Sad News...

The little baby died a few minuets ago. I went upstairs and he/she was on it's back and when I picked it up he/she was limp, still alive, but limp. I held her for a while and she died. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to burry her.

This is her after she hatched..

Good/Bad News

Cotton and Clara will be leaving tomorrow for their new home, which I'm sure will make them very happy birds. :) And BooBoo's toe is looking better! It's no longer misshapen, I guess her/him walking on it, is straigtening it out, it's alittle bent now, but I think it will straighten out when he/she is older. But he/she is the runt of the brood.  But one of the partridges isn't doing so well, I found her/him laying down yesterday, seems to be lathargic not moving much, eats and drinks when he/she can, but seems to be something wrong. He/she is opening and closing her mouth alot and sleeping almost non-stop. Really worried. She seemed to be doing fine, but now seems to be sick. Hopefully she'll bounce back, but I'm worried she won't.

New Home

I have found a new home for Cotton! And Clara will go with him for company since they seemed to have bonded.  The teacher at my ceramics class Norma, used to own Roosters, they were her favorites and her husband at one time owned over a hundred birds. So I know they can take care of them. And they are very, very nice people. Norma is almost like an extra Grandmom. I know she'll love them. I'm going to take them up on Friday after they get everything set up and get food ready for them. Another wonderful thing is I see them every weekend, so I can get weekly updates of how they are doing and get some pictures from them as well. I think they'll love their new home, they'll have plenty of room to range together and nice warm place to sleep at night. So I am very happy for them, I hate to give up Clara though, she is a beautiful girl. So it's a bit bitter sweet.

Pictures!!

Meet the new babies:

Well I wanted black silkies...

This one I'm going to call BooBoo, cause it has a bad toe :( ^

This is my only white chick that hatched. ^

This is one of my partrages ^

This is another Partridge. ^

This is the whole group that I cam home to after work, ten with one that just hatched in the incubator and one hatching as I'm taking this. ^

These were the two still in the incubator while I was taking the pics, the one to the left was actually helping the little one in the egg out. So sweet... ^ The one on the left is chipmunk, he/she turned out gorgeous The other is another Partridge.  And at the moment I have two more blacks in the incubator and another about to hatch. Any body want some free silkies???

This is Chipmunk^

This is the one Chipmunk was helping hatch ^

Another black ^

This was the last to hatch ^

And this is the last one

Pipping!!!!!!!!!

4pm:
We have pipping!!!! Yay!!!!!!! *does a little dance* Hopefully we'll have a little chick here soon! 1 out of 20 so far, but I think I heard another pipping. AND I just got 8 Serama eggs in the mail!!!! Yay!!! :D

7:29pm
We have TWO pips!!! And the first is zipping!! It looks like maybe a blue or black silkie! Can't see the second one yet. Can't wait!!!

10pm
We have THREE pips!!! By morning I should have little chicks running around my incubator!

11pm
We have a baby!!! A little black silkie! *please be female, please be female*

8am
Another hatched about an hour ago, it looks like a blue, and another one just hatched and it looks like a Partridge... don't know how that got in there, but it's cute!! And we have five more pips! What am I going to do with all these chicks?! Will have pictures later, I've got to go to work. All the chicks are helping each other hatch, it's so CUTE!

6pm
We have ELEVEN chicks and three more pips out of 20!! Best hatch rate ever (for me)! I took group pics and individual pics. Which I'll have to do later after I get back from dinner. I LOVE chickens!!

This is the Group that I was able to take out of the Incubator, this is what I found when I came home.

This I think was the first to hatch.

More to come...

Chickens!!

Who knew chickens could be so addictive!! I had never even really seen many chickens or had any experience till I went into a Concord Pet store, and the manager had her Serama chicks in a home made brooder on the counter. She explained that they were the smallest chickens in the world and how they are great pets. Then I started doing some research on the breed and how to care for them and eventually I got an Incubator and some eggs. The first batch didn't hatch, some how even after 22 days, the chick was only about and inch long, I thought it was dead and cracked open the egg only to find out, it was still alive. :'(  So not a great experience, weirdest fluke I have ever heard of. I did more research after that and heard that you could keep eggs in the fridge for a week and still hatch them in an incubator and wondered if the eggs and just layed dormant until at the correct temperature (had problems with the incubator) Don't go by that though, I have no idea if that's true. Second time around I got a new better incubator, and again had trouble finding correct setting in order to keep the temperature at the right level (cause it was new, not cause it was bad) and then the hurricane came in and blew the electricity for hours and hours. I thought for sure none would hatch, but I kept turning the eggs and kept the temp and humidity at the right level, and low and behold when I came home from school there was a little chick hopping around my incubator. But sadly he was the only one. So again more eggs this time silkie eggs, because I loved the mix of the silkie/serama from my first hatch, that was named Ashe once I figured out what sex he was. The third time around electricity went out again (horrible luck) and the temp dropped to 80 degrees. Again was so sure none would hatch, but then I heard peeping and a little tiny miracle lavender silkie hatched. Now I have 4 Seramas, 2 from Tiny Tots, and two from Theron, two beautiful silkies from Tiny Tots, Ashe from my first hatch and my new little lavender from my second and 20 silkie eggs due on the Friday. So excited, but I need to get this coop building on the move, I have a lot of new chickies to house and need a bigger run for them all. But chickens are exactly like potatoe chips, you can never have just one and once you start it's hard to stop.

They're here!

Aaron and Abby are here from Theron and they are doing well. I have to keep them seperate at night because they are older and bigger and don't seem to like the others yet. I renamed Abby, Autumn because of her beautiful coloring. Aaron is still Aaron, I haven't thought of a different name for him yet. All the others are doing very well. Rayna and Apollo finally warmed up to Ashe and they all groom each other, very cute. Ashe is still very much my baby though, he flies to me when ever I'm around, and he cuddles up to me and sleeps. He is the sweetest bird ever. He's so spoiled, but I love him so much, I can't help but spoil him. I'm in the middle of building a new coop and run. And hopefully when I'm done, I can get some more hens for my boys. I'm thinking of keeping Clara, cause she's so small she doesn't take up much room, but Cotton needs more room and his own hens. But I don't know, Clara seems to have attatched herself to him and I don't want to seperate her from him. She'd look really cute with Ashe though. But who knows..

Cotton and Clara

Cotton and Clara

This is Rayna and Apollo

The little guy on the right is my Ashe Silkie/Serama Mix

Ashe on his favorite perch

Abby "Autumn" & Aaron 

New Seramas

Finally got my Serama pair from TTS, Rayne and Casey and they are great. I renamed them, they are now Rayna and Apollo. I named him Apollo of course because of his coloring, but also his big personality, he definitely thinks he's a god or something close to it. lol I finally introduced Apollo and Rayna to my Ashe, it was interesting for sure. Ashe being the only one who hatched didn't have any experience with other chickens until then, so he didn't know quite how to act and tried to peck Apollo. Well Apollo wasn't having any of that and put Ashe in his place real quick and was so worked up he almost started crowing, I had to shush him (my mom was sleeping), which surprisingly worked. Ashe no longer pecks and Apollo just ignores him. Rayna is alittle shy of him and keeps close to Apollo, but she seems to be fine with the two. I was alittle worried in the begining that I'd have to keep them seperated, but Apollo seems to be fine with him now. Just as long as he doesn't mess with his girl. lol I also got two Silkies, Cotton a White Bearded male and Clara a Non-bearded Splash female. Cotton and Clara are doing well also, they perked up and seem completely back to normal. They were suprisingly more worse for ware than Apollo and Rayna, they would hardly move in the begining, they seemed well just scared, but they are up and about and back to normal. But if that's how they act with just a two hour drive, I can't even imagine what shipping must be like for them. But all is well and Aaron and Abby from Theron are on their way, and I also may have a new female too. My little brood is growing :D

Day 2

My two day old chick is so funny. I had him out of the brooder with my 5week old Ashe, and Ashe used to being alone, was pecking at the little one's beak. Never any where soft just the beak, and the little one pecks back. Then I put them in my home made brooder and Ashe starts eating the little one's food, well the little one doesn't like this, and stands up to him, pecking at him when ever he drinks or eats and then pecks his foot if he doesn't stop. So very tiny, with so much guts. I was alittle worried for this one, cause again the little one is the only one to hatch. (damn electricity) But so far he/she seems to be doing fine, I just wish I knew the sex, but it's a silkie so I wont' know till he/she lays or crows.

Ashe a few weeks ago started making this churing sound, kind of sounds like a cricket, when ever he's laying with me. I assume it's a sound of contentment. He has so much personality, and I love him so much. Even if I don't use him for breeding, I could never sell him. He was the first and my baby and he knows he's my baby to.

Newbie

I am a new breeder of chickens. I'm starting off with Seramas and silkies. Seramas are my love and Silkies are my project. I'm basically trying to make tiny Silkies for those who love small birds or don't have alot of space. This will be my page where I'll update and let everyone know what's going on and show pictures of my new birds.

I've started off with eggs in an Incubator, but unfortunately I've had a lot of mishaps. My first batch we had a hurricane and the electric went out and only one hatched. He is a Silkie/Serama mix named Ashe, he is all white with a bit of yellow in the feathers and black spots. My second batch the electric went out again for four hours and the temp dropped to 80 degrees. I truly thought none would hatch, but I have a little chick up there, who hatched yesterday and is my little survivor. He/she is a Lavender Silkie and oh so tiny. "She" is in "her" brooder, since the rest in "her" clutch died.

I also have a few chickens that I have bought coming soon. I bought two Serama pairs, one pair from TinyTotsSeramas named Rayne and Casey, the other pair is Aaron and Abby from Theron. I also have a small Silkie pullet coming from TinyTotsSeramas as well. All of which I am very excited for.

Now I have to go to the store and get more supplys for the new "chickies." :)