Serama Hatch-A-Long!!

[Skink]

My last hatch wasn't so great, but hopefully next week I will be setting more serama in my new incubator! Going to be putting them in a brinsea mini advance, looking for a dozen eggs. Anybody else hatching Christmas serama as presents to themselves?

 

[darkbluespace]

My last hatch wasn't so great, but hopefully next week I will be setting more serama in my new incubator! Going to be putting them in a brinsea mini advance, looking for a dozen eggs. Anybody else hatching Christmas serama as presents to themselves?

I have drooled over the Brinsea mini advance and I'll be interested to hear how your hatch does in it! Sorry about your last hatch. My last Serama eggs, very tiny eggs, didn't do well in the incubator so I am trying not to buy any more and just wait for the birds I hatched this last summer to start laying. They are now 5 months old and the wait is killing me. I am sure I will have to wait till Spring.

I just ordered some Silkie eggs because I really want more broody hens...

 

[darkbluespace]

Exciting news!!! I got my very first egg from a bird I hatched... today! It's a Serama egg! I heard an unusual egg song today and wondered if it was a Serama and would I really get an egg. It is so perfect and adorable and I took photos of it : ) Seriously, I am thrilled! She laid it in the nest box too... smart girl! When I hear it again I will go see who it is, I have 4 little hens in that coop, 2 are frizzled.

I also went a little egg crazy this week after I ordered my Silkies that are supposed to come tomorrow. I got 104 quail eggs of which I have set 99 and then last night I won an auction for some awesome Serama eggs and got a pretty good deal too. I hope they will be in time for the New Year's hatch-a long. I will probably incubate my hen's egg or eggs, I bet they are fertile because there has been quite a bit of mating happening.

@Skink... did you find any eggs yet?

 

[Skink]

Sadly no! I am still looking for eggs. I don't want to spend over-much on eggs that are shipped from far off, a lot of hens aren't laying right now, and I want eggs from birds that look good.

Congrats on your pullet starting to lay! That is really exciting!! The single chick I hatched here last is a rooster. He has started crowing, if you can call that noise a crow.

That's a ton of eggs. I wish I could hatch oodles, but we don't have the acreage. Can't wait til we can buy land in a couple of years!

 

[Skink]

I did find eggs! Too many, so I'll be running both the brinsea and the incubator that failed me last time. If I have to pull any of the 12 from the brinsea, I'll have 6 incubating in the styrofoam chest that I can transfer. A shame, I was kind of looking forward to not having to fuss so much with the humidity and temperatures this time, but it is better than not attempting to incubate them at all.

These are images from the seller, supposedly representative of their stock:













It is always a risk to buy online, so fingers crossed that they are good representatives of what I might hatch. Here's hoping I do better than 1 eggs in 18 this time, ha!

 

[darkbluespace]

I did find eggs! Too many, so I'll be running both the brinsea and the incubator that failed me last time. If I have to pull any of the 12 from the brinsea, I'll have 6 incubating in the styrofoam chest that I can transfer. A shame, I was kind of looking forward to not having to fuss so much with the humidity and temperatures this time, but it is better than not attempting to incubate them at all.

These are images from the seller, supposedly representative of their stock:













It is always a risk to buy online, so fingers crossed that they are good representatives of what I might hatch. Here's hoping I do better than 1 eggs in 18 this time, ha!

Awesome, very pretty birds! I've seen their eggs on ebay before. I think too many eggs is better than not enough. I am making a bigger second incubator to make room for all the eggs coming my way because I filled up my first incubator with quail. My dozen silkies came today and she sent 3 extra, I almost missed one. More Serama coming this week...and more coming after that... wasn't I just saying I wasn't going to buy more eggs??!!

It will only take a week to see which of your eggs are clears so maybe the Brinsea can mostly hatch them, but if you you still have too many that will be wonderful!! How is your one little guy doing??

I still am jealous of your Brinsea... I don't know if I need to be, but I have heard really good things about them. Where are your eggs coming from?

 

[Skink]

They are coming from Pennsylvania, and I'm all the way down here in Texas, so here is hoping they don't get uselessly scrambled... what local breeders I could find only seem to rarely sell cockerels and cockerel + pullet pairs, which I can see taking advantage of eventually, but for now eggs are a better option for me. Seems to be the only way to get any more than 1.1 pairs or a bundle of roosters anyhow!

That is a lot of eggs to keep track of! I hope it all goes smoothly and doesn't become overwhelming. I haven't even gotten my first brinsea in the mail yet and I'm already wanting another.. the second you know how much your incubator can hold, it starts to feel like the minimum to put in! I don't think I could get away with trying quail yet. Like probably everyone I love the cute little button quail, but I'm the only one in this household who likes poultry. My fiance loves our two house chickens, but every time I talk about getting more I see the color drain a little from his face! Not that he doesn't understand - he's getting me cages for serama trios for xmas to help ease my breeding set up costs even so he feeds the addiction, but he already knows I want Pigeons and Turkey and I can tell he's not ready for a new species yet.

 

[darkbluespace]

They are coming from Pennsylvania, and I'm all the way down here in Texas, so here is hoping they don't get uselessly scrambled... what local breeders I could find only seem to rarely sell cockerels and cockerel + pullet pairs, which I can see taking advantage of eventually, but for now eggs are a better option for me. Seems to be the only way to get any more than 1.1 pairs or a bundle of roosters anyhow!

That is a lot of eggs to keep track of! I hope it all goes smoothly and doesn't become overwhelming. I haven't even gotten my first brinsea in the mail yet and I'm already wanting another.. the second you know how much your incubator can hold, it starts to feel like the minimum to put in! I don't think I could get away with trying quail yet. Like probably everyone I love the cute little button quail, but I'm the only one in this household who likes poultry. My fiance loves our two house chickens, but every time I talk about getting more I see the color drain a little from his face! Not that he doesn't understand - he's getting me cages for serama trios for xmas to help ease my breeding set up costs even so he feeds the addiction, but he already knows I want Pigeons and Turkey and I can tell he's not ready for a new species yet.

It's good you are easing him in slowly... we want turkeys too! We found some adults for sale but haven't been able to get them because our vehicle is in the shop. I can't really go pick them up in our loner car.

Sometimes I feel like I am pushing it... we live on 9 acres but we don't own it. We also want to get our own land in the future. I seriously need a barn and a greenhouse and I want goats, which I can't have here. I am basically having as many birds as I can get away with here. Although I did sell the peafowl to make room for turkeys. As long as I keep things under control then it seems to be okay. I want to sell the quail if I hatch any. I just thought I would try hatching them and I can buy the eggs so cheaply that I don't even need to own any. I am going to see how it goes and I may hatch some more.

I just love hatching so much... I have had an online business for years but I am really switching gears and wanting to sell hatching eggs locally and online and sell chicks, ducklings and poults and maybe quail.

 

[Skink]

Sorry for the long pause in conversation! I figured I would continue once I had something relevant to share again, My eggs have arrived, though the small egg plate for the mini advance was supposed to arrive today too as well and didn't show up.. fingers crossed they come monday. My sweet cochin hen went broody, so I gave her 6 of the eggs today. Broody vs Brinsea, who will hatch the best % of shipped serama eggs?! It will be fun to see (and saves me having to boot up my failed home-made 'bator!)

Here is my spreadsheet. It doesn't have all the information most people's do, but I feel this is all I need, and want hatching to be fun.. not homework. Sadly as you can see, the majority of the eggs I was sent are porous to some degree. Many have a very pointed end. I am giving them the benefit of a doubt and hoping for the best! I will be photographing each egg at each candling and weighing. I can't mark air cells because I honestly can't see them.

We have an outdoor porch that was originally built probably 20 years back, from all signs it looks like it was used to protect some hardier plants from rare poor weather (like getting cactus out of the snow) and starting seedlings in spring. I'm going to be fixing it up in to a greenhouse porch come spring, though not for vegetables - I'll be putting in tropical fish ponds, as well as the 300 gallon tub for my pet common snapping turtle Gamera (who is a dollface) and as an overwinter/inclement weather home for my red footed tortoise, Mary. After someone stole my ranchu goldfish from my pond this year, I will be glad of a locked door between intruders and my ponds. I hear you on the hatching eggs fever! Serama are the only breed I want to work with in earnest before we buy land, but someday I also want to work with more breeds and emu, selling hatching eggs alongside aquarium shrimp, exotic reptiles, feeder insects and artwork related goods. I'm going to call it Cockatrice Farms, because of the chickens and the snakes. One can dream as big as one wants, I guess!

 

[janicew1290]

Do you have a serama hen you might consider selling? Just thought I'd ask, as I have a young serama roo who is in sore need of a mate, as he's decided he's in love with my hubby's hand and that hand has about reached its limit with the loving.

We have two other roosters who are happily partnered, so I'm not eager to hatch more to grow another hen for the solo rooster at this point. I'm trying to find a mellow young or grown gal who will pair up with this unusual guy; we hand raised him from a very crushed egg, so although he now resides with the flock, he still thinks he's part human.

And...I too am obsessed with these birds! As part of my daily meditation, I sit with them as they graze. It's the most joy-filled thing I do with my life.