American serama thread!

[LilJoe]

What do you cull (rehome )?
Honeythorn has a split comb and weighs 17 oz at 5 months. He's beautiful though.
I'm thinking about keeping a frizzled cockerel from my Silkie /frizzled pen when one shows up To replace him .
It's the comb that bothers me ...pet quality to someone else or cull completely .
I'm moving mine indoors and space is limited

I don't worry about my cockerels'/roosters' combs that much because I can just breed him with a good hen. I worry if the hen has a bad comb, because it seems they play a part in the comb more than roosters.

I have a hen that has an almost perfect comb except for it's a tiny bit flopped and has a side sprig (actually on the bottom) on her blade. I bred her to a rooster that's comb matches the standard ALMOST perfectly except it kinda goes to one side at the blade (thumb mark?). Their one chick is looking good so far. She still barely has a comb, but should get it larger soon due to age. Hopefully It's good...

Anyways. . .
I would keep him for now until you get a better one, unless you don't want to wait. It's up to you

 

[Faraday40]

What do you cull (rehome )?
Honeythorn has a split comb and weighs 17 oz at 5 months. He's beautiful though.
I'm thinking about keeping a frizzled cockerel from my Silkie /frizzled pen when one shows up To replace him .
It's the comb that bothers me ...pet quality to someone else or cull completely .
I'm moving mine indoors and space is limited.

For breeding you want to keep the best cockerels you've got. (as long as temperament is good, of course) If he's the best, then keep him until something better come along. Becoming a pet is better than killing, so that's what I try to do. If a rooster is aggressive, than at least he'll taste good. No sense in spending time on a cockerel headed for the pot when there are so many magnificent, people friendly roosters out there. We raise the LF Orps, so processing the extra cockerels is just part of it all.


.... Just relized this is sermas. Not sure if anyone processes

 

[Nimueh Alene]

I stopped turning and raised humidity to 65%
I hope that's right.

Mine usually hatch on day 20, but check your air cells on day 17 and see if they are starting to draw down. I usually stop turning by about day 15-16 anyway, but look at the air cells and chick’s position to make a decision. Those last few days of turning are no longer critical, so stopping the turning early isn’t a problem.

 

[WVduckchick]

My serama pullet laid her very 1st egg Aug 27. Then nothing..... Yesterday I collected her 2nd egg - a whole week later. I was thinking perhaps she made some soft shelled eggs which were broken & eaten, but never found any evidence supporting that.

I'm used to seeing pullets making strange shaped eggs or unusual shells, but not such a long gap between eggs. Is this normal? About how many eggs per week should I expect?
View attachment 1493180

I think she will pick up some. Mine lay very consistently, maybe a day or two off here and there. She’s a beautiful girl, I don’t have any with her coloring!

I stopped turning and raised humidity to 65%
I hope that's right.

Sounds fine. Humidity could be even higher, but 65 should do fine.

I was gone for the weekend with some broodies and some new chicks. I let my broodies hatch in the regular pens, but this group was having trouble getting everyone rounded up at night, so I moved one hen with 3 of the youngest chicks and one pipped egg. The egg didn’t hatch while I was gone and momma was off it, so I assumed it died. Nope, it was alive, but it was stuck! I helped it out, but then she wouldn’t lay on it, so I brought it inside. I’ll give it back to the group tonight.
And I have OEGB eggs just moved into lockdown.

 

[Faraday40]

I could get myself into some real trouble with all of those incubators!

 

[KentuckyRooster]

I could get myself into some real trouble with all of those incubators!

Me too. Lmao. Especially because my birds all live inside.

I can see that ending badly. I already had to turn down some Japanese eggs because my incy is full..

 

[WVduckchick]

I could get myself into some real trouble with all of those incubators!

Those 3 are sitting on top of a GQF 1202 cabinet. And the other Brinsea Octagon isn’t in the picture.

 

[Faraday40]

Me too. Lmao. Especially because my birds all live inside.

I can see that ending badly. I already had to turn down some Japanese eggs because my incy is full..

I'm thinking of bringing my 2 seramas inside this winter. Do you keep them in parrot cages or dog crates? Any housing ideas for me would be welcome.

(The silkies & OEG hens should be OK inside the coop.)

 

[WVduckchick]

The little one that I helped this morning. Just took her out and stuck her in the pile of broodies and babies. She crawled right under one.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's Teddy tid-bitting to call the females over.

And, here's a very proud Teddy admiring his hens.