Welcome the SUPER SEVEN Serama babies to our little family here. This hatch may not have had a happy ending if it weren't for all the help I got on this board. I can't tell you how torn I was about pulling these from under their broody mammas. According to our records (in our head!), they were set to hatch about the day that I pulled them, October 14, 2008. Millie REALLY began setting on 9/26, and Myrtle a few days after.
The girls were so wonderful...sometimes laying in the box together and sometimes taking turns. Even Gibson wanted in on it, trying to climb in and set with Millie (his true love!) So on October 14 (Day 18), you can imagine how hard it was for me to take them after they had worked so hard. They had layed eggs before, that hatched in bator, but had never gone broody and layed on them.
By Saturday night, October 18 (day 22) my son said, "Mom, don't you think we should throw them out by tomorrow? I sadly pondered it, but I candled them. They were so full, I couldn't see much, but the air sacs were so perfect and NOTHING looked wrong! So, I thought, I am going to give it a day or 2, to see what happens.
(Pause here - Can you believe I didn't run to the board for everyone's opinion??!! I managed to make a decision all by my lonesome!)
Sunday rolls along and nothing had happened. By Sunday evening, I had that thought, a watched pot never boils. Went to work on the other side of the house (I work at home a lot on the computer). Went into the kitchen, next to the brooder room, and I heard "younger" chirping. HELLO! There it was - a pip in 1 of the SUPER SEVEN SERAMA eggs!
I was sooooo eggcited, I yelled, WE GOT ONE! I thought to myself that if just 1 survived this mess of stress, I would be thankful.
Within an hour, DUCKY hatched, and by the time she was 1/2 way through another on the other side of the 'bator had been pipping and I didn't even know it...there's 2.
2 didn't come out until the Oct 21 (Tues another blonde) and 3 within a couple hours after (an extended black w/ the most amazing built-in EGYPTIAN eyeliner, or racoon eyes, DH appropriately named "Coon".). So we're into Tues with 3 babies so far and 4 was born that night (another blonde), 5 was born Wed morning (another blonde) and 6 (another extended black) was born later. I'm eggstatic, except for during all this glory, I find that bloody poo in the cochin/frizzle brooder. Pics of that and back on the board to display and get some answers.
Then back to the hatching babies. But, 7 had been pipped since 10/20. She tweeted and wiggled, but only had that little pip. By 10/22 in the evening, I was watching #7 and tweeting back and every so often scratching at the bator to make sure she/he was still alive.
I went to bed that night thinking, well, at least 6 survived...that's amazing. If she doesn't hatch, I'll know it just wasn't meant to be.
NOT. I couldn't sleep that night. By 4:30am, I had to get up and make sure all the babies were OK and see if I would awake to a little "popcorn" out in the bator. No such luck. Same little pip...that's it. Then....she tweeted and wiggled again. I tweeted and she did it back and put the tip of her beak out the little pipped hole.
"That's it", I thought. This is going to be "one of those times". One of those times where I had to make a snap decision on whether or not to help a chick out of it's egg. I had to make this decision on 10/10 when Cleo and her sibling pipped. Cleo hatched and the other egg had only pipped a small hole. When it stopped moving, I knew it was dead...I just knew. When I opened up Cleo's sibling, she was fully formed and had internally pipped...just ran out of steam or something. She was quite large and butted up against the egg, though.
This time, I would try to see if I could help. I decided to pick a little off around the pip and see if she'd do the rest. But when I started picking I realized how dry the shell was and hard for EVEN ME to pick...and the lining was dry and shrunk a little. I picked until there was a little top hat, and pulled that off. There she was, tired, but alive.
I quickly put the bator lid back on and felt SO GUILTY! I did what I tell people never to do!!! Now, I know that it's up to you to make that call, in every different situation. I told her that was it, she needed to the rest so she could have big muscles (sheesh, that sounds so corny..what can I say?). And she did! She proceeded to rest up a bit, then a big burst of energy and "BAM", off went the bottom 2/3 of the shell. She was out, and she was alive, and she was breathing...AND SHE WAS DRY! Not wet, like usual, but nearly fluffed up! It was right then when I knew I had done the right thing. I could have let her try and possibly die, or I could help. Either way, the worst that could happen was she wouldn't make it. Except, if I didn't try, and she DID die, I'd always wonder what would have happened if I just helped a LITTLE?
QiJi is the littlest of them all, but the spunkiest and the cutest. She has this little feather that sticks up on her head (like Alfalfa from Little Rascals). It has stuck up since the day she hatched. I've attached her picture, but dedicated a page on my website to the Super Seven Seramas that survived SO much before they were even born!
Here is the link to my page. Best way to view is to click on "view as slideshow".
http://www.4kidztalent.com/apps/photos/album.jsp?albumID=2958905
Thanks to all of you, as well.
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