Hatching Eggs / Paypal CHAT Thread

[RedBrush Farm]

I love mine also. They are so personable. They want attention all the time. I have 5 pens (off the ground) with one Rooster and 4 hens with each. I have had excellent hatch rates this summer. I live in Missouri. It does get cold here at times. I was told when I got my first trio that they need temps above 40 degrees. I keep a red light on them 24/7 once the temp. starts to drop. Mine like to be held and fight to get to me first when I open the cage. I hatch my eggs inside my home and keep the little ones in until they are three months old. They are so tiny I have not wanted to take chances with them. I hope you have as much fun raising them as I have. This is my second full year with them and can not imagine them not being part of my menagerie.

Billie Sue

 

[emvickrey]

Emvickrey's offer is up. This is a self blue chick still in the hatcher that I got from her porcelain silkie eggs. If you hatch any of her silkies out, you will be very happy with them!

Aww how cute. I just had several hatch also. I need to get a pic.

 

[madamwlf]

I love mine also. They are so personable. They want attention all the time. I have 5 pens (off the ground) with one Rooster and 4 hens with each. I have had excellent hatch rates this summer. I live in Missouri. It does get cold here at times. I was told when I got my first trio that they need temps above 40 degrees. I keep a red light on them 24/7 once the temp. starts to drop. Mine like to be held and fight to get to me first when I open the cage. I hatch my eggs inside my home and keep the little ones in until they are three months old. They are so tiny I have not wanted to take chances with them. I hope you have as much fun raising them as I have. This is my second full year with them and can not imagine them not being part of my menagerie.

Billie Sue

We are planning to build a small pen off the ground for them in the Spring. The brooder in the basement is big enough to house a few since it's used to grow out chicks.

 

[BHep]

I thought their housing was usually different since they are so small. What do you house yours in during cold and warm weather? I have a brooder in my basement I can use during the cold months.

I love mine also. They are so personable. They want attention all the time. I have 5 pens (off the ground) with one Rooster and 4 hens with each. I have had excellent hatch rates this summer. I live in Missouri. It does get cold here at times. I was told when I got my first trio that they need temps above 40 degrees. I keep a red light on them 24/7 once the temp. starts to drop. Mine like to be held and fight to get to me first when I open the cage. I hatch my eggs inside my home and keep the little ones in until they are three months old. They are so tiny I have not wanted to take chances with them. I hope you have as much fun raising them as I have. This is my second full year with them and can not imagine them not being part of my menagerie.

Billie Sue

Same here... I keep mine inside the first few...several months. LOL They are so stinking cute and the roosters crow like squeaky toys. I hate moving them out, I get so attached but then I get them outside and they are so happy.

Just be warned...they are addicting. I have over 40 of the little buggers. I keep mine in 3 community pens.....3-6 roosters and the rest hens. I plan to make breeder pens over the winter.

I have one trio separate, my frizzle hens with a tiny smooth rooster.
The hens do go broody and are excellent mothers.
I have mine inside a barn.

 

[emvickrey]

Here's 4. There is another off to the side out of the picture. The 4th one is in the background napping. These 3 where the first hatched.

 

[debs_flock]

I also have serama, smooth, frizzle & silkied. I treat mine the same as any other chicken, bear in mind I live in N CA. They teach themselves quickly to go to coop at night, I had 3 hens go broody together, you never knew who was sitting on the eggs and they all fought over the chicks when they hatched. When you walk into their run, they just stand and let you pick them up. Very sweet little things.

The drawbacks............I find them difficult to hatch shipped eggs, the rates are quite low, but high for incubating your own eggs.

And dang, this season i raised nearly 20, got 3 pullets, yikes!

I do have one little smooth cockerel with a permanent home.. I had eggs that were nearly 3 days past in the incubator, I pulled them out and set them aside. A day and a half later, I was putting the bad eggs in a trash sack and thought I heard a very faint sound. I pulled each egg out of the trash and held it to my ear until I found the one making a sound. I chipped the cold egg open and there was a little serama chick. Of course it was a cockerel, but his name is Miracle and he can stay, he is a tiny little thing and obviously has a strong will to live.

I normally open my non-hatching eggs, but was so tired of finding unhatched fuly formed chicks, I hadn't that one time. I have gone back to always looking.

Deb

 

[juststruttin]

Wow, lucky little guy. Glad you found him. I sold eggs to a school last year and the same thing happened. The teach thought she was crazy when she heard peeping as the incubator and the rest of the chicks had already been moved to another classroom. Good thing she heard it before the janitors emptied the trash. I think they named him Lucky.

 

[tdhenson86]

I do have one little smooth cockerel with a permanent home.. I had eggs that were nearly 3 days past in the incubator, I pulled them out and set them aside. A day and a half later, I was putting the bad eggs in a trash sack and thought I heard a very faint sound. I pulled each egg out of the trash and held it to my ear until I found the one making a sound. I chipped the cold egg open and there was a little serama chick. Of course it was a cockerel, but his name is Miracle and he can stay, he is a tiny little thing and obviously has a strong will to live.

I normally open my non-hatching eggs, but was so tired of finding unhatched fuly formed chicks, I hadn't that one time. I have gone back to always looking.

Deb

Awww! It is a miracle that he survived for that long outside of a heated unit!!!

 

[RedBrush Farm]

Been there, done that. I have learned to open the eggs regardless of what I may find!! I seem to get attached to them all and then it is hard to let them go. I give any C size away as pets. They are really good for and with children. I have 18 adults now all divided into breeding pens and just put 15 eggs in the incubator day before yesterday because I can't make myself let them go bad. I have sold many this summer at 2-3 weeks old. They are sooo small when born I think they are the cutest thing going. I enjoy all my other birds as well, but the Seramas have me by the heart strings

I have never hatched this late and then tried to move them out. Have you? Any casualties?

 

[mzstre]

I have been so tempted to claim Serama eggs because they are SO darned cute, but I think my husband would kill me if I give him anything else to build this year. How much smaller are they than other bantams? I have a small group of about 10 bantams mixed in with my LF laying flock and I have never had any problems at all; I have very laid back birds. The bantams have a separate roost in the coop; it's so funny that the LF and bantams respect the other group's space. Are the Serama just too tiny to put with the others? I live in Louisiana so the temps really aren't much of an issue. I have a nice sized coop that stays quite warm in the winter but is well ventilated for the summer heat.

The smallest bantams I have in the mixed flock right now are my Olandsk Dwarfs to give an indication of size.

Brandy