Incubating Serama Eggs *(Pics Of My New Babies Pg.7!)*

[BeardedChick]

Mine are on day 21. I had upped the humidity and stopped turning on day 17 just in case...

However, the person I got my eggs from said hers usually took the usual 21 days.

I dunno. I think I better stick with something easier to hatch.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Hi, Beardedchick and PBJMaker, I am so glad that you all posted updates!

PBJ-I am so sorry that your eggs made it to the end and then didn't hatch-BUT-I am tickled pink that you did get one little pipsqueak! I hope it continues to do well! Are you going to try hatching Serama's again?

Beardedchick-We are on day 20 and no pips yet. Out of 15 eggs that we set, we have 6 that (at last candling on Wednesday) had live chicks in them, for sure, as we could see them moving. There are 2 more eggs in there that I am fairly certain are quitters. We candled them when we moved them to another incubator to hatch on Wednesday. Brad wanted to leave them "Just-In-Case."

We had read so much about Serama's hatching early (19 days) that we stopped turning all of them, and placed them in the other bator to hatch, on Wed. (day 16) We are thinking, now, that it was a couple of days too early to do that.

I know we may be big time deluding ourselves and doing some serious wishful thinking-but we put them in the incubator, initially, late at night, and that could mean it MIGHT be Tuesday, at the latest, before we have one hatch. IF they go the normal length of time.

I am not holding my breath, but I am hopeful. I will be very happy if we get even ONE chick. Beardedchick, how many days do you intend to give your eggs before you open them up to dissect them?

The eggs we knew were bad we have opened. Most were clear and we only opened a couple of those, as they were uneventful and yielded no info. One egg was terribly rotten, green and gooey. One was pretty far along but clearly a late quitter.

We will open up these eggs if we get no hatches.

Has anyone heard from Judy McKinn? How did her eggs do?

Thanks to both of you, PBJmaker and Beardedchick, for the updates. I hope to hear good things soon about your Serama babies, Bearded!

PBJ-Please post a chick of your one little baby. It would be so encouraging!

Blessings!

Deb

 

[BeardedChick]

I guess I'll go a couple more days - so 23 days. Then I am opening them all up... It will be a little depressing, but interesting.

I'm not trying seramas again any time too soon, I'd rather do it when I have a good broody and can tuck some eggs under her.

What about you? Are you trying it again?

 

[JudyMcKinn]

Patches (and all interested) None of my eggs hatched. Some developed a little, and some more, but looked like all were probably dead by 2 weeks. I left everything that I thought might have just a tiny chance, but to no avail. They apparently are just very hard to hatch, especially if shipped, because the person I got them from did a really good packing job, and none were damaged. Apparently they can't take the P.O. joggling very well, as she said she had pretty good luck hatching her own eggs.
I'm no quitter (yet

) so I have ordered 2 doz. from someone else, also just 1 state away. They will hopefully be sent today, and I will hopefully get them Wed. Keeping my fingers crossed. Sorry about the 2 unsuccessful hatches listed above, but hopefully the one little one will do well. Sorry he doesn't have a playmate--you will have to keep him company a lot.

 

[BeardedChick]

Thanks for the update Judy. Please let us know about your next set of eggs, too.

I'll be rooting for you.

 

[JudyMcKinn]

Patches, by the way--noted in your first post on this topic that you said you had about a 50% hatch on some regular eggs, and blamed it on the fact you opened the incubator too much, and lost humidity. I have a slight problem with that, also.

I like to get some of the little hatched ones out, so they can dry off in the bator. they seem to stay sticky and wet forever in the bator with all the humidity of others hatching, etc. So, I have a little misting bottle, like for inside house plants, and I give a little squirt or 2 out over the tops of the eggs just before lowering the lid, and this seems to put humidity in the air pretty good, when you have to open the bator. Probably not what is recommended, but seems to help. also, when I want to grab one quickly, I open one of the little windows at the top, instead of the whole lid, and let in less dry air. I have a LG9200, no fan, no turner.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Day 21 and we have a PIP!!!!! I have seen 5 of the eight eggs in the hatching bator rocking and can hear the eensy-weensy-est little peeps!

Oh, gosh, I pray they make it out!

Judy-I do have a terrible problem with peeking in the incubator. Like you, I want to get the babies out, into the brooder and under a heat lamp to dry. They stay wet for so long in the incubator. I worry that they will climb up on the other eggs and come into contact with the heating element. Our ducklings have done that and regular sized chicks could too.

We have only hatched one other batch of chicken eggs. Those were shipped Langshan eggs. Out of 30 eggs we ended up with 28 good and 1 cracked eggs (DH dropped and broke one when turning them early on and I dropped and cracked one as I unpacked them-that we tried to hatch anyway) we got 14 chicks.

We had a few that made it all the way to the end and were fully developed and pipped but died in the shell before making it out. I wish, now, that we had helped them. But this is how we learn. We weren't sure how long to wait before intervening.

It is only a guess, but we did open that incubator a lot, so we figure loss of humidity might have had something to do with the loss of those chicks.

I have done the spray bottle thing to regulate the loss of humidity with our duck eggs. It works great. We have had great success with hatching ducklings. Those eggs are huge and I think a lot more forgiving.

Here in New Mexico it is SO DRY that we have to fight to keep the humidity at even a moderate level. Right now I have three clean, wet, rags in the incubator to keep the humidity at 56 - 58 %. One is in a small bowl of water to keep it soppy.

We are using our old hovabator for the hatcher. I think we have an adequate amount of humidity even though the number is low. I am basing that on the fact that there is a bit of condensation around the edges of the windows.

When I opened the incubator up this morning to see if there were any pips, I had a small glass of warm water ready to rehydrate the rags, and it "seems" fine.

By the way- we have the same exact incubator. (LG9200 no fan, no turner) ight now, it is full of Serama eggs that came from two different breeders-one in PA and one from AL. They are on days 11 and 12. The eggs due today were from AR.

Beardedchick-I hope you will try again if none hatch. And don't give up hope yet! Maybe they will hatch late. If we'd known before we ordered these eggs that they would be so hard we might have tried something less intimidating!

Say a little prayer for my babies! I'll post more later, if/when anything happens. It will be very depressing to get this far, (seeing them so close and still alive), if they don't make it.

Deb

 

[BeardedChick]

Hey, you're in NM? I'll just drop by for eggs this summer.

I'm in Colorado.

I'm so glad you have some pips!!!!! How exciting for you. Any way to post pics when the chickies hatch?

EVEN if your chicks don't hatch, I am really encouraged that you have done so well thus far.

 

[becky3086]

I did mean to post on this and tell everyone that I did actually get a few to hatch, very, very late. I got 6 to hatch but two died. So ended up with 4 in all.
Becky

 

[Patchesnposies]

Drop by any time, Beardedchick!

Brad and I met and married in Colorado Springs. I lived In Glenwood Springs for a number of years. Colorado is one of my most favorite places.

I will post pics if I have any babies that make it!