Serama chicks and their weights at a month old

[Ladybird CA]

Katie then went to Snowball’s nest to lay her egg

All the hens laid today. I will check the nests after I get home from work tomorrow.

 

[Ladybird CA]

I feel a bit better and the weather is nice so I decided to get the seramas’ weights. Probably should’ve attempted to take the bigger bantams weights when they were in the nests, impossible to catch them now.

Brown red pullet - 14.6 oz or 411 grams

Blue wheaten frizzled pullet - 10.8 oz or 309 grams

Mottled frizzled pullet - 12.5 oz or 355 grams

Blue pullet - 12.15 ounces or 344 grams

Birchen cockerel - 14.1 oz or 400 grams

 

[Ladybird CA]

After spending the evening yesterday looking for that lost cheque from the auction, I woke up this morning and thought of the possibility that the kitten was playing with the cheque it might’ve gone under the couch. I forgot that thought, I went to work and left early due to not feeling well and when I came home I looked under the couch. I saw my son’s shoe and took it out. Behind it was the cheque, upside down. My husband who had also given up on searching the house for it, immediately put it in his pocket. Hopefully he will show me how to deposit it online before he accidentally throws it in the washer.

Chickens are also full of surprises. Although I wanted to use food gel colouring to track parentage of eggs I intend to hatch, I was also curious if my oldest hen who is 5, the white cochin was laying as much because we sometimes only got 2 eggs a day. Most of the eggs are actually hers. I thought yesterday might’ve been the last day for the mottled hen’s eggs to have green streaks but instead the streaks were more apparent today than yesterday.

The mottled hen’s egg from the 6th looks like it had blue streaks but the white cochin’s egg had a lot more blue streaks and the mottled egg had light yellow streaks. The blue rubbed off the white cochin’s feathers when she was sharing the nest.

 

[Ladybird CA]

Yesterday there were 2 eggs, one was from Molly the mottled cochin before she started going broody. The other egg I found in the run of the coop from Buttercup the buff cochin. I'm guessing it was when I was checking for eggs and she was in the nest so she ran off and into the run. Today it was just her egg.

So I put all the eggs in the incubator. I forgot to count them. I'll do that the next time I open the incubator and turn them tomorrow. I was going to put them in the incubator tomorrow as tomorrow would be 10 days from the day the first egg was laid - the egg that Katie the EE laid on the 4th. 10 days is about when vitality decreases sharply. But I decided to just put them in there and if there are any eggs from the 3 non-broody hens tomorrow then I will add them. Most of my hatches have been on more than one day any way.

 

[fluffycrow]

Yesterday there were 2 eggs, one was from Molly the mottled cochin before she started going broody. The other egg I found in the run of the coop from Buttercup the buff cochin. I'm guessing it was when I was checking for eggs and she was in the nest so she ran off and into the run. Today it was just her egg.

So I put all the eggs in the incubator. I forgot to count them. I'll do that the next time I open the incubator and turn them tomorrow. I was going to put them in the incubator tomorrow as tomorrow would be 10 days from the day the first egg was laid - the egg that Katie the EE laid on the 4th. 10 days is about when vitality decreases sharply. But I decided to just put them in there and if there are any eggs from the 3 non-broody hens tomorrow then I will add them. Most of my hatches have been on more than one day any way.

Good luck!

 

[Ladybird CA]

I’ll need to change the title of this thread. I was thinking Kim’s Coop but there’s lots of us Kims here and it’s after 10 pm so maybe next time.

I added Snowball and Buttercup’s eggs from today to the incubator so there are 23 eggs: 3 from Katie, 7 each from Snowball and Buttercup and 6 from Molly. When I took her off the nest to free range with the others the cockerel chased and mounted her. He tried to do the same with Snowball and as usual she shooed him away. His sister the brown red I’ve named Priscilla squatted when I petted her. The cockerel I named Presley. The mottled frizzled is Pinecone, blue wheaten frizzled Camille, and blue is Dustbunny.

I ordered 7 chicks from Peavey Mart that will go to Molly to raise. They’re sexed pullets from Hoover: a speckled Sussex, 3 blue laced gold wyandottes, 3 “Americauna” that I’ll sell as Easter eggers. My husband will pick them up on the 26th then I’ll sell them along with any of these eggs that hatch at a fall sale. Since I’m limited on the amount of birds I can have I just want to keep seramas (and the 4 other bantams my husband wants us to keep since we’ve had them for years and they are now family) as they’re probably the only birds I can try to breed as long as I don’t overdo it and have the city knocking on my door. I live in a fairly loud part of the city so there’s usually other noises which helps. I don’t plan to keep cockerels long, just enough to keep a generation going. We didn’t really mind keeping Presley in the house so if we get too attached then maybe a max of 2 cockerels or a pair in the house but I’d make sure they get to go outside when the weather isn’t bad.

The eggs that could start hatching on the 30th:

There was also an egg from Katie today but I put it in the fridge for the construction guys working on our house. DH said to give them a dozen eggs. Hopefully the eggs from tomorrow won’t be too colourful from the gel and if they are we will explain.

We are going to my sister in law’s wedding from October 12 to 14 so I plan to separate Presley from all the hens and pullets except Dustbunny at least a month before. I know I said I didn’t want to hatch pullet eggs but I don’t want him to be alone and if she happens to get broody those 3 days we will be gone I’ll let her keep those eggs. I’m also getting 6 serama eggs next Saturday or Sunday so if there are any that hatch that will get along with Presley then they can be housed with him instead. They’ll be in the Eglu cube that is now behind the main coop.

 

[Ladybird CA]

I just tried changing the name of this thread and there doesn’t seem to be an option to do that

 

[Ladybird CA]

Candled all 23 eggs Saturday and last night and all are clear. I kept mistaking the red lines from the buff cochin for veins. Her and Snowball’s eggs are still coloured beyond the 5 days that someone doing the same method with food gel had. Today would be 12 days from when the hens had 1-2 drops of food gel colouring added to their vents (the bottles didn’t touch their vents). The gel doesn’t wash off so next time I’ll try the yellow instead of red and ensure I put only one drop instead of possibly two.

I’ll leave the infertile eggs in the incubator until day 7 (Wednesday the 19th) then ill scramble them for the chickens. I’ll still turn them til Wednesday. Some of them the shells are pourous so I’ll throw those out at next candling and do a float test for the other eggs.

I’ll leave the incubator off from Wednesday until I pick up the half dozen serama eggs this weekend. At least there won’t be a staggered hatch that could negatively affect the serama eggs.

 

[Ladybird CA]

I'll actually be getting a dozen of the serama eggs tomorrow or Saturday, can't wait.

Yesterday was the first day that there were no markings on Buttercup's egg. Snowball still had some blue on her egg. Today no eggs from them, just Katie's unmarked Easter egger egg.

 

[fluffycrow]

Good luck with the serama eggs!