Day 23 - Another Egg Is Cheeping

A quick update. As expected, the little chick threw it's shoe again within hours. So I brought out the big guns. He is now sporting a fabric sticking plaster flip flop. See if you can wriggle out of that piece of evil stickiness, mate.

While I was fitting our little pal for his footwear, Vera used the opportunity to grab a bite to eat. She was busily gulping down corn and water when I put the little guy back, and he ran/fell across to his mum cheeping his bonce off. She ignored him for a bit, and i began to worry that he'd get cold. But then, with an air of resignation known to mothers everywhere, she squatted down and covered him with her wing. And that's when it dawned on me that she was going to set up home right there, near the food. Sensible enough, really. Except as I peeked in at the remaining eggs, I thought I heard a tiny, muffled cheep. Carefully picking it up, I placed my ear to the shell. The egg cheeped again. I hurriedly set it back down, and much to Vera and her offspring's annoyance, moved them both back to the nest.

Vera rearranged her eggs again, and sat down. The chick ran/fell about all over the place before attempting to shove itself up her bum. Everyone has their limit, and Vera crossly butted it under herself with her head, muttering no doubt about naughty steps and being grounded. After a few more shouty cheeps, it fell silent.

Let's hope it'll have a pal to snuggle up to soon.

Well That's....Odd

I set the serama eggs on April the 9th. So, for just over two weeks the experiment has been underway. We've lost 7 of the original eggs along the way, and taken the incubator out of the equation. Now it is all down to a small black silkied hen. So far, so good. Except something rather strange seems to be happening.

Earlier, I made one of my daily checks on Vera. I opened the nest box door and peeked in at her. She sat there like a small headed cow pat with the glassy eyed stare of the hormonal hen. So everything as expected. However, just as I was about to close the door I heard a tap. Curious. A few seconds later I heard it again. Vera clicked her beak, but otherwise remained still. Ooh. Deciding I must be going mad, I called the ever tolerant husband outside to listen with me. Naturally, all was silent. Just as he was about to pat me on the head pityingly, the tapping started again.

The tapping was definitely coming from under Vera. Betsy, in the hutch below, kept looking up at the nest above her, clearly hearing whatever it was that was tapping. The ever tolerant husband said the unsayable: I think that we are hearing serama chicks. Refusing to even consider such a proposterous notion merely two weeks in to incubation, I was just about to close the door when I am pretty sure I heard some faint cheeping. Vera remained impassive, and firmly glued to her eggs. Still not quite believing my ears, I retreated to the house to google serama incubation times.

I found one interesting account of serama hatching on day 16, although this seemed to be notably rare. Most breeders tend to find that their chicks appeared somewhere between day 17 and day 20. So the earliest I should be expecting any babies would be tuesday.

I'll keep you posted.