Serama Hatch-A-Long!!

[formerchickenlass]

You could try a lower humidity. I incubate mine at about 35% and find that is just about perfect. I still have to help a few out, but they can mostly pip the shell at that humidity. It depends on the humidity where you live, so you could try weighing your eggs. If I did 45 to 55 here, I wouldn't hatch any!

I don't think lack of hand turning turning is causing your problem.

Let us know how it goes!

What are your hatch rates on viable eggs with 35% humidity? Is that what you keep it at during pip & hatch as well or do you raise it?

 

[Bryam]

Hi Bryam, there are so many factors that can cause low hatch rates. Hand turning is definitely worth a try. I've no experience with that model incubator but I know a lot of people feel auto turners are too rough on serama eggs. I run my heat a touch higher, 99.7. I don't know whether that would make a difference for you. Have you tested the temp and humidity with separate devices to confirm your incubator is registering correctly? 

Are you hatching your own eggs or shipped eggs? 

If they're your own eggs, are the breeder birds on vitamin supplements? 

How old are the breeders? 

Are the shells nice and solid? Good size eggs, not too small, not misshapen? 

Disinfecting incubator thoroughly between each use? Eggs appear clean? 

My incubator is running perfectly. I know that much. So maybe having very low humidity and hand turning may help my situation. I don't understand why they are dying spexifily around day 17 -18. So they are drowning or something?

I used to hatch sillies and I never had a problem!

 

[darkbluespace]

What are your hatch rates on viable eggs with 35% humidity? Is that what you keep it at during pip & hatch as well or do you raise it?  

I raise humidity at hatch time. I hatch about 95% or more of the chicks that make it to lockdown. I usually have a few quitters along the way, but I don't have the best incubators.

My problem is that I hatch too birds and too many roosters and that I only sell them in pairs because I want roosters to have good homes too.

I think it is confusing to people when general levels of humidity are assumed to work for everyone. Because humidity is different everywhere, then humidity in the incubator will be different for many people.

 

[formerchickenlass]

My incubator is running perfectly. I know that much. So maybe having very low humidity and hand turning may help my situation. I don't understand why they are dying spexifily around day 17 -18. So they are drowning or something?

I used to hatch sillies and I never had a problem!

There are a number of things that can cause late deaths that have nothing to do with your incubator. Broadly speaking, breeder health, genetic issues, vitamin deficiencies, and bacterial infections can cause late deaths.

Try the lower humidity and hand turning first and if you're still having trouble then you may consider the other possibilities.

Seramas are a lot harder to hatch than other breeds. They seem to be more sensitive to fluctuations in temp and humidity and such that don't cause a blip with other breeds.

You can also try putting some eggs under a broody and see how they do. I get about the same rate under broody as I do in incubator, which tells me that my imperfect hatch rates are likely due to one of the above reasons I cited, but I haven't pinned down which yet.

 

[formerchickenlass]

I raise humidity at hatch time. I hatch about 95% or more of the chicks that make it to lockdown. I usually have a few quitters along the way, but I don't have the best incubators.

My problem is that I hatch too birds and too many roosters and that I only sell them in pairs because I want roosters to have good homes too.

I think it is confusing to people when general levels of humidity are assumed to work for everyone. Because humidity is different everywhere, then humidity in the incubator will be different for many people.

That's interesting! Very cool. Well I just live down in Eugene so in terms of climate we should be similar, though I would imagine time of year and particular indoor climate would also be a factor.

I weighed my eggs during my first hatch (late Oct) and found 50% rh achieved the desired amount of weight loss, but my hatch rate is not where I'd like it yet. I'm getting 50-70% hatch on viable eggs. I may try a lower rh next time just to see what happens.

I've also been told spraying the eggs occasionally with incubator disinfectant can improve hatch rates so that's something else I might try next time.

 

[Fluffyserama]

Hi everyone,

I had some temp questions for Serama and this seems to be the place to ask it

After a long break from keeping chickens I couldn't hold myself back any longer and I'm expecting 18 serama/ silkied serama hatching eggs in the mail tomorrow.

I've hatched Seramas out before and have had luck getting live chicks. Out of my three serama hatching's, a dry hatch at the beginning then humidity at lock down seems to work best with the highest # of live chicks. So I'm reasonably confident I can get some to hatch

My issues is gender imbalance. My first and second hatch I ended up with 10 viable eggs (not including clears) to put in the incubator each hatch, got 4 survivors each time. ALL roos! The third time I started with 24 and had 17 survivors. 12 roos / 5 hens. So in the end the serama count was 20 roosters to 5 hens. I chalked it up to REALLY bad luck in the gender coin flip, but a chicken loving friend heard the story and thought temperature might have played a role.
She said temperature can affect which gender has a better chance of surviving hatch. Lower temp. favors girls, high temp. favors boys. I tried to keep my incubator at 99-100, but spikes do happen. An eggtopsy of the bodies on the third hatch, did show 3 who internally piped, but who still had unabsorbed egg sacks, so maybe I had my temp wrong, but I never had such blatant, repeated gender imbalance on other breeds I've hatched out.


My questions;
Does temperature affect the gender of surviving chicks?
Do serama need a slightly lower temp than other breeds? say a max range of 98-101 range vs. 99-102?


Thank you all very much for providing wonderful information on how to hatch such finicky eggs.
I'll keep you posted on my hatch.

NOTE: I am not saying temperature causes a chick to be one gender over another, just that it affects which gender has a greater decreased vitality and thus more likely to die in the shell.

 

[Fluffyserama]

Forgot to add that I'm using a still air incubator

 

[darkbluespace]

Hi everyone,

I had some temp questions for Serama and this seems to be the place to ask it

After a long break from keeping chickens I couldn't hold myself back any longer and I'm expecting 18 serama/ silkied serama hatching eggs in the mail tomorrow.

I've hatched Seramas out before and have had luck getting live chicks. Out of my three serama hatching's, a dry hatch at the beginning then humidity at lock down seems to work best with the highest # of live chicks. So I'm reasonably confident I can get some to hatch

My issues is gender imbalance. My first and second hatch I ended up with 10 viable eggs (not including clears) to put in the incubator each hatch, got 4 survivors each time. ALL roos! The third time I started with 24 and had 17 survivors. 12 roos / 5 hens.  So in the end the serama count was 20 roosters to 5 hens. I chalked it up to REALLY bad luck in the gender coin flip, but a chicken loving friend heard the story and thought temperature might have played a role.
She said temperature can affect which gender has a better chance of surviving hatch. Lower temp. favors girls, high temp. favors boys. I tried to keep my incubator at 99-100, but spikes do happen. An eggtopsy of the bodies on the third hatch, did show 3 who internally piped, but who still had unabsorbed egg sacks, so maybe I had my temp wrong, but I never had such blatant, repeated gender imbalance on other breeds I've hatched out.


My questions;
Does temperature affect the gender of surviving chicks? 
Do serama need a slightly lower temp than other breeds? say a max range of 98-101 range vs. 99-102?


Thank you all very much for providing wonderful information on how to hatch such finicky eggs.
I'll keep you posted on my hatch.

NOTE: I am not saying temperature causes a chick to be one gender over another, just that it affects which gender has a greater decreased vitality and thus more likely to die in the shell.  

Wow, that is a pretty serious gender imbalance!

I have a few thoughts...
Because Seramas are challenging to hatch, it makes sense to me that the roosters are generally more likely to hatch as they seem generally more robust. I would imagine that the ones that pipped internally and didn't hatch were the girls! That is why I help those ones.

In every hatch, you might get more of one gender or the other. Since I have been hatching my own eggs, it has seemed that I am hatching an excessive number of roosters. But then I will have hatches that even things out a bit. Of the last 5 chicks that my hens hatched, 4 were frizzle pullets! I wish I could get that every time... Oh how I wish!

I dont really know that temperature determines gender although I have read a little about that. I think bantams do well at about 100 degrees in forced air. In still air, I always hesitated to stay at 102 because it felt like any spike could do the eggs in.
I think forced air incubators have better hatch rates. Have you considered adding a fan? I just use small computer fans wired to a cell phone charger.. Super easy! I love that you can unplug them for hatching.

I mostly think you had really bad luck, in the sense that only your roosters hatched, or that they were destined to mostly be roosters anyway. I do imagine that the ones that didn't hatch were the pullets. If you are open to helping some of those hatch, which, with Seramas, is not a bad idea. I find the chicks I help to be very healthy.

In any case, as long as you can hatch one of each... (assuming you don't have those five hens anymore) then you are in business and can see how the gender balance works in your new flock and your own eggs. When you have 100% hatches, which my broody hens often do, then you can get a clear picture of the gender balance. When so many eggs don't hatch, who can say?

 

[april1298]

I had to share what i came home to this afternoon! We've had two broody hens so I got a rooster to see what would happen. I didn't read anything about the rules of it I just assumed he was to young but had been letting her sit because she was serious about it and I wanted to be a mom too so who an I too mess with nature...like guys came down the ramp and all. You'd think we had a baby around here with the excitement from the kids!

 

[darkbluespace]

I had to share what i came home to this afternoon! We've had two broody hens so I got a rooster to see what would happen. I didn't read anything about the rules of it I just assumed he was to young but had been letting her sit because she was serious about it and I wanted to be a mom too so who an I too mess with nature...like guys came down the ramp and all. You'd think we had a baby around here with the excitement from the kids!

They are very sweet! A chicken family with babies is just about the cutest thing. They are so fun to watch!