Serama chicks and their weights at a month old

Ladybird CA · Jul 22, 2023

I got 5 new serama pullets today. The 3 older ones are the same age as my seramas, born first week of April and the 2 younger hatched in May around the 3rd week.

And I got 18 serama eggs going in the incubator tonight! (Seller was nice enough to give me 6 extra)

Molly anticipating the arrival of her chicks next week

Snowball still has a blue butt and Buttercups’ eggs had no red food gel markings for a day but yesterday and today there were still bits of red.

fluffycrow · Jul 23, 2023

bantamsrmyfav said:
I got 5 new serama pullets today. The 3 older ones are the same age as my seramas, born first week of April and the 2 younger hatched in May around the 3rd week. View attachment 3585763
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And I got 18 serama eggs going in the incubator tonight! (Seller was nice enough to give me 6 extra)
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Molly anticipating the arrival of her chicks next week
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Snowball still has a blue butt and Buttercups’ eggs had no red food gel markings for a day but yesterday and today there were still bits of red.
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Good luck with the eggs! Really pretty new babies :love

Ladybird CA · Jul 26, 2023

Thank you! I’ve named the two frizzles after my friends daughters Ayeza and Faiza. The mottled is Trini as her and her sister Gail’s mother is tricoloured mottled. The black one with yellow feet is Crescent.

Molly got her chicks yesterday. Peavey Mart received them a day early and they allow customers to pick up chicks any time after they arrive instead of only Wednesdays by 1:15. My husband had booked the day off to pick them up until we found out about the change. All 3 blue laced wyandottes look like the black laced red variant.

The americaunas we took back as we were given Easter eggers instead. The ordeal probably almost cost me my marriage but unfortunately I’m still married

Hoover hatchery, where the chicks came from, sells these two as different breeds even though they are, essentially, Easter eggers rather than purebred Ameraucanas.

The light red and single combed chicks are “Easter eggers”.

The 7 chicks with Molly

Wyandottes

Speckled Sussex with Wyandotte behind her

Americaunas

Speckled Sussex

I got these just for Molly with plans to sell them after she goes back to egg laying but DH wants to keep one. I don’t want to have to separate the seramas because DH also said he prefers chickens stay outside and we actually aren’t supposed to have more than one coop although I kept the eglu as it’s always good to have a spare coop for the many reasons birds need to be temporarily separated. We will see if DH gets attached to any of these chicks.

Today we let the two groups free range supervised and Buttercup pecked the two youngest seramas but nothing major. The goal is to have them join the others in the bigger coop once the seramas that I’m hatching are old enough to go in there.

I plan to hatch eggs from Dustbunny, Ayeza, Faiza, and Crescent before I rehome Presley. Dustbunny hatched April 7 so she is 15 weeks and 5 days old (same age as Presley). The other 3 their seller said they hatched early April. She hatched them from the same stock of another seller that my 18 incubating serama eggs came from. That seller has 11 different lines in 14 pens. I candled them yesterday at day 3 and happy to see 11 embryos. Will candle again at day 7 on Saturday night.

Ladybird CA · Jul 29, 2023

When we went to buy a serama hen and her chick yesterday the seller had Indian blue peacocks and he gave us 4 silver spangled Hamburg eggs which I gave to Katie as she is very broody but one disappeared. I think she might’ve accidentally broken it and ate it. Buttercup laid an egg in that nest as well as one today and one from Snowball so I let her keep it and marked the eggs so that I can keep removing eggs from the nest. There’s 4 other nests but the cochins still want to lay in that one.

The brown red serama hen I’ve named Henley and her chick Tinsley. She is the first serama hen I’ve had. I mostly got her thinking we could rehome my cockerel Presley sooner as we could keep a daughter from him instead but DH wants to keep him until we get a complaint. He even called one of the neighbors who said he can barely hear him. The other neighbor has loud parties up til close to midnight so we could counterattack a complaint which we already did when the renter said we were making too much noise dismantling our shed. I think being fined $300 for having a silkie rooster in California has made me more paranoid. Since then the law allows for San Jose to have a cockerel up to 4 months. Behind us is a street with only businesses and the one directly behind is for lease. Anyway I decided to stop arguing with DH for now and keep Presley at least a bit longer.

Out of 18 serama eggs, a dozen look good. 4 were clear and 2 look like they quit 2 or 3 days ago. Can’t wait til they hatch as early as August 9th.

The other hens give the chicks some pecks on the head so I’m getting an enclosure tomorrow and if DH allows I’ll keep them in the shed in there for a couple weeks then reintroduce them to the coop.

Ladybird CA · Jul 31, 2023

I put the 5 seramas that I had gotten last Saturday in the pet tent that I bought yesterday. This will help them integrate with the others in the main coop. Someone in my Facebook chicken group was looking for pullets so I offered to sell all the Easter eggers as we already have Katie and she lays blue eggs. Also two of the Wyandottes, I like each of my chickens to look different or be easily distinguished. So I plan to keep the speckled Sussex for large cream eggs and one of the Wyandotte’s for brown. They would be in the Omlet coop that the 5 serama ladies just moved out of. Once they are used to everyone in the coop I’ll take them out of the tent which I got for the serama cockerels that will be hatching next week.

The 3 EE and 2 Wyandotte will go to their new home at 6 weeks old first week of September.

I candled Katie’s 6 eggs as it is day 3 and saw embryos in 2 of the silver spangled Hamburg’s eggs. If a pullet hatches then she would also give us white eggs from the Omlet coop.

I opened Henley and Tinsley’s door and they hopped out to the coop but when I opened the coop door they didn’t want to go out.

Piney, Camille and Snowball stayed roosting in the coop while 3 serama and Buttercup went in the yard.

Ladybird CA · Aug 1, 2023

I candled Katie’s eggs and the Cochins’ eggs are still not fertile. She has 2 Hamburg eggs that are developing well and one that is too muddy to candle. If I don’t see anything in it by Friday I’ll remove it.

I was thinking of moving Molly and the 7 chicks to the Omlet coop because they now have wings and should be able to go onto the stairs into the coop but their legs are probably still too small to not fall onto the “perch” bars without falling into them so maybe next week.

Pictures from this evening:

Pinecone and Camille

With Henley and Tinsley behind them

Presley

Presley, Buttercup, Faiza and Crescent

Presley, Snowball, Pinecone, Priscilla

Dustbunny and Camille

Ayeza, Faiza, Crescent, Gail and Trini

The two broodies Katie with Hamburg eggs and Molly with 7 chicks but coincidentally the 2 we plan to keep stuck their heads out

Ladybird CA · Aug 12, 2023

Sharing this horrible story in case it could prevent someone from making the same mistake.
Out of 18 serama eggs, I had 8 hatch. They were in the brooder chirping last night and since I had to get up at 5 am this morning for work, I thought instead of them keeping me up I'll give them to one of the 3 broody hens that I have. I stuck them under the white cochin since she is the leader of the flock thinking no other birds would peck them. I stayed with them for about 10 minutes and didn't see or hear her attack them. When I checked on them around 5:30 this morning, half were dead. She had scalped them.

WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURE.

The 4 dead chicks.

Pictures taken yesterday when these 4 were still alive :hit

Mottled chick from an egg labeled "Frizzle"

A sibling also labeled "Frizzle" black - the first to hatch on the 10th at 9:45pm. The 7 others hatched yesterday.

Micro silkied chick

The last chick that hatched that was from an egg labeled "Laced".

The survivors:

This chick hatched from an egg labeled "Frizzle brown black"

Wheaten

Blue laced

From a frizzle egg.

Here the 8 were yesterday before I took them out of the incubator. The other 2 eggs I candled and there is no movement but I am leaving them in there until day 23 (Monday) per seller's suggestion.

So I learned 2 lessons from this hatch. Not to give a hen chicks without watching her interaction with them. It was at night and She was sitting in the nest and the chicks were just under her. I've also had her for 3 years and she is 5- she had taken care of many chicks that weren't hers. But this time she was only broody a week- I think that may have been the problem. I wish I had taken her off the nest and seen how she interacted with the chicks but the last time I did that she just jumped back to her nest and rejected the chicks in April. I just thought the chicks I bought were too old. I believe 5 days is the maximum and the chicks had little wings so they may have been 6 or 7 days old.

My 2 other broodies rejected these chicks. When I arrived at work they accidentally scheduled an extra colleague so I was glad to go home to be with the chicks. I set up the aquarium with the cozy coop heater like I did with the chicks in April and they are doing ok. The frizzle chick has 2 peck marks above its' eyes but they have dried and the chick is doing good.

Another thing I learned is that I originally bought 6 eggs then changed it to a dozen and the seller gave me half a dozen free. Out of 18 eggs 8 hatched so I will probably only always buy at least a dozen eggs and rehome the others if I need to. As long as DH doesn't get attached to them. After I saw Snowball peck them I put her to give away but DH made me take the ad down as he wants to keep her forever.

fluffycrow · Aug 12, 2023

bantamsrmyfav said:
Sharing this horrible story in case it could prevent someone from making the same mistake.
Out of 18 serama eggs, I had 8 hatch. They were in the brooder chirping last night and since I had to get up at 5 am this morning for work, I thought instead of them keeping me up I'll give them to one of the 3 broody hens that I have. I stuck them under the white cochin since she is the leader of the flock thinking no other birds would peck them. I stayed with them for about 10 minutes and didn't see or hear her attack them. When I checked on them around 5:30 this morning, half were dead. She had scalped them.

WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURE. View attachment 3607018
The 4 dead chicks.

Pictures taken yesterday when these 4 were still alive

Mottled chick from an egg labeled "Frizzle"

View attachment 3607019

A sibling also labeled "Frizzle" black - the first to hatch on the 10th at 9:45pm. The 7 others hatched yesterday.
View attachment 3607020

Micro silkied chick
View attachment 3607023
The last chick that hatched that was from an egg labeled "Laced".
View attachment 3607024

The survivors:

This chick hatched from an egg labeled "Frizzle brown black"
View attachment 3607025

Wheaten
View attachment 3607027
Blue laced
View attachment 3607028

From a frizzle egg.
View attachment 3607029

Here the 8 were yesterday before I took them out of the incubator. The other 2 eggs I candled and there is no movement but I am leaving them in there until day 23 (Monday) per seller's suggestion.

So I learned 2 lessons from this hatch. Not to give a hen chicks without watching her interaction with them. It was at night and She was sitting in the nest and the chicks were just under her. I've also had her for 3 years and she is 5- she had taken care of many chicks that weren't hers. But this time she was only broody a week- I think that may have been the problem. I wish I had taken her off the nest and seen how she interacted with the chicks but the last time I did that she just jumped back to her nest and rejected the chicks in April. I just thought the chicks I bought were too old. I believe 5 days is the maximum and the chicks had little wings so they may have been 6 or 7 days old.

My 2 other broodies rejected these chicks. When I arrived at work they accidentally scheduled an extra colleague so I was glad to go home to be with the chicks. I set up the aquarium with the cozy coop heater like I did with the chicks in April and they are doing ok. The frizzle chick has 2 peck marks above its' eyes but they have dried and the chick is doing good.

Another thing I learned is that I originally bought 6 eggs then changed it to a dozen and the seller gave me half a dozen free. Out of 18 eggs 8 hatched so I probably only always buy at least a dozen eggs and rehome the others if I need to. As long as DH doesn't get attached to them. After I saw snowball peck them I put her to give away but DH made me take the ad down as he wants to keep her forever.

I'm so sorry. Must've been heartbreaking to see them :hugs

Ladybird CA · Aug 12, 2023

Thanks

I told the seller I was heartbroken too, she seems to appreciate that I update her on the chicks. She says moms can also reject chicks that aren't theirs if they don't smell like them.

Well for now I'm glad to have these 4 babies. One of my serama pullets laid an egg yesterday. Not sure which one but I saw Camille in the nest and her sister Pinecone when was making the egg so it was probably one of them. Presley is in the Omlet with Henley after I got the first egg from her since she got here, last week. She laid an egg yesterday so I am saving her eggs for the incubator for 10 days. Jerry Schnexnayder (I might've spelled that wrong) who imported the seramas to the states posted on his facebook that he doesn't hatch pullet eggs until they've laid about a dozen eggs so after those 10 days I'll put him back with the other pullets and maybe hatch their eggs after I identify the layers with food gel or give them to the buff cochin broody around the end of the month.

Ladybird CA · Sep 9, 2023

Weights of 16 seramas starting with the oldest:

Henley, 1 yr old brown red smooth 12.1 oz or 341 g ( class B). Friendly. Her daughter from another father is Tinsley. 4 eggs due tonight with Presley are being incubated by Buttercup my bantam buff cochin.