill them. If they are wet they can chill. Extremes of heat or cold can kill them, too much heat can be really dangerous, it's not just cold. A brooder needs one spot that is warm enough in the coolest of temperatures and cool enough in the warmest temperatures. Even straight out of the incubator my baby chicks are great at choosing the right temperatures when they have those choices.

If you brood in your house you probably have pretty stable conditions. Brooding outside is more challenging. My brooder is outside in the coop, I've seen temperatures swing from below freezing to the mid 70's Fahrenheit in 36 hours. My brooder has to be able to handle that.

I also use a heat lamp but my 3' x 6' brooder is probably a lot larger than your tote and is well ventilated. One risk with a heat lamp and a tote is that it may get too hot in there. Be careful about that. Also, a danger with the heat lamp is that it might fall and cause a fire. It needs to be secure. I suggest tossing the clamp that comes with it so you are not even tempted to use it and using wire to hold it in place. Not string or plastic cord that can burn or melt, but wire that will remain in place.

Keep the brooder dry. A wet brooder is a disease waiting to happen and will probably stink.

I think that's the basics. Good luck and congratulations n the hatch.

Thank you for your detailed reply! They are in my puppy barn and my brooder is a big tote, though not as large as yours. They are protected from the weather and predators, and there is a heat lamp at one end of the tote for warmth for them.

Interesting also that the Jubilee spots are recessive. This tells me that the little girls (if any) might be added to my Jubilee pen later on.... but I wonder if the rich mahogany color of the jubilee might come through in a second generation, or if I would be better off keeping them as buff? I still want a blue buff columbian roo for buff hens.

An example might be my dogs. They come in 2 colors but the black is only possible with a black parent even if the liver dogs have black in their pedigree.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting also that the Jubilee spots are recessive. This tells me that the little girls (if any) might be added to my Jubilee pen later on.... but I wonder if the rich mahogany color of the jubilee might come through in a second generation, or if I would be better off keeping them as buff?

A lot depends on what you want. When you breed a pullet from that cross to your Jubilee rooster you will get about half mottled and about half without the mottling. You should get a variety of reddish tones. Some will be that rich mahogany color, some will be lighter.

If you cross a rooster from that cross with a hen from that cross you will get about 1/4 mottled and 3/4 not mottled. The range of reds you could get get goes all the way from that deep mahogany to buff.

There are a lot of different gene pairs that go into making those colors. When you cross two different purebreds with different colors you can predict pretty well what they will look like. But when you breed to crosses or especially breed crosses to crosses the number of possible gene combinations go way up. Sometimes you can get some pretty big surprises.

 

[JuliaHeid]

Interesting also that the Jubilee spots are recessive. This tells me that the little girls (if any) might be added to my Jubilee pen later on.... but I wonder if the rich mahogany color of the jubilee might come through in a second generation, or if I would be better off keeping them as buff?

A lot depends on what you want. When you breed a pullet from that cross to your Jubilee rooster you will get about half mottled and about half without the mottling. You should get a variety of reddish tones. Some will be that rich mahogany color, some will be lighter.

If you cross a rooster from that cross with a hen from that cross you will get about 1/4 mottled and 3/4 not mottled. The range of reds you could get get goes all the way from that deep mahogany to buff.

There are a lot of different gene pairs that go into making those colors. When you cross two different purebreds with different colors you can predict pretty well what they will look like. But when you breed to crosses or especially breed crosses to crosses the number of possible gene combinations go way up. Sometimes you can get some pretty big surprises.

Well I love the beautiful colors of the Jubilee, but I don't want to "water it down" as it were. My other pen is lavender with a lavender laced isabel rooster... and I already know not to cross the lavender with buff As to letting these chicks mate with one another, I would be nervous about the amount of inbreeding that would be. My experience is with dogs and horses... and I know that brother sister matings in those worlds is only done rarely and with lines one can be pretty sure of because recessive bad genes show up as well as the good stuff. Of course, in dogs and horses, the generations take time. In chickens, those generations are possibly pretty quick and you can eat the mistakes. I have a lot to learn about what begets what in all these colors of Orpingtons. The other one I would love to have is a blue buff columbian but those seem a bit hard to come by...

Do the colors breed true? Folks call the mixed color chicks mixed breeds, but they are all Orpington.... learning and full of questions

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do the colors breed true? Folks call the mixed color chicks mixed breeds, but they are all Orpington....

There is a lot of debate about that. I'm not sure which country you are in, I suspect the UK. The UK and US have different Standards of Perfection (SOP) which is basically what defines a breed in those countries. There usually are some differences in the countries' SOP's. I often say that breed is a manmade thing. What is a breed in one country can look quite different from what is called the same breed name in another country.

The SOP defines why an Orpington is an Orpington. Body shape, posture, leg color, ear lobe color, comb type, weight of the adults, types of feathering (not colors), shape of the tail, number of toes, the list goes on and on. A good judge can tell breed of a chicken that meets the standards by it's silhouette, shape is that important.

In the US, the approved Orpington colors/patterns are Blue, Black, Buff, and White. Some people are pretty firm that only these colors are Orpington in the US, any other color or pattern is just a mutt. Others say that as long as they meet the requirements of the breed the color really doesn't matter. That color just hasn't been accepted yet. I don't show chickens but some people on this forum that do say you can show a bird as a specific breed even if it is not an approved color/pattern. That might depend on the show. If you are showing it as a color it needs to be that color. That's why they approve colors.

Any time you get people together, especially people that are passionate about something, you are going to get different opinions. I don't breed to the SOP anyway so I don't worry about what people think about it.

My suggestion is to choose the definition that makes you happy. You might as well, no matter what you choose some people will agree with you and some won't.

 

[JuliaHeid]

Do the colors breed true? Folks call the mixed color chicks mixed breeds, but they are all Orpington....

There is a lot of debate about that. I'm not sure which country you are in, I suspect the UK. The UK and US have different Standards of Perfection (SOP) which is basically what defines a breed in those countries. There usually are some differences in the countries' SOP's. I often say that breed is a manmade thing. What is a breed in one country can look quite different from what is called the same breed name in another country.

The SOP defines why an Orpington is an Orpington. Body shape, posture, leg color, ear lobe color, comb type, weight of the adults, types of feathering (not colors), shape of the tail, number of toes, the list goes on and on. A good judge can tell breed of a chicken that meets the standards by it's silhouette, shape is that important.

In the US, the approved Orpington colors/patterns are Blue, Black, Buff, and White. Some people are pretty firm that only these colors are Orpington in the US, any other color or pattern is just a mutt. Others say that as long as they meet the requirements of the breed the color really doesn't matter. That color just hasn't been accepted yet. I don't show chickens but some people on this forum that do say you can show a bird as a specific breed even if it is not an approved color/pattern. That might depend on the show. If you are showing it as a color it needs to be that color. That's why they approve colors.

Any time you get people together, especially people that are passionate about something, you are going to get different opinions. I don't breed to the SOP anyway so I don't worry about what people think about it.

My suggestion is to choose the definition that makes you happy. You might as well, no matter what you choose some people will agree with you and some won't.

You are wise, and I appreciate your thoughtful and forthright answers I am in the USA in central Georgia. I know that a lot of people like the "English" version of the Orpington for its beauty. I am somewhere in between and I have to educate myself more on the Standard of Perfection. I do believe in having birds (or any animals) that adhere to good, sound standards though I am not a show person. I love the colors though It is interesting to see what some call "mutts" and consider mixed breeds, when it is only mixed colors.

I have learned quickly that colors are sometimes hard to come by in this world of Orpington chickens. I started just wanting some chickens for eggs, and the pretty colors just make getting some eggs more fun