American serama thread!

[ColtHandorf]

I wish my girls were laying. I'm not getting a thing right now.

 

[Faraday40]

I wish my girls were laying. I'm not getting a thing right now.

I'm only getting 2 eggs from the bantams and 3 leghorn eggs each day. The turkey egg is every other day. No orpington eggs at all for over a month. Many funny-looking chickens in various stages of molt. Even a few beautiful non-layers.

 

[WVduckchick]

My seramas are about the only ones I have laying. A few Phoenix eggs here and there. Zero bantam cochin eggs, and one pen of d’uccles hasn’t laid in a couple months, one pen lays often but 2 hens decided to sit.

 

[Faraday40]

Here are my Silkie's serama chicks. 11 weeks old and still being mothered. Looks like I was 0 for 2 when predicting their gender at 1 week old.


This was the bigger, confident one I thought was male. Isn't SHE cute?
The biological mom is all black. Chick was dark brown but mostly black now. Do you think she'll lose that bit of white with her future molts?

This is the smaller, more timid one, that I thought was female. HE is getting some nice wattles, huh?

 

[nchls school]

Here are my Silkie's serama chicks. 11 weeks old and still being mothered. Looks like I was 0 for 2 when predicting their gender at 1 week old.


This was the bigger, confident one I thought was male. Isn't SHE cute?
The biological mom is all black. Chick was dark brown but mostly black now. Do you think she'll lose that bit of white with her future molts?

My bet is she will be a beautiful splash when she is mature. Whatever the case, she will keep the white in some form.

This is the smaller, more timid one, that I thought was female. HE is getting some nice wattles, huh?

He certainly is!

 

[ColtHandorf]

I'm only getting 2 eggs from the bantams and 3 leghorn eggs each day. The turkey egg is every other day. No orpington eggs at all for over a month. Many funny-looking chickens in various stages of molt. Even a few beautiful non-layers.

My little dummies all went broody together right before it got cold. I confiscated the chicks after they lost four or five of the 12 they hatched. They all decided they liked one chick and hated all the other ones. It was very weird. I'm going to have to move them all outside with heat this weekend.

 

[Faraday40]

They changed a lot in 11 weeks.

The dark brown one grew gray wings. Later got touches of brown and today is mostly black.

By 4 weeks the dark one had a mix of gray, brown and black feathers. At some angles, it still looked like it could be male.

7 weeks

11 weeks

1st week: The light one had some light gray back fuzz but all feathers came in white. Skin/beak color darkened to yellow.

At 4 weeks, the smaller white was showing some hints of maleness, which surprised me.

7 weeks: Obvious male

11 weeks

I think their silkie mama knows these are her last chicks for 2021, so she still mothers them. Every time we want to hold our silkie or bring her for a car ride, these 2 must tag along.

 

[ColtHandorf]

They are both cuties. I've got a Black and White Barred/Cuckoo/Crele and another that is Chocolate. Two or three that will be some sort of laced. The solid white got murdered by the chickens next door when the broody squad decided they only wanted to baby one of the chicks. I think there's a black, and a couple of other colors. Most of the individualistic ones didn't make it in the mothering fiasco. Once I get them out of the tub with the Orpingtons I can see/remember a little better.

 

[Faraday40]

Raising orps and seramas together sounds very familiar. My silkie hatched a funny pair and mothered them even when the orp grew larger than her. The pullets did everything together. The serama was used to cuddling under the orp. I called them the odd couple. I was able to sell both to someone willing to keep the "sisters" together. Even funnier is that their new home had a buff silkie resembling mine. The odd couple adopted her as a foster mom right away and the silkie went along with it.

 

[ColtHandorf]

That's super sweet!