The tiny serama; a Hatching adventure

[fluffycrow]

I know! It’s a good sign when they do it. Those are normally the best mothers.

Exactly

!

 

[BDutch]

I know! It’s a good sign when they do it. Those are normally the best mothers.

Right if the mother is meant to free range or the chicks are supposed to integrate in a run with other hens.

Not if you like to tame the chicks. They learn to be afraid of you from the mother hen who pecks you.

 

[fluffycrow]

Right if the mother is meant to free range or the chicks are supposed to integrate in a run with other hens.

Not if you like to tame the chicks. They learn to be afraid of you from the mother hen who pecks you.

It definitely depends on what the female allows. Cruella, for instance, would not let me go near her under normal circumstances. While she's raising chicks, she will guide them to my hand full of food, and will eat from it, and give it to her chicks. If however, I approach her, or her chicks with no food in my hands, she pecks me. Her adoptive children (now 7-8 month old birds) are the only ones of their age that will eat out of my hand, but they won't let me hold them. Ursula will let me pet her occasionally, but when she was co-mothering, she was much more nasty

 

[fluffycrow]

OK so question time. As you might remember me saying, these girls have a bad habit of laying some of the eggs outside the nest box, meaning they get all dirty. These are perfect eggs in every other way. Would washing these eggs so I can incubate them be acceptable, and if so, with what? I know some people don't like to wash eggs due to the fact that they'll be washing the protective bloom away as well

 

[Canadian Wind]

OK so question time. As you might remember me saying, these girls have a bad habit of laying some of the eggs outside the nest box, meaning they get all dirty. These are perfect eggs in every other way. Would washing these eggs so I can incubate them be acceptable, and if so, with what? I know some people don't like to wash eggs due to the fact that they'll be washing the protective bloom away as well

If they are super dirty, then I brush them off gently once the dirt is dry. Otherwise I leave them be.

 

[fluffycrow]

Well I don't know how dirty is too dirty, so I'll let you be the judge of it. You can see an egg at the bottom left corner of the photo. Pretty typical level of dirty-ness for an egg outside the nest box

. Don't mind Scary Spice's pose, it's a serama thing. At least it's a fluffy's serama thing. Their tail gets caught under their big wings

 

[Canadian Wind]

Well I don't know how dirty is too dirty, so I'll let you be the judge of it. You can see an egg at the bottom left corner of the photo. Pretty typical level of dirty-ness for an egg outside the nest boxView attachment 3776204. Don't mind Scary Spice's pose, it's a serama thing. At least it's a fluffy's serama thing. Their tail gets caught under their big wings

I personally wouldn't even bother cleaning that off. I have ducks. Have you ever seen how disgusting duck eggs can get?

 

[fluffycrow]

I personally wouldn't even bother cleaning that off. I have ducks. Have you ever seen how disgusting duck eggs can get?

I have! I honestly don't know why duck eggs get so dirty, their nests seem so clean and cosy, with all that down! Happy to hear that you'd consider this an egg worth hatching, no eggs left behind!

 

[2ndTink]

OK so question time. As you might remember me saying, these girls have a bad habit of laying some of the eggs outside the nest box, meaning they get all dirty. These are perfect eggs in every other way. Would washing these eggs so I can incubate them be acceptable, and if so, with what? I know some people don't like to wash eggs due to the fact that they'll be washing the protective bloom away as well

So... I know a lot of people don't wash their eggs, but I have started, I'm on my third set of eggs incubating that have been, umm... baptized? Lol. Debbie292d wrote a great article about using Odoban to sanitize hatching eggs. She did a set of eggs, I've done 3 sets and I even sanitized 1 set then shipped them just to test it out. I haven't seen any pattern of negative impact from doing this. However, I sanitize EVERYTHING! I sanitize the eggs, the incubator, the turning baskets, anything and everything.

The little soak in the Odoban water loosens any crud (I haven't done crazy dirty eggs, but a little poop and dirt) and you can gently rub it with your finger to get it off, I do not scrub, then a quick warm water rinse and let them dry for a few minutes before setting them. This process still makes me nervous, but I've been having good hatches doing this and gives me a little confidence that I'm not bringing anything into my flock from the outside of thr shipped eggs. ALV is still a risk as are some others but...

 

[BDutch]

OK so question time. As you might remember me saying, these girls have a bad habit of laying some of the eggs outside the nest box, meaning they get all dirty. These are perfect eggs in every other way. Would washing these eggs so I can incubate them be acceptable, and if so, with what? I know some people don't like to wash eggs due to the fact that they'll be washing the protective bloom away as well

This topic (dirty eggs /poop) was discussed on another thread last week. Someone mentioned you can wash the whole egg carefully with lukewarm water (37-40 C) . He explained that this has to do with permeability.
But I wouldn't risk this for a muddy egg.