I have a hatch due Fri morning, so I moved them into my hatcher incubator last night. Just in time!!! I have one serama hatching right now! (2 other pips) Yikes!
Is this a slow maturing male or a flushed female?
I tend to hatch more females.
BUT, this one was technically hatched by @homeschoolin momma and then raised here.
I'd think it was a pullet. @Serama_Mama92's babies were super easy to identify by like three weeks. But this is my first time seeing them in person. You'll have to send us some eggs and we'll see if I can hatch only pullets. lol
Unfortunately it doesnt seem to work that way. They have to actually HATCH at her house to be female. I took 6 eggs home with me. 3 orp and 3 serama. 4 are boys. Or was it 5......
Out of 8 chicks, only 1 male. And he was not appropriate for my lavender breeding project.
The most unfair was in 2017. My lav orp cockerel (already selected for the following spring) was beautiful. But he unexpectedly died when we had a crazy heatwave (Almost 100'F in Oct & fans were already in storage). Here I was without a single lav orp male!!!
In an attempt to save his genes, I quickly collected & hatched all the eggs from my lav hens which gave me 8 lav chicks.
I sold the lightest one (which ended up being a female) and kept the remaining 7.
I color coded them to keep track as they aged.
Surely I'd get a decent male, right?
6 weeks
7.5 weeks
At 8 weeks, I sold the 3 I knew were female. I was pretty sure the Isabelle Orp on the left end was male - but not a project I wanted to get into. I'd wait & see which of the others would be my future rooster.
Turned out 2 of those 4 were actually females. They were sold.
Here's what was left at 16 weeks. I named the Isabelle orp "Dinner". After all, he was NOT going to stay. He was growing in some gorgeous laced saddle & hackle feathers. The other one was maturing slower.
My other lav.....
All that time waiting for "him" to mature and "he" never did.
Here SHE was at 7 months old.
She was sold.
In the meantime, Dinner turned out to be a big cuddle-bug and would stretch out his neck to 'hug' DD when she held him. I ended up finding him a home where he could have his own flock. (My kids would not let me process him.)
Thankfully one of my crazy bantam hens went broody in late Nov. that year. She was given 2 lav orp eggs (fertilized by my black/lav split). Both ended up black, but at least I got a male.
From this black/lav I got Mr. Nice Guy. (Too much tail but terrific face & comb)
From Mr Nice Guy, I got my current roo, Mr Potential. (nicer body, comb OK but could be better)
His competition last year was "Wonky" (remember him? LOL) so it was easy to see why Mr Potential stayed.
This year I'm hoping for a Mr Adequate or maybe a Mr Sufficient. My dream rooster will be the offspring of Darling and Mr Potential. So far Darling has yet to give me a lav chick. First she was mated by Mr Wonderful = 2 black chicks, then not fertilized because the lav cock didn't have proper technique, and now she's broody raising chicks.
Looks like Mr Potential found a way to ensure some job security.
Lonely Only Update:
She/he hatched with @homeschoolin momma on May 13th but had no sibling companionship there, so I allowed my broody to adopt. Those chicks sold out quickly, but I liked it's unique color so I kept it.
I had another broody hen hatch out chicks, so it got another new family. The 2nd mama also readily adopted the chick. She is queen of my bantam flock, so the serama should have no problems with integration.
So here she/he is at 7.5 weeks. Gender guesses?
I'm leaning toward female, since I get mostly females.
It is over 90'F today, so there could be some flushing
@Faraday40 i think from left to right its a boy, girl, boy. See some red peeking out on the first one? I knew it, I just knew it!
Just a gut feeling on the little one.....plus statistically speaking i have more boys. Which of course lends to my gut feeling.