Serama eggs- incubating and broody hens

[Tajann]

I have a broody serama sitting on half a dozen eggs for the last two weeks. Candled today when she snuck out to eat. Most look undeveloped but two look almost completely black inside. I can't see movement or veins but they are very small eggs. Are these eggs bad? Since they haven't been laying too long I expected a lower fertility rate but was really surprised to see so little success.

I have some fertile serama egg in the incubator that I have already candled for development (7 out of 9 still good), should I leave them there or place them under my broody hen? They are on day 5. This is a new laying hen who went broody right after she started laying. She seems pretty determined though

My batch of mail order incubated serama chicks didn't make it, ten of twenty didn't even try to develop, most of the rest early deaths, only two to lockdown- one died in shell never absorbed any yolk, the other internally pipped but never came out.

These little birds are definitely tricky!

 

[darkbluespace]

I have a broody serama sitting on half a dozen eggs for the last two weeks. Candled today when she snuck out to eat. Most look undeveloped but two look almost completely black inside. I can't see movement or veins but they are very small eggs. Are these eggs bad? Since they haven't been laying too long I expected a lower fertility rate but was really surprised to see so little success.

I have some fertile serama egg in the incubator that I have already candled for development (7 out of 9 still good), should I leave them there or place them under my broody hen? They are on day 5. This is a new laying hen who went broody right after she started laying. She seems pretty determined though

My batch of mail order incubated serama chicks didn't make it, ten of twenty didn't even try to develop, most of the rest early deaths, only two to lockdown- one died in shell never absorbed any yolk, the other internally pipped but never came out.

These little birds are definitely tricky!

If your broody is just a week away, I would wait to see if her eggs hatch. If they don't you could put the ones from the bator under her and let her hatch them. I am not sure how she could hatch them all since they are so far apart. As serama eggs fill up, I think they are very hard to see into. I mostly cross my fingers and wait because I usually can't see movement or veins. Definitely give them 21 + days before you give up on them!

I have a broody Serama sitting on one egg right now... the rest are in the incubator because I wanted to see how incubator hatching went before I bought more Serama eggs. Of course I couldn't even wait and ordered more eggs anyway. Fortunately, they won't arrive for a couple weeks.

Sorry about your shipped eggs... that is a major bummer!

 

[darkbluespace]

Did any eggs hatch under your broody?

 

[Tajann]

The eggs smelled so I tossed them and put the incubator eggs under her. The two originals that were all black I cracked in a sealed bag- they were under pressure and filled with black

. The outsides were dirty so I'm sure it was bacteria. Of the incubator eggs all on the same hatch schedule, out of nine, six were developing 5-7 days ago. They are now on day fifteen I think so

for chicks

in a few days. I checked yesterday and she's keeping them clean. There are three eggs in the incubator on the same schedule from my own chickens (two serama, one Wynadotte) so if they all hatch I'm going to try to sneak the chicks in with the rest at night. She's a tiny little hen so it's funny to see her sit on six eggs and will be pretty funny to see chicks climbing all over her.

I had my regular laying serama hen (she puts out an egg almost every single day) decide to stop and brood today, she hasn't budged since she ate some scraps this morning. I rather liked the reliability but I might just let her raise some babies. She's sitting on some fake eggs I keep in the nest box and I pulled out the one fertile one she laid today. Now I need to find some serama eggs in the Portland area soon for her to hatch! Or drive up to Washougal again, where I got my current incubator/now broody eggs.

My last "hatch" was so bad, I'm really really hoping for some success this go round

 

[darkbluespace]

Your eggs must be getting ready to hatch : )

 

[portagee]

Can a regular size hen sit on serama eggs