Chocolate Serama Breeders - dun and blue can be included here as well

[smoothmule]

I am hatching chicks out of my solid chocolate and solid black hen by my wheaten rooster T-Roo and the two I have now are both black. I finally separated the chocolate and black hen up with different roosters so I would know which chicks are out of which hen and Truffles chicks should be split for chocolate if cockerels.

I'm hoping they are both boys and at least one is out of her, the older one appears to be out of Bugsy and I'm guessing it is because of the black legs and face like Bugsy has. Truffles has more yellow to her legs, swarthy I guess. They have decent type at this time but I'm hoping they will improve. My roosters are better than the hens for type so I am expecting the cockerels to be better than the hen but not as good as the rooster they are out of.

I have eggs under hens and in the incubator now so I'll post as they hatch and they are marked with the hens name so I can keep track. I'll be putting colored bands on these guys so I'll know which are Truffles. A month seems such a long time off to wait to sex them,

I have several eggs from Truffles and T-Roo then I switched her and Bugsy to have some chicks by Blu-T with Truffles now too. I thought they would never get going but this spring was exceptionally wet, cold and it alternated with heat so they just could not get down to business. I'm getting a lot of eggs right now so I'm hatching everything I can and I'll know for sure which are Truffles now since she lays a brown egg and the other hens in the pen lay pale cream colored eggs.

Cara, the 2 nice pullets I got from you are laying now too. They are very nice hens and very friendly from day one here. The darker hen will be a neat cross with a split chocolate roo.

Muffi, that is a gorgeous lil hen! Love the patterning.

Sunvalley Seramas. I have no idea whether yours is a pullet or cockerel but I'm leaning toward pullet. I bet there will be less patterning when she gets her adult feathering or it will be very pale patterning.

Here is the older black chick at about 22 days old. I don't know the sex yet. I am presuming this chick is out of my black hen, Bugsy, because of the black legs and dark face.

Here are the 2 chicks together. Note the swarthy legs on the younger chick and the normal comb color. I am betting this one is out of Truffles and the older one out of Bugsy. They are coal black. I figure I'll also get some wheaten chicks from these hens but you never know I guess. I hope they stay this black.

The younger chick may end up with blacker legs I guess, here is the older chick at a few days old and there was more yellow showing on it's legs too

That spool of thread is one of those short spools, not the regular size.

 

[juliette2009]

I had another Hawk visit this afternoon, and it took my only smooth chocolate laying pullet...He (it) must have been sitting and waiting, because the whole area was criss-crossed with fishing line, and the attack took place in a three-foot square little area up against the gate with feathers all over the ground. I guess he ate it there...I only discovered it this evening when I did a head-count. I'll have to look at it tomorrow in the daylight. Sigh. Guess who's going out for bird netting tomorrow, to attach to the overhead lines...NO one, serama-wise, will be leaving their runs to free-range for awhile...

Juliette

 

[luvinrunnin]

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So sorry to hear that!

 

[smoothmule]

Juliette,
So sorry to hear about your pullet

 

[TinyBirds]

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That is awful! I am so mad at the hawks around here too. We have overhead nets, but the hawks still find a little crack near the edge to squeeze through, and sometimes we find them sitting in there with the chickens because they can't get back out until we open the pen gate to let them fly out that way. They are so persistent!!! I lost some show quality silkies that way, and numerous others. I keep trying to make the pen more and more secure with time, but the hawks are tiny and can fit through tiny openings. I have daytime bobcats and foxes attack also pretty frequently. Once the predators discover an area, they won't forget and will keep trying and trying to get more.

 

[muffi]

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Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. It seems like the hawks always get my favorite and/or rarest chickens.

Do you have any other solid chocolates that just aren't mature yet?

 

[juliette2009]

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That is awful! I am so mad at the hawks around here too. We have overhead nets, but the hawks still find a little crack near the edge to squeeze through, and sometimes we find them sitting in there with the chickens because they can't get back out until we open the pen gate to let them fly out that way. They are so persistent!!! I lost some show quality silkies that way, and numerous others. I keep trying to make the pen more and more secure with time, but the hawks are tiny and can fit through tiny openings. I have daytime bobcats and foxes attack also pretty frequently. Once the predators discover an area, they won't forget and will keep trying and trying to get more.

Hmmmm...so netting won't be the final cure-all, huh? My birds each have covered runs attached to their cages, so they can come and go as they please, but I guess it's my own silly brain that wants them to have "free-range" time each day, as I "think" they enjoy it. Maybe it's just me projecting my own desires onto them...

 

[juliette2009]

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Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. It seems like the hawks always get my favorite and/or rarest chickens.

Do you have any other solid chocolates that just aren't mature yet?

Only one smooth, born this past march. I have a couple frizzled chocolates, but can't put them with Cadbury since they're all frizzled. I kept a smooth chocolate split from my March hatch, but he seems s-l-o-w to develop, and won't be ready for awhile yet. I'll tell ya', smooth birds are harder to come by than hen's teeth around here!

Sorry, couldn't resist... I have three chocolate babies in the brooder, all frizzleds! Out of ten babies in the brooder, EIGHT are frizzled!!!

I think it's so ironic, last year I would have killed for ratios like that!

This year, I can't hatch smooths to save my life...Go figure!

Juliette

 

[HenThymes]

Quote:
That is awful! I am so mad at the hawks around here too. We have overhead nets, but the hawks still find a little crack near the edge to squeeze through, and sometimes we find them sitting in there with the chickens because they can't get back out until we open the pen gate to let them fly out that way. They are so persistent!!! I lost some show quality silkies that way, and numerous others. I keep trying to make the pen more and more secure with time, but the hawks are tiny and can fit through tiny openings. I have daytime bobcats and foxes attack also pretty frequently. Once the predators discover an area, they won't forget and will keep trying and trying to get more.

Hmmmm...so netting won't be the final cure-all, huh? My birds each have covered runs attached to their cages, so they can come and go as they please, but I guess it's my own silly brain that wants them to have "free-range" time each day, as I "think" they enjoy it. Maybe it's just me projecting my own desires onto them...

Juliette, if you take your netting end to end and zip tie the pieces together and cover the runs 100% hawks tend to leave them alone. Our large outdoor pen was 100% covered (till this past winters horrible snow). I watched on day as a hawk hoover above and then dive, realized about 10-15 feet from it that it was completely netted and fly away. They don't even bother anymore.

 

[catwalk]

Riddle me this, guys. I've posted a pic of this boy before when I thought he was a pullet, because Choc+/choc over Choc+/- should only make choc females. There's no black on him at all, just red and a beautiful rich chocolate. I've hatched seven from this pair this year, and I've gotten one buff chocolate pullet, five buffs with black, and this guy. The only way it makes sense to me is autosomal recessive chocolate. Even if that exists, the breeding stock that make this guy came from three different far away states.