I had a neighbor tell me I "had" to have a rooster. He said that the hens will lay better with a rooster around. I've proved him wrong. I have 12 hens and no rooster and we consistently get 10-12 eggs every single day. My hens look pretty too because they don't have roosters around pulling their feathers out and pecking on their head which I think stresses them out. The neighbor now is only getting maybe 6 eggs a day out of almost 40 chickens. He has 4 roosters over there. Tried to give me one. I told him we don't need no stinkin rooster here. :)
ZZ's Babiez: (Seramas)
Hi Loon!! You asked to what do I owe my success? All joking aside, I really don't know. I have had no prior experience with Seramas so I have no real claim to fame. Same with my hen's laying. I can only say I am fortunate. I'm not vain enough to think I do a better job than any of friends on D G. I don't even know if the Seramas are in fact lousy layers, I just know when I was researching infor on them it stated they were very poor layers and that hatching them was even more difficult. Then two that have hatched babies in the one pen were sitting on eight eggs, the other pair are setting on six eggs. So that makes fourteen eggs they are brooding over and so far we have three more new babiez today and are expecting at least three or four more to hatch. I have some pic's of the one pair but are waiting for the other pair to hatch some before we post. I will be posting pic's sometime tomorrow. So often I see most of us doing all the right things and with different results. Who really knows and understands it all? I sure don't. I just feel lucky even though I pretend to know what I'm doing. Hatching eggs makes me feel really humble, cause it's such a true miracle. Hay
Hay,
Are you SURE you're not giving them massages or singing to them? :)
{{That'd be my guess Loon. Hay's a closet softie}}
I finally have some pics of my new seramas. These are the babies of Dot, Cinnamon, and Cocoa. The babiez of Booker, Joy and Murphy have not hatched and I am begining to wonder if they are going to hatch at all. Cocoa and cinnamon had eight eggs under them and only three hatched, I checked the other five and all were fertile but failed in the later stage. :o( So anyway all total we have hatched nine beauties plus the six from ZZ's makes fifteen. Yeah!!
pic# 2 This is Booker, Joy, and Murph
This message was edited Nov 25, 2009 10:00 PM
This message was edited Nov 25, 2009 10:00 PM
#3
This message was edited Nov 25, 2009 9:56 PM
Is that Dot? You know he is just about perfect....
I had seven shipped Serama eggs being brooded by Emily and Laura the Serama Sisters and only one developed...I moved it into the incubator with some RIR and it will hatch, or not, by Friday.
Serama eggs are just difficult--partly it is supposed to be because of a lethal gene inherited from their Japanese Bantam ancestors...in Japanese one in four chicks die in the egg after developing normally for most of the incubation.
Bummer.
#4
This is cocoa, and cinnamon setting.
Five unhatched eggs and some babiez
Mom's and babiez
Last pic of babiez and moms.
Hi Cat! I wish you luck my dear on the hatching of your one serama this friday. I must say I was a little ticked when I saw that all five eggs that did not hatch were fertile. Each one just about filled the egg so It was in the very last stage that development stopped. Now I will always wonder if they would have hatched better in the incubator? Booker's girls, Murph and Joy laid their eggs the same day as the others and I have seen no sign of life but Murph doesn't want to get off of the eggs, Tomorrow I will remove her and if none of them hatch I will candle to see if they were fertile. However I know he was mating as I saw them a couple times during feeding and caring for them. I sure hope at least one or two hatch. Happy Thanksgiving to a great gal. Haystack
Baby's Haystack those are so cool.... Oh and you are a facebook convert?? hummmm there are plenty of Pictures of Billy on there if you care to gander in your spare time... LOL Wait what spare time...
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you also sweetie, and I surely will take a look at those pic's of Billy and I hope you also on facebook. That is also a possibility if you want some serama eggs. You think about what you want and let me know. It will probably take about three weeks to get fertile eggs and get them to you. When ever you are ready. Just remember to dmail your address when you decide. My best to you and Billy during these Holidays and remember Christ is Lord. Hay
Oh Haystack!!! Do you even know how exciting it is to see these pics???!!! Happy Thanksgiving! That pic of Dot makes him look soooo good. He is a perfect bird..(I used to tell him that all the time) He knows it too.
I love seeing the babiez...
Catscan, we want pics!!!
MsJestr, I love seeing the pics of Billy too! Hugz to you all.
WOW!!! I put an ad on Craigslist to sell four of my serama babiez, and would you believe it!!! I sold all four to one guy for two hundred and forty bucks. When he called I thought he only wanted one for his son, but as soon as he came over and saw them the never batted an eye he just asked if he could have all four and handed over the money. They were three days old and he will pick them up tomorrow. So I still have the original six plus five, to work with. The ones (under Murph and Joy) not one of them hatched and both girls are in mourning and just sitting on the floor sulking. I will start handling them tomorrow and assure them that things will get better in the near future. Hay.
None of my incubator Seramas hatched--but my broody Silkie cross has hatched two outside--I will have to take them away from her--which breaks my heart cause she is clearly a good momma--but something in that pen killed on of the other pullet's chick....
I need to get hard core with selling my Serama--I had people beating down the door for my roos--but I was only asking $15 per roo....they were the ones I didn't want to use for breeding.
Wait! I hear peeping from my incubator! There is one pipping! I can't believe it. I thought they were due Friday--but the outdoor ones didn't hatch until yesterday and these are exactly the same age of incubation--maybe because I kept the temp a little low so as not to lose any pullets?
Catsy don't just leave me hanging, what's happening darling? Talk to me Catsy! I'm not joking Catsy, whats going on. Please let me know. Hay
The incubator peeping has stopped--but it may just be resting. Out of about 7 shipped eggs I gave her, the Silkie cross has hatched 3 so far. I went out and took them from her this evening, although she does not seem to be the flibbertygibbet the Dutch Bantam was....There is one dark one, and two light ones. So tiny. About a quarter the size of the three day old RIRs.
Catscan i'm so happy for you, the one in the inc is probably just as you said (resting) They are so tiny and so delicate, I love watching them for the first day, stumbling around and going from some prehistoric bird to a sweet and fluffy chicken. ZZ's was right about you! Your a genuine princess. Hay. Sure would love to see pic's.
Thats it I want to do that too....
Hey can you believe it, I told you none of Bookers eggs hatched so after 23day's I pitched them. Well I went in to feed them this morning and there were two baby chicks in there and I'm in shock. I don't know what could account for that unless there were some eggs I did not see that were hidden in the shavings. This is just to crazy but I love it. Haystack. I must be the luckiest man alive to have hatching chicks and not know it....LOL
Maybe you have a new strain of chicken that gives live birth......lol!
Congrats Hay. I guess those chicks took longer to gestate.
I feel like I'm operating in la, la, land. I just hatched three manans, and on day twelve we lost power due to a windstorm, Power was out ten and a half hours. I used my generator to keep my serama babies alive but knew I was going to loose my marans eggs. After power was restored I thought about throwing the eggs out and starting over. I changed my mind and when day 21 had come and gone I decided they were doomed, then I got to thinking, well the loss of heat could delay the hatch so decided to give them one more day, the next day my hot water tank sprang a leak so I and a friend were installing a new tank late at night, when I came in to write him a check I noticed all three eggs had hatched. I wanted to clean the incubator so I put the new chicks in with the one month old seramas and they were only two hours old and I noticed they were larger at two hours old than the one month old seramas. My wife and I were both amazed at our good luck and how big the new chicks were. Then we find these new baby serama chicks and I am floating on air. I can't believe how crazy lucky I have been with all of this. Boy I can tell you there is no skill here, just pure luck. It seems like when things are going your way theres no way to explain to anyone the success your having. Maybe it's true...Ignorance is bliss. Hay
Those marans are probably all females! LOL
I'm gonna start sending you my eggs to hatch!
Nice to see you getting in touch with your feminine side, Hay. =0)
You're clearly a great egg-daddy! All those little embryos just can't wait to meet you.
Congrats Hay... Ok we are getting an incubator, and would like to barter for eggs
Methinks Haystack has extra-special Fabby Chick-an-hatching Juju!!
Hay's got his mojo working....
You don't have to barter miss Jester, you and Billy just tell me what and when.
Jay, You always manage to put to put a smile on my face, My feminine side. Good Lord, have you been listening to my wife???
Mel: I sure do miss talking with you. When we lost power I immediately thought about you. It is so crazy, I just can't explain the run of good fortune but I am just loving these Seramas. I feel so torn between my love for the b/c's and seramas. Very glad I don't have to choose. Are you doing any winter hatching at all? Please keep me posted. Hay
Am I winter hatching??? Hay, you know my girls are laying now... these will be my Christmas babies. :)
Mel, Your my new hero. WOW!!! Are all twenty four going into the bator??? When??? I want to watch and count down with you. Just can't wait to see the results of hatching your own as opposed to shipped eggs. I sell fertile eggs but only locally where I can account for their success. Let me know when they go into the bator. I love watching the success of others. Hay
They're in there already... 35 of them. 24 of mine and 11 shipped overnight. They should start around the 18th or so of this month. :) I'm excited to see what my own babies do too.
Mel: I had a dream last night, in my dream I stopped over to see how your hatch went and when I opened the door you had baby chicks all over you, on your head, shoulders and lap. I don't know if it's a good omen or not but It woke me up laughing. Best of luck to you and I'll be watching. Hay
Hopefully it's a good omen Hay.... I told my husband the same thing... "Watch, every one of these will hatch." LOL
It's going to be a good experiment too, one of the folks I bought from offered to ship me new eggs overnight, all I had to pay was the postage. She didn't put anything on the box about "eggs" so we'll see. It was her contention that things shipped express were handled by hand, so less rough handling, and less chance of Xray.... I'd still like to try some shipped fed ex or UPS and see how those do.
After this hatch, my incubator is going to school. One of our Science teachers is going to hatch some for me in class. She's doing a life unit, and thought this would be fun for them. I just hope they hatch during the week so the kids will be able to watch! I figured I'd have her start them on a Monday, so they'd likely hatch during the week. We'll just have to hope we don't get a big snow when they're due!
Hay, I know perfectly well all that facial hair is really a cover-up for a sensitive New Age kinda guy...
Just remember... a vacuum cleaner IS a power tool. =0) So's a frying pan. LOL Sorta the original power tool, methinks.
What are you all going to do with so many chickens?