Hatching Results for Serama Eggs

[solomine]

Hi Everyone,

I thought it might be interesting to see how well seramas hatch, especially after being shipped. I know that they're notorious for poor hatching rates, and I remember spending days poring over serama eggs and how to hatch them successfully. I was obsessed! I thought it would be cool to document our hatching experiences. This is highly variable and completely unreliable (lol), depending on fertility rates, how far they were shipped, how quickly they were shipped, weather, shipping & handling, forced-air/still-air... I could go on forever.

This is mostly for fun, because our results would be so different, but might help out people in similar situations. If no one replies, I'll just be using this to keep track of my chicken incubating experiences

#Eggs: 14 smooth & frizzle mix
Price: $27 (a steal, IMO)
Shipped: Yes, Priority Mail (2-days)
Season/Weather: Summer (Early June)
Distance: North Carolina to Missouri (halfway across the US)
Arrival condition: 6/14 with detached air cells, otherwise in pristine condition
Incubator/Broody: Brinsea Mini Advance (forced-air)
Development: 7/14 developed
Hatch day: Day 19
Results: 4/14 hatched, all smooth feathered
Hatch Rate: 4/14 = 28% (I saw on another post that someone had gotten 27% with their shipped eggs)
Sex Ratio: 2 male, 2 female (50:50)
Notes: I put detached air cell eggs upright into incubator in egg cartons; hand turned all eggs until no detached air cell eggs remained, as none of them developed


Notes could be anything, such as blackouts, misting eggs with water, cooling times (I didn't do that)

Might be forgetting some details here.. anything else important to add?

 

[nchls school]

#Eggs: 20 smooth & frizzle mix
Price: $27 a gift/not sure
Shipped: Yes, Priority Mail (2-days)
Season/Weather: Early April
Distance: Not sure
Arrival condition: All in good condition
Incubator/Broody: Broody hens
Development: 17 started development
Hatch day: Day 19
Results: 11/20 hatched, 10 smooth feathered and 1 frizzle
Hatch Rate: 4/14 = 55%
Sex Ratio: 3 male, 8 female
Notes: I used rather large silkies to brood the tiny serama eggs-none were damaged during incubation. I found this surprising as the silkies eggs were twice as big. I'm sold on silkies as broody hens.

 

[solomine]

That's an impressive hatch rate!! Maybe I'll use my silkie and silkie cross to hatch out a few of my eggs.. I think they're pretty dependable broodies thus far.

 

[Violetsrblu]

#Eggs: 9 smooth Malaysian
Price: $40 including shipping from eBay
Shipped: Yes, Priority Mail (2-days)
Season/Weather: Summer (mid June)
Distance: South Louisiana to West Tennessee
Arrival condition: 7/9 with detached air cells, no other problems
Incubator/Broody: Farm Innovator 4200 with circulated air and auto egg turner
Development: 8/9 developed
Hatch day: Day 20
Results: 4/9 hatched. Eggtopsy of unhatched, unpipped eggs revealed fully developed chicks with very small yolk sacs.
Hatch Rate: 4/9 = 44%
Sex Ratio: 2 male, 2 female (50:50)
Notes: I let the eggs rest upright for over 24 hours before putting them into the bator. I followed the dry hatch method.


I'm sure that home grown or local Serama eggs would have high hatch rates under a good broody. I let one of my broody Serama pullets keep 5 of her eggs and they all hatched.

 

[nchls school]

That's an impressive hatch rate!! Maybe I'll use my silkie and silkie cross to hatch out a few of my eggs.. I think they're pretty dependable broodies thus far.

My silkie hens are great with chicks. I'm still marveling that such a big hen could brood, hatch, and raise something so small. The only problem was that the hen was protective to the extreme. I could not really handle the chicks safely until they were weaned.