Today I read that Serama bantams only take 19 days to hatch, and that the humidity need be 40-45% no more, and not to increase humidity the last three days. Is there anyone out there in DG land with practical experience who can support this? The website where this info came from is www.medlinfarms.com. Now I'm all whigged out thinking that I should be moving my eggs into the hatcher sooner than what I expected. Yikes!!!!!!!...Scott
19 days for hatching Seramas?
I googled "serama chicken incubation" and found several sites that made the same claim. They were very interesting. Friendly and intelligent! If I had more space I would probably try Serama.....
Thanks for checking that out, Catscan. Any advice on if I should stop turning them on day 16 and put them in the hatcher then. What if they are a 21 day chicken and sit still for 5+ days at the later stages of incubation? Anyone??...Scott
Well it's day 16, so I moved the Serama eggs into the hatcher for the final leg. I am so unsure of wether to turn them for another two days or not.......hate to keep on opening the hatcher to turn, as I lose all that humidity every time....Scott
i thought they where a 21 day chicken?? i've not seen that anywhere. mine where put in the hatcher on day 18 and tomarrow is day 21 i hope i did it right. now i'm biteing my nails really worried!!!
Silkie,
Many of the Serama sites advise 19-20 days. I have read that since they have been so recently "domesticated" from wild fowl, they have yet to evolve to the more standardized 21 days for most other chickens. I wouldn't worry about it though. Do you suppose a mother hen stops moving the eggs on day 18? I have no practical experience hatching eggs, but common sense tells me that you could turn your eggs right up until day 21 with no complications whatsoever. I didn't know you had a batch of Serama eggs in the bator, where did you get your eggs? Good luck - want some pictures of the babies...Scott
i'm a member of serama clubs i've never seen anything other than day 21 cause they are chickens eggs. they are not wild fowl never have been. i'm hatching pure melasian seramas. according the my sportsman directions the chart has nothing to hatch on day 19 closest is parakeet eggs at day 18 from all the ones listed.
u stop turning eggs on day 18 due to the chick positioning for hatch. some due it 19 if u do it last few days it rolls the baby to another position that will cause it to late hatch or not hatch at all. it's like a human baby getting into possition for birth same consept. i have hatched hundreds of eggs chicken, turkey, quail and pheasant.
mine came from lydia webb. i was to get some from several people but temp dropped here again since still winter so i have to wait till it warms up to get the others. i had a serama member of one of my forums gonna send me birds and eggs a few weks ago but her barn caught fire sadly and she lost well over 300+ birds and then some. it was a great loss but she managed to save about 20 of her birds. i got a pip this morning so hopefully today is the day,lol. i had 6 eggs and 1 candled clear the others where good on day 18 and put in the hatcher. will definately add pics soon as i can. who did u get ur eggs from?
silkie
I hear what you are saying and I don't disagree at all. I googled "serama incubation period" and get everything from 19-21 days, most being 19-20 and lower than average humidity as compared with other chickens. The part about "wild fowl evolution" is something that I read on a couple of serama forums also. I don't have the background that most of you all have here, with experience of years worth of hatches, but I can't ignore what other people with similar experience as yours are stating they have for incubation periods. It could be simply that different strains of serama have different incubation periods, or that other breeders set their eggs at a higher temperature to get an early hatch. I got my eggs from David Stroud, Jackie Forte, and Jamie Singleton. I have no idea if they are prominent breeders or not, but their eggs seem okay so far....Scott
david is a reputable breeder and a very nice guy we are getting eggs from him once weather is better. he is an experienced serama breeder and very good at hatching i would ask him for advice on hatching seramas. the others i don't know. i hear what u are saying and yes i kept the humidity lower but temp same for regular chicken. only differnce should be amount of days i've done and u did a few shorter. i have a white looking one working on hatching now. i can't wait till it hatches all the way it's the cutest little thing!!
We will all be expecting pics of the little white one once it is free of the shell. Thanks for the info on David, his eggs by far seem to be the most viable. I hope that is a sign that the chicks will be healthy little ones. By the way, I am still turning them in the hatcher by hand. Tomorrow would be day 18 for Davids eggs, so I will stop turning them then, and put the lockdown on the hatcher until I (hopefully) have fluffly little ones peeping up a storm...Scott
well we have had a heck of a time hatching here, some was due to low humidity i think some to shipping also. some where pretty late to hatch others got stuck bad and needed helped.
one silkie baby was born with it's head through it's yolk sac don't ask me how no clue but i took pics cause i thought it was a rare oddity. we're gonna see if penn state wants it for their poultry education dept. it's really fasinateing it grew that way. we lost one white silkie got 2 silkies a buff and a splash? doing good in the brooder. the white serama made it and is in the hatcher now but 2 blacks and 2 mottles and a black/brown mottled we lost. got a splash silkie in the hatcher doing good also. still got more silkies pipped and i'm out of seramas but it was all worth it for what looks like a pure white. tomarrow my silkies and showgirls from my flock are due.
will post a pic of the serama when it goes in the brooder. hope u have better luck than me and get a great hatch!!! can't wait fr pics!! will let u know when i get more serama eggs to hatch and how they do once weather is better.
keep us posted on ur hatch!!
silkie
Sorry about the 5 seramas, but happy for you with the silkies.
Did the seramas pip or not make it that far?
It sounds like a lot of the seramas make it full term and just don't hatch. I guess it is probably best not to help them out if they aren't strong enough on their own, as their offspring may suffer the same fate?
yep only the white pipped the others either internal piped or very close. i'm happy i got one gorgous little white serama baby to love and 4 silkies!!! here is a pic of the new serama baby next to a new buff silkie.
here is the sarama baby by it's self it is so sweet and tiny i love it!!! i can't wait to see it up and walking around! i'll take more pis as they r up and about the flash is to bright t hard to take pics of them,lol.
I have pips!!! It's day 19, one chick pipped, working very hard to get out, several other eggs "rolling around". Lots of peeping coming from in there. I can barely stay in my skin!!!!!!!!!!!
Wonderful!!!!
You did it! You did it!
About 8 are pipped now, there are 4 working hard, the others have been quiet since last night. the first one needed some help getting out and he does not seem well. I'm letting the others hatch natural, so that the strong will survive. Maybe my temp was a little too high, therefore the early hatch?
Congratulations, Maine! So glad things are happening for you!
I hope all those pipped make it out ok. I had one that pipped,
made a tiny hole, and then didn't do much else for 9 hours.
If I couldn't see a bit of movement through the hole, I would
have thought it had died.
Please let us know and post pictures when you feel comfortable.
I do believe the early hatch indicates a warmer incubator. Go chicks!
I am so happy for you!
(may princess tammy have perfect temperatures, I don't)
awesome good luck!! i think i'm going to do them 19 days next time since i lost 4 right before hatch this time which i hear happens alot. mabe 21 days is to much for them? i had a humidity prob too and we didn't catch it fast enough. i got 60 eggs comeing from david should be here sometime next week. hopefully i'll have better odds this next time around, rotfl. keep us posted can't wait to find out what hatches for u!! also i read if ya help seramas usually they don't make it something with the breed and they r really touchy so let the others go as much as possible on their own if ya can.
silkie
I have had the best luck with Davids eggs so far. From the original 30 he sent, 22 made it past day 16, which is the last time I candled them, and of those 22, so far 8 have hatched today (day 20). Very noisy around here!!!! The other 16 that I had ordered from another lady, 12 made it and one has hatched today (day 19 for them), four more are pipped. I had poor luck with the third batch in the incubator, started with 15 only 4 left alive at day 14. One of those 4 eggs is super tiny too. I will get pictures up later when the peeps dry off. Have lots of different colors.
Silkie, you should have much better luck with David's eggs - hope you get them soon!
Thanks, Silkie, Truest, Cat and GG for your kind thoughts....Scott
You're welcome! And we want pictures soon....
You are so welcome, Maine. We all understand your eggcitement
here, and wish the best for your chicks. Watching and learning
so much from so many of you. Thanks.
I think your baby serama and silkies are beautiful, Silkiechik.
The serama looks like it has a poofy head, too.
may princess tammy have silkie hair.
You are most welcome, Scott. And, like the others, I want to see pictures!!!
your very welcome. i got an email from david last night he shipped yesterday!! i'm so excited didn't expect them that quick! will keep ya posted. wow u had way better luck than i did, great job and glad ya got lots of babies to spoil!! i'll have to take another pic of my little one it is to funny, i love it and growing so fast already.
thanks truest, nope no poofy head on the serama,lol. it's so little compaired to the others it is so neat to see it running about with them.
Big storm hit last night - power went down for almost 2 hours! All the chicks were evac'd from the brooder in the barn into the house to sit by the fire. Big blankets for all the incubators, temps got down to 77 in them, but woke this morning to three more little buddies, and three more pips too. Looks like that will be about it, most of the other eggs appear dead. Here is a terrible picture from last night, will try to get a better one up soon.
OMG!!! they are beautiful and lots of colors too!! yeah congrats again!!!!! love the pic!!
just an added note don't keep them on paper to slippery and it causes spraddle leg and leg probs. put paper towels or pine shaveings over the paper so they have gripping to keep them from getting it. oh and serama babies ya have to watch for paste butt it can kill them easy if they have it bad so make sure the bums stay clear, alot of breeders told us to watch them for that for about the first month.
Thanks Silkie, I have been crushing some food up for them this AM, as the chick starter crumble is too big for them to get down easily. I will watch for pasty butt, and also get some paper towels on the newspaper asap. Here is another photo or two. One of my favs is the partridge striped one, and the other is "Fleck" the black and white with flecks on his eyes. There is also a really pretty sable colored one. They are having a blast scratching around.
"Fleck" is fiesty
The partridge color one has nice stripes and is most curious about shiny things
This is by far the prettiest chick!!
Got four (whites?) yellow ones, that all hang around in a gang. Anyone know if they will be white when they get real feathers?
I'm thinking they will be white. When my chicks came the only difference between the Buff Orpington (will be golden) and the Delaware (will be white with some black tipped feathers) was some black markings on the Delaware's head--by 5 days you could see a clear difference--the Buff looks like the classic little yellow chick, the Delaware is definitely paler, light lemon chiffon. And yours are adorable! You must be so proud. Mine were fine on newpaper for the first two days (to help them get pecking), then I switched them to pine shavings.
Thanks Cat, these do have some black markings here and there but mostly pale yellow. one is almost pure white too. Thanks for the advice on shavings.
Oh, Maine! They are so pretty! You must be thrilled, and a
very proud PaPa! I really like the sable colored one, as well.
Looks lux-ur-i-ous! Of Blanca's chicks, we had 3 yellow and
one white with black spots. This one white is the only white of
all my chicks, and she stands out. I put all mine on paper
towels for the first few days. Easy to change out, and no
splayed legs. Then on to pine shavings. I did this for the tiny
quail too, and it worked very well for them. I think the one thing
that stuck in my mind when reading about egg incubation was
a comment by the author that said 'The power Will go out'.
Sounds like you made it through ok!
may princess tammy never lose power when the incubator is
full!
i would write to david and ask if u sent pics if he could tell u what colors they are, he is really nice and has really helped us alot with them. i got my 60 eggs in today omg only 1 was cracked, rotfl i was impressed!!! i'm so excited and can't wait!! it's gona be a long few weeks waiting for them to hatch,lol. i had 4 more chicks hatch out this am and 5 still working on it boy this is conna be one busy house soon with all these peeps,lol.
Oh, Silkie, you have it as bad as me! I have 22 store bought
chicks in one brooder, 3 quail in another (only got 4 of 24 to hatch)
and 6 home hatched chicks in another. All of these are in our office,
and it is a challenge to keep the bedding changed frequently!
The bigger they get, the more often I have to change the litter.
I am so glad the weather is warming for us down here, I am just
about ready for them to go outside. Just in time to start over
with some more quail, and some guinea eggs soon.
may princess tammy never run out of brooder space.
oh no i'm affraid i have it worse,lol. i had 103+ eggs in then 3 batches hatched then i added 5 from a swap and now 59 honestly i have lost count, rotfl. thankfuly alot of friends want peeps too so it's all good. i get my picks then i have at least 5 others that want babies at least. soon as weather is better i have to go through my coops and take out the ones i don't want for show and narrow them down some to make room for new babies. i have about 12 who are going out sun since next week it should be pretty nice.
Thanks, Truest - they are growing like crazy already. All are safe and happy.
Silkie, I will send some photos to David, that's a great idea. So happy that your little eggies arrived okay.
I called McMurrays today, re: my order of chix that is shipping on Monday. I am nervous after losing the last 40 to the cold three weeks ago when they sent them. I decided to order 9 more chicks, you know, to make sure the box was filled, for warmth of course! Getting 8 extra Silver Pencilled Wyandottes, 1 extra BLR 'Dotte (they had a limit of 6 per customer, of all the nerve). That brings the total to 80 chicks coming on Monday including the order from Welp hatchery. YeeHaw!!!
they have been haveing alot of probs with chicks lately i think it's the cold and stressing the chicks. oh my and i thought i was gonna have chicks out my ears,lol.