Serama Hatch-A-Long!!

[darkbluespace]

Of the three eggs that developed out of the four, only two will be making it to lockdown. The other one apparently stopped developing 8 or 9 days ago there is no movement at all.

I am so glad you have at least 2! Let us know how it goes!

 

[darkbluespace]

So I get up this morning just like the last 2 mornings, and rush into the room where Riley Roo is sitting on my (now) 10 serama eggs, hoping to see something...anything !!! Because depending on who's doing the counting (???), today is either the 20th or 21st day of broody incubation and they should be hatching any second !!! Well, this morning there was still no hatching going on but there sure was a lot of 'peeping' !!! I can hear the babies peeping from inside of their shells !!! The only problem is that since this is my first attempt at hatching serama eggs, I don't know if that's good or bad !?! From what I can tell (without bothering or moving them too much), is that there haven't been any external pips yet so I'm thinking that they must have pipped internally, but now what ??? Should I candle them to see or ??? I don't want to jostle them too much, but I don't want to lose any from a lack of action on my part either. WHAT SHOULD I DO and how many hours can they survive an internal pip (12 hours?) without pipping externally ???

INFORMATION AND ADVICE NEEDED QUICKLY PLEASE !!!

Thanks in advance!

-kim-


P.S. I'm sorry to hear about the demise of one of your eggs mommaduck2014, I'll be crossing my fingers for you and the other two throughout
lockdown !!!

P.P.S. And Skink...a swollen spine !?!? That just sounds awful! I hope it reduces and that you're back on your feet real soon! You'll need to be...you've got all those babies to chase after...lol !!!

Sounds like excellent progress! Instinctively, a hen knows just how to hatch her babies, much better than me, that's for sure! She should be just the right temp and humidity (I would LOVE to get a temp and humidity reading from under a Serama broody) and her eggs should be able to hatch on their own. So I wouldn't worry and just let her take care of it. The only time I had to assist a broody egg hatch was when it has been in an incubator for part of its incubation period. If she will let you??... you could try to peek every few hours, but you wouldn't want to disturb her too much. I am so excited to see your little chickies!!!

 

[darkbluespace]

We have a chick! And another egg is zipping right now, it's a silkie though. And another Serama is pipping! This is such a relief since the power outage!

How are your chicks doing? How did the rest of the hatch go?

 

[mightymax]

Thank you mommaduck2014 and darkbluespace for your words of encouragement. It's nice to have a place you can come to and ask such, sometimes
silly, sometimes not so silly, questions and not have to worry that you're going to embarrass your partner with your overenthusiastic compulsion to discuss all things 'chicken' (or as in my case, not only chicken but all things 'goose', 'rabbit', 'pigeon', 'dog', 'cat' and 'tortoise', as well !!!). Clearly, we are the majority here !!! Anyway, every time I walk by Riley, I take a look in the cage (without opening it) and so far, no babies yet! So we're still in a holding pattern. The one thing I do notice though, is that I no longer hear any peeping this last time past her cage. So do you think I should rouse her to see if they'll start up again, or just wait a bit and not bother her (I think she might be sleeping...?). What do you guys think?

Thanks!

-kim-

 

[darkbluespace]

Thank you mommaduck2014 and darkbluespace for your words of encouragement. It's nice to have a place you can come to and ask such, sometimes
silly, sometimes not so silly, questions and not have to worry that you're going to embarrass your partner with your overenthusiastic compulsion to discuss all things 'chicken' (or as in my case, not only chicken but all things 'goose', 'rabbit', 'pigeon', 'dog', 'cat' and 'tortoise', as well !!!). Clearly, we are the majority here !!! Anyway, every time I walk by Riley, I take a look in the cage (without opening it) and so far, no babies yet! So we're still in a holding pattern. The one thing I do notice though, is that I no longer hear any peeping this last time past her cage. So do you think I should rouse her to see if they'll start up again, or just wait a bit and not bother her (I think she might be sleeping...?). What do you guys think?

Thanks!

-kim-

Unless you can see under her, it is hard to know, chicks may be hatching. They usually stay under mama till they are dry and that can take a while. I usually start to find empty shells before I ever see a chick. If you don't think she would freak out, you could lift her a little bit and see how the eggs are doing. I wouldn't think the peeping would be very loud unless there were some external pips already.

 

[darkbluespace]

One of my young hens went broody the other day. She was on one egg all day the day before yesterday, so I gave her the 5 eggs I had. I only found one egg from the other 3 hens yesterday and I had a feeling the rest ended up under her! Sure enough, I moved her and her eggs last night, in the dark, and she had 8 eggs under her. I think that is plenty for a first time mama. I brought her in the house which she was unsure about, but she did settle back down on her eggs after a while! I don't want her getting more eggs and the coop she was in isn't good for raising chicks.

 

[darkbluespace]

Thank you mommaduck2014 and darkbluespace for your words of encouragement. It's nice to have a place you can come to and ask such, sometimes
silly, sometimes not so silly, questions and not have to worry that you're going to embarrass your partner with your overenthusiastic compulsion to discuss all things 'chicken' (or as in my case, not only chicken but all things 'goose', 'rabbit', 'pigeon', 'dog', 'cat' and 'tortoise', as well !!!). Clearly, we are the majority here !!! Anyway, every time I walk by Riley, I take a look in the cage (without opening it) and so far, no babies yet! So we're still in a holding pattern. The one thing I do notice though, is that I no longer hear any peeping this last time past her cage. So do you think I should rouse her to see if they'll start up again, or just wait a bit and not bother her (I think she might be sleeping...?). What do you guys think?

Thanks!

-kim-

Anything happening?

 

[collegegardener]

Sorry I have been MIA lately. Class started back up and I have been very busy with it and the chicks and the rest of my flock. The chicks are doing great! I'm still trying to figure out how to post some pics since I used my Nikon to take them and my (very old) mac doesn't have a card reader. Hopefully I will figure out soon and be able to show everyone my little ones!

I ended up getting 6 out of the hatch. Not great, but considering all of the troubles and it being my first hatch I am pretty happy. I got 2 seramas, 2 silkies, and 2 mixes from my own flock. Part of me wants to open up the other eggs and try to see what happened, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Candling them is enough I think. I am going to wait until it starts warming up here until I hatch anymore. I would like to hatch out some large fowl cochins next, but since I haven't been able to find any eggs I'm not sure if I'll get to. My main rooster is a large fowl cochin so I would like to get him some ladies.

 

[darkbluespace]

Sorry I have been MIA lately. Class started back up and I have been very busy with it and the chicks and the rest of my flock. The chicks are doing great! I'm still trying to figure out how to post some pics since I used my Nikon to take them and my (very old) mac doesn't have a card reader. Hopefully I will figure out soon and be able to show everyone my little ones!

I ended up getting 6 out of the hatch. Not great, but considering all of the troubles and it being my first hatch I am pretty happy. I got 2 seramas, 2 silkies, and 2 mixes from my own flock. Part of me wants to open up the other eggs and try to see what happened, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Candling them is enough I think. I am going to wait until it starts warming up here until I hatch anymore. I would like to hatch out some large fowl cochins next, but since I haven't been able to find any eggs I'm not sure if I'll get to. My main rooster is a large fowl cochin so I would like to get him some ladies.

It's awesome that you got 2 of each!! Glad they are doing well. I have only seen bantam Cochins, I hope you find some large ones!

 

[collegegardener]

Thanks! Haha, bantams are everywhere! It is very hard to find the large fowl, but maybe I will. I am very happy I was able to get 2 of each. I can't wait to see what colors the seramas end up being and one of the silkies is white, my first white one so far