Are serama eggs harder to hatch?

[jenfork]

I still fairly new to incubating. My first batch of olive eggs, I hatched 6 out of the 7. I set some serama egg last week. I'm on day 6. I did candle & it doesn't look like much is going on. Even when I candled the olive eggs, I could somewhat see something was changing. I'm going crazy.

I bought them off the auction here. They arrive in perfect condition. Are they harder to hatch?

 

[mrslb333]

Yes they are. Apparently they have some sort of lethal gene which can kill them in the egg and newly hatched chicks.

I've had some luck with them but I've set a lot and if they go through the postal system they are even harder to hatch. I can set 24 eggs and only get 2 hatch but thats if I'm lucky.

 

[Baralak]

Yes.. They are harder to hatch out. As mentioned the "Gene" is one reason. This gene creates short legged birds. They will fully develop, but because their legs are short, they cannot turn in the egg, therefore they can't pip. Another reason Seramas are hard, is their egg size, some are just not viable.

They also need to be warm for the first week of life CONSTANTALLY. They are so small that they can easily get chilled.

With that being said... I love hatching seramas!!!

Here is a pic of mine

 

[kelseygirl707]

I hatched some last year without knowing anything about them, and I think I got 4 out of 7? And those were shipped, so not bad results. I just ordered more Serama eggs, we shall see how that goes

 

[picassosfadora]

Hello, I am new to the list but have had good luck with serama eggs. The ones I had shipped never hatched, not even one with three tries; however, the ones I took from my hen have all hatched. I have an automatic turner and make sure the humidity is at least 45. I also use a spray bottle and spray the eggs two times a day. Once they are hatched I leave them in the incubator for the first two days so they stay warm. when I move them into brooder I use a 100 watt bulb on a 20gal glass aquarium. I have not lost one and have hatched out 30 so far without death in two years. I also feed a mixture of ground up cat food and chick started until they are 10 weeks old. I probably do everything wrong but it works.

 

[soap&eggs]

even with doing everything possible..seems like fertile rate of mine is low..half the serama eggs i set are duds. with the rest that are fertile.. example of last hatch..out of 11 eggs only got 7 live chicks. rest seem to die just before peep or just after. last year i had awful time with the real super tiny ones. they were sooo tiny compared to other serama chicks.. as wing feathers grew in they would tip over onto back..chirping loudly..if i wasnt around to turn them over..they would die. this would go on for maybe three days..every 15 minutes..or less.. was tiring..frustrating..but they survived.

 

[ZooMummzy]

Quote:
I second all of that! Out of 60+ eggs the past 2 months I only have 6 babies (one of them is on my head as I type this lol) but I am thankful for these. Most of the shipped eggs were duds or quit and all but 3 of the ones that hatched I had to help out of the shells. All these babies came from two sellers (out of 5). I have 14 in my new Brinsea and all look ok so we'll see and I have more coming in a couple weeks

They are just such addicting little chickens!

 

[jenfork]

Do you order your serama eggs or buy local?

 

[ZooMummzy]

I order mine. No one local sells them. I'm hoping to have some breeding quads or trios by the fall.

 

[smcholland]

i am working on doing some research about seramas, im looking into getting some this spring. im not sure whether i should buy chicks, eggs or live breeding birds.
i have been reading that shipped serama eggs can be extra difficult and i live in wrangell alaska so im sure i would have to buy a ton of eggs to get a few birds,
so i think i am going to try to buy a trio of birds this spring then maybe buy some eggs from different people just to try to hatch out different bloodlines.
possibly buy some chicks from someone that guarantees live arrival just to see how many show up alive. im new to seramas but very excited.
is there places that you can buy larger ammounts of eggs from? or anyone know who ships breeding pairs or trios to alaska. i know a few, and have been talking to some
but i am looking for different breeding supply so i want to buy from several breeders so i have as much genetic diversity as possible. i want to help make the breed better
not the reverse!
-Stephen