The Imported English Jubilee Orpington Thread

[carriebain]

My chicks are 7 weeks old and they are all feathering in differently. One barely has any feathers and the other two have quite a few. I don't have any clue how to tell the Roos from the pullets. And please forgive the state of my yard, the grass is needing to be reseeded!

#1 is so scraggly

I like the color on #2 the best

#3 is the most friendly. The last few pictures are of them all together. Any thoughts on gender or coloring, please don't be shy to share your knowledge with me!

 

[Odelia]

I thought the ones that have the very light coloring at this age are cockerels.

 

[HaplessRunner]

My chicks are 7 weeks old and they are all feathering in differently. One barely has any feathers and the other two have quite a few. I don't have any clue how to tell the Roos from the pullets. And please forgive the state of my yard, the grass is needing to be reseeded! #1 is so scraggly I think the lighting affects the appearance of the color of the comb in this picture.

It is a little speculative at this point since I am new to this breed. Given the larger combs of the lighter chicks, these appear to be cockerels. The more feathered chicks seem to have smaller combs so these appear to be pullets. This is consistent with my two chicks that were hatched on April 14th. I tried to feather sexing them after hatching and found what I believe was one pullet and one cockerel. The feathering subsequently has been consistent with what you are seeing.

Nice looking chicks!

 

[chixmix]

In Jubilee, the ones that are generally whiter are cockerals. Also, if some are really slow to feather, they usually are cockerals, they are carrying the slow feather gene. From what I understand, you may want to study that gene to be sure, if you have the slow feather gene in your line of birds, you can very accurately sex your chicks at hatch by looking at the wing feathers. The primaries and coverts will grow at the same rate on a cockerel. The primaries will be longer than the coverts on a pullet.

 

[carriebain]

In Jubilee, the ones that are generally whiter are cockerals. Also, if some are really slow to feather, they usually are cockerals, they are carrying the slow feather gene. From what I understand, you may want to study that gene to be sure, if you have the slow feather gene in your line of birds, you can very accurately sex your chicks at hatch by looking at the wing feathers. The primaries and coverts will grow at the same rate on a cockerel. The primaries will be longer than the coverts on a pullet.

wow, so I potentially, could have a majority of Roos from this batch. I guess time will tell.

 

[Odelia]

Young pullets when they start laying produce their first eggs that are very small. Over time as the pullet's body adapts to laying eggs, the eggs will increase in size to what is normal for the breed. Ordinarily, most folks do not hatch pullet eggs because the smaller eggs will not only produce smaller chicks but these chicks may not have enough body reserves to sustain themselves during the first few days. As such, these chicks may not be as vigorous and thrive as expected.

There are times when you may want to hatch pullet eggs. If you have very few breeders and want to make sure that some of the parents' genetics are passed along should something untoward happen to the parents. Some folks will hatch pullet eggs to check the success of breeding and fertility but you can certainly crack some eggs to determine fertility.

When selling hatching eggs, the seller should definitely advise potential buyers that they are buying pullet eggs. There is greater risk with successful hatching with pullet eggs and the buyer should know and accept the added risk . Jubilee orpingtons are very new and popular right now. So there are many folks out there trying to sell as much as they can to both recover their investment and to make some profits while the market is hot.

I do not know the breeder that you received your chicks from but if you had some chicks that were significantly smaller than others that you received I would certainly wonder why this was the case.

Yes I know that the first eggs a pullet lays are funky and often very small. I would assume no one would hatch those. But then they start laying a consistent egg that isn't as large as it could be but seems quite normal otherwise. So now for my question. How old should your bird be before you start hatching her eggs? They start laying at 5-6 months. They have usually figured out how to lay a consistent egg within 2-4 weeks. How long after that until they lay an egg that should hatch a healthy full size chick?

 

[chixmix]

As long as it's not a fart egg, it will hatch out fine.

 

[Odelia]

Hi! I just got 2 Jubilee chicks 2 weeks ago, they are so cute and are going to be huge! Thought I would share a pic of one of them

I know it has been a while. Do you remember if the one in the photo turned out to be the cockerel or the pullet? We have a couple who look just like this and the others have white wings and more tail development. Just wondering who are the girls and who are the boys. Thanks!

 

[HaplessRunner]

Yes I know that the first eggs a pullet lays are funky and often very small. I would assume no one would hatch those. But then they start laying a consistent egg that isn't as large as it could be but seems quite normal otherwise. So now for my question. How old should your bird be before you start hatching her eggs? They start laying at 5-6 months. They have usually figured out how to lay a consistent egg within 2-4 weeks. How long after that until they lay an egg that should hatch a healthy full size chick?

I usually wait at least a month after they have started laying, depending how close they have gotten to normal size.

 

[Odelia]

So here are our two week old Jubilee chicks. Any guesses on genders? I know it is early, but they are feathering in quite differently. The top ones have light wings and tail feathers and the bottom two have dark wings and no tail feathers. Maybe this isn't any indication of gender at all. What do you think?