Serama Hatch-A-Long!!

[darkbluespace]

Oops, sorry!! No, I start lockdown tomorrow. Tonight
I candle for the last time. I am worried about something. I put some of my fertile layers eggs in to help keep the temperature and humidity balanced. I put them in the day after the Serama eggs were put in the incubator. Is the going to cause any problems with the Serama babies. These other chicks are coming out huge!! Oh, and how many ventilation plugs do I pull out there is two?

I think people hatch Seramas with large fowl all the time and they should do fine together. I would imagine for lockdown all the plugs are open.

 

[mommaduck2014]

Ok. Thank you, was starting to panic that I had made a wrong decision. How soon after hatching can I move the Serama chicks to their brooder? I have different set ups for both the big chicks and the Serama chicks.

 

[mightymax]

So another chick hatched this afternoon, giving me a total of 4, but the excitement was short lived because when I went to check on them a few minutes ago, I found that one of the chicks had died. I have no idea why. The only thing I can tell you is that this particular chick never seemed to completely 'dry off'. He remained shiny and moist looking his entire tragically short little life. Again, don't know if that means anything or not to anyone. But what's worse than that is that while I was trying to calmly and quietly remove the dead baby, one of the other non-pipped eggs that was under Riley Roo rolled away and out of the cage and dropped down onto the floor !!! Immediately, I dropped to my knees to retrieve it and that's when I heard the peeping noise coming from it. The shell was cracked, but the membrane appeared intact. Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed a pair of tweezers and 'pipped' the egg myself. I could then see that at least I put the small hole in the correct place and so I put her back under Riley. But what now...??? Did I do the right thing? Will it hatch out on its own or do you think I'm going to have to help it out completely now? And what if it wasn't time for it to hatch this soon? Is there such a thing as a premie chicken baby? And if so, how do I take care of it? Oh my goodness, what's going to go wrong next?

Advice Please !!!

-kim-

 

[mightymax]

I just checked on the egg again and it looks like the membrane sac that surrounds the baby inside of the eggshell is dry and separating from the inside of the shell. Is this normal or should I try to keep it moist????\


help. i don't want to loose another one. especially not like this...
thanks

-kim-

 

[darkbluespace]

I just checked on the egg again and it looks like the membrane sac that surrounds the baby inside of the eggshell is dry and separating from the inside of the shell. Is this normal or should I try to keep it moist????\


help. i don't want to loose another one. especially not like this...
thanks

-kim-

Well, at this point they should all be nearly ready to hatch. If they were mine,I would probably put a tiny pin hole in each one that hasn't pipped yet. For the one that dropped we can hope for the best. Since it can breathe, I would leave it under mama till morning and then try to help it out. You could try wrapping it in a little damp paper towel.

So sorry you lost a chick...

 

[mightymax]

Thanks darkbluespace! I think that's what I'll do...Tomorrow all of those that haven't hatched yet, I'm going to do the pin hole test on....it's been a long evening and night so I'll talk to you in the morning. Thanks again for all you've done !!!

-kim-

 

[Skink]

Just pulled a smelly stink bomb from the incubator. Properly diffused! Had to candle to make sure I'd grabbed the right one and decided to do the others a day early. 3 eggs going strong, 8 days left on the incubator timer. I'm really glad I have the brinsea. All I have to do really is fill the water pot and check the screen. Otherwise the whole hatch'd be a wash for sure.

Kim, silence after pipping is very usual for eggs. I would give 18 hours from time of pip for them to zip before offering assistance. But if your eggs have just been making noise and no other progress, it is probably time to help. It would be a good idea to read over this article! There's lots on how to assist hatching and most importantly, when to. The one you lost might have been a sticky chick, I would run a search for that here on the forum for more information. It also sounds like you might be dealing with some shrink wrapping if you have chicks immobilized by their membranes, which would necessitate some help. Please remember when you lift your hen, you break the seal of humidity she has and this risks things like shrink wrapping for pipped eggs. I hope they pull through for you! Best of luck!

 

[mightymax]

Thank You Skink !!!
Just re-read Sally Sunshine's article...VERY informative! It's so funny you should say that about breaking the humidity seal because I was just telling my partner that this will probably end up like those cooking shows we watch where the roast never gets done because they keep opening the oven door. And the judges are all yelling, 'Shut the oven door', but the contestant is so focused that they can't hear a thing they're saying...lol !!!

 

[mightymax]

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR...!!!

The egg that I accidentally dropped last night hatched all by itself late this morning...!!!

So much for studying up on the assisted hatch! But at least I know what to do now in the event I'm ever needed to assist again...lol !!!

It's amazing how much smaller this newest chick is compared to his siblings that are only 24 hours older. I'm not sure if that's because it was required to hatch sooner
than intended or if that's just how these chickens develop. I know that with pigeons, the babies double in size every day for the first two to three days, so
that by the time they're a week old, they're almost as big as their parents! Maybe it's that way with seramas? IDK. I do know that when I looked inside this last chick's empty shell,
there was a lot more reddish colored membrane and a small yellowish dot (that I assume was the yolk sac) stuck inside of it than there was on the last three egg shells that
hatched, so maybe it should be considered a 'premie'. They are soooo adorable! They remind me of those little tiny 'fake' chicks that you'd get on your basket at Easter time
back when I was a kid (now I'm sure I'm really dating myself). Anyway, I've candled the remaining eggs and it looks like only one more will possibly hatch. Two of the others
are clear and never fertile to begin with I assume, and two appear to have developed only half way and then stopped for some reason. On those ones, the embryo now floats
freely inside the shell when you turn it upon candling, so I'm assuming that it has detached from the membrane and is not viable? But I'm keeping them in there for one more
day, just to make sure.

Thank You To All Who Helped Us!

-kim-

 

[darkbluespace]

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR...!!!

The egg that I accidentally dropped last night hatched all by itself late this morning...!!!

So much for studying up on the assisted hatch! But at least I know what to do now in the event I'm ever needed to assist again...lol !!!

It's amazing how much smaller this newest chick is compared to his siblings that are only 24 hours older. I'm not sure if that's because it was required to hatch sooner
than intended or if that's just how these chickens develop. I know that with pigeons, the babies double in size every day for the first two to three days, so
that by the time they're a week old, they're almost as big as their parents! Maybe it's that way with seramas? IDK. I do know that when I looked inside this last chick's empty shell,
there was a lot more reddish colored membrane and a small yellowish dot (that I assume was the yolk sac) stuck inside of it than there was on the last three egg shells that
hatched, so maybe it should be considered a 'premie'. They are soooo adorable! They remind me of those little tiny 'fake' chicks that you'd get on your basket at Easter time
back when I was a kid (now I'm sure I'm really dating myself). Anyway, I've candled the remaining eggs and it looks like only one more will possibly hatch. Two of the others
are clear and never fertile to begin with I assume, and two appear to have developed only half way and then stopped for some reason. On those ones, the embryo now floats
freely inside the shell when you turn it upon candling, so I'm assuming that it has detached from the membrane and is not viable? But I'm keeping them in there for one more
day, just to make sure.

Thank You To All Who Helped Us!

-kim-

Wow, that is amazing that little egg hatched after being dropped, definitely a little chick miracle!! Congrats on all your babies!!