American serama thread!

[Faraday40]

Coge hatched and also adopted a bunch of orpington chicks.
Most were sold but to avoid depression, she was allowed to keep 2.

Remember this?


Here they are at 3 weeks later:

 

[nchls school]

Possibly one of you knows-American Serama I have marked as a watched thread. As such it is supposed to come through on my e-mail, but it doesn't. I have gone through my account information and everything seems to be checked as it should be. Any ideas?

Has anyone else noticed a connection between sudden weather changes and poor serama hatches that happen at the same time?

We've had two days of severe storms and, again, chicks died in the shell for no apparent reason. When the weather is fair/good I get good hatches with no DIS. I use broody hens and not an incubator. Two days ago the power was off for 12 hours. This happens so often I gave up on using incubators on a regular basis.

Beautiful pictures everyone.

 

[Faraday40]

Possibly one of you knows-American Serama I have marked as a watched thread. As such it is supposed to come through on my e-mail, but it doesn't. I have gone through my account information and everything seems to be checked as it should be. Any ideas?

Has anyone else noticed a connection between sudden weather changes and poor serama hatches that happen at the same time?

We've had two days of severe storms and, again, chicks died in the shell for no apparent reason. When the weather is fair/good I get good hatches with no DIS. I use broody hens and not an incubator. Two days ago the power was off for 12 hours. This happens so often I gave up on using incubators on a regular basis.

Beautiful pictures everyone.

Interesting theory. I recently had a terrible serama hatch (incubator). 6 serama eggs made it to lockdown and only 1 hatched. I opened them up after several days and found that 4 were fully developed with yolk sack inside body and the last still had an external yolk. Not sure why the 4 never hatched. In my case, it wasn't a power failure and. I don't think we had bad weather either. What we are experiencing now are huge temp fluctuations. We wore shorts over the weekend and winter coats since. This is affecting my egg layers but my broody hens are consistent and not budging from their nests.

The same hatch gave me decent results for my orpingtons and 100% hatch of the turkey eggs (started one week earlier). So now I have one tiny serama with its giant siblings. The crazy little bird doesn't realize it's small.

 

[nchls school]

Interesting theory. I recently had a terrible serama hatch (incubator). 6 serama eggs made it to lockdown and only 1 hatched. I opened them up after several days and found that 4 were fully developed with yolk sack inside body and the last still had an external yolk. Not sure why the 4 never hatched. In my case, it wasn't a power failure and. I don't think we had bad weather either. What we are experiencing now are huge temp fluctuations. We wore shorts over the weekend and winter coats since. This is affecting my egg layers but my broody hens are consistent and not budging from their nests.My hens have acted the same, but...

The same hatch gave me decent results for my orpingtons and 100% hatch of the turkey eggs (started one week earlier). So now I have one tiny serama with its giant siblings. The crazy little bird doesn't realize it's small.
After the storms, yesterday, I candled all the eggs being brooded. Of the 11 Yokohama eggs, all were still viable. With a dozen serama egg, 3 had DIS (under 3 hens). The turkey had 14 and now she has seven eggs that are still going. Candling showed that the majority had recently died. I am at a loss to understand what happened. None of the hens lost the entire clutch so they weren't scared off their nests during the storm.

Be happy and stay safe.[/QUOTE]

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I too am having bad luck with the seramas. First with the whole broody mess and extra just in case eggs in the incubator, I only got 5. Out of probably 15 set.

I set 10 more eggs around two weeks ago? Yeah, I can't remember. First handling looked like seven were good to go. Pulled 3. Took a peek 2 or 3 nights ago, one looked gone and another far behind but still wiggling. Pulled the one tonight and took a look. It quit pretty early. The one behind has stopped moving and another looks like it also quit with a blood ring. That leaves 4.....out of 10. I have no clue what's going on.

 

[Faraday40]

That is pretty bad luck.

For me, the quail have had very pathetic hatches. I set a doz eggs (1st laid in the season) and only 1 developed. Since it was early in their season, it's possible the male wasn't doing his job. The quail are over 2 years old, so that's another potential issue. Then there's the whole move (I got them from a friend and the quail didn't lay for a couple weeks after they arrived.)

When they started laying again, I set another 9 quail eggs and that time only 3 developed. (They're due on Sat.) I'm getting 2 eggs per day now (from 3 females) and debating if I should try again. If I do, I'm going to want to set A LOT of eggs in order to get a dozen quail.

 

[nchls school]

I too am having bad luck with the seramas. First with the whole broody mess and extra just in case eggs in the incubator, I only got 5. Out of probably 15 set.

I set 10 more eggs around two weeks ago? Yeah, I can't remember. First handling looked like seven were good to go. Pulled 3. Took a peek 2 or 3 nights ago, one looked gone and another far behind but still wiggling. Pulled the one tonight and took a look. It quit pretty early. The one behind has stopped moving and another looks like it also quit with a blood ring. That leaves 4.....out of 10. I have no clue what's going on.

Sorry to hear this as I was hoping I was the only one. Another very wet cool day and serama supposed to hatch.
I do hope I am wrong about weather being a factor of poor hatches with serama.

Stay safe.

 

[Faraday40]

The weather theory is interesting.

My quail issues could simply be age related, so too many variables to know what's going on here.

 

[nchls school]

The weather theory is interesting.

My quail issues could simply be age related, so too many variables to know what's going on here.

While possible, I don't think your quail are too old. Check the male's vent for stuck debris and overgrown feathers. A vent trim may solve the problem; a problem that is not all that uncommon.

If the male is crowing and his vent is swollen, he is ready for mating.

Of my 11 Yokohama eggs, all hatched. With the serama, 3 hatched and 2 died trying.

Stay safe.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's Lonely Only. (from @homeschoolin momma ) SHE will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Still a very tiny thing. Silkied feathering. She prefers her quail siblings..... but they're now also bigger than she is.