Malaysian Serama Bantam Questions

[quailheart]

Hi! I’ve been keeping quail for a few years and I have always wanted to get chickens too. Due to spacial limitations, chickens wouldn’t exactly work in my case. I just recently discovered Malaysian Serama Bantams, and I was wondering if they would be able to live with my coturnix quail. They don’t get much bigger than quail, and they are an unaggressive breed. I’m wondering if anyone has had experience keeping these two types of birds together? Malaysian Seramas don’t seem to be a very popular and well known breed and I am having trouble finding information online. If anyone has tips for me, or any more information about this breed of chicken I would greatly appreciate it. I am also wondering if it would be best to get hatching eggs or live chicks or full grown birds, and where would be the best place to get them from. Most hatching eggs for sale are being sold on eBay and not from well known breeders and farms, I don’t know if ebay is a trustworthy place to buy hatching eggs from. Thank you so much!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Quick google search shows them available at feather lovers farm.. AVOID them like the plague! Shady business for real.

Also suggest avoiding sugar feather as well.. They've had some low quality incorrect breeding show up, search them on here

I see Serama on craigslist farm and garden section all the time.. I am centrally located to 3 separate listing areas. Bio security is always of concern as some illness may be present but not have presented symptoms yet.

Alchemist farms is decent but they only offer local pick up on the Serama.. which I have also seen a lot of.. my guess is they don't ship well..

I prefer live chicks.. from an NPIP hatchery/breeder.. Anyone shipping hatching eggs or chicks across state lines without NPIP is doing so illegally in the US against agriculture import/export laws. Even then there are a lot of diseases NPIP doesn't test for.

If buying from private seller.. I prefer incubator hatched and refuse broody hatched. While there's not likely true quarantine from there flock.. minimal exposure to things which don't pass through the eggs is my reason.

There are never guarantees on hatching eggs.. and depending on the weather and how far they're traveling, hatch rate can be low if at all.

The term un-aggressive is usually correlated towards humans in my experience.. aggression toward flock mates and within flocks is different.. pecking order is still well in force.

I've kept other species together.. ducks & chickens, also turkeys and chickens.. I recommend against it but do however understand that adventures await (and it may work)! Hopefully you will get some more feedback and ideas.

A couple American breeders club links, (usually also have breeder contact info).. I think the American weights and size are the same just with a different body stance best I can tell.

https://scnaonline.org/

https://americanseramaassociation.com/

Best wishes and happy adventures!

 

[raingarden]

Keeping any chicken and quail together would be a disaster.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Keeping any chicken and quail together would be a disaster.

I agree, but can you elaborate as to why please for the OP to consider.

 

[quailheart]

If quail and small chickens can’t live harmoniously together I will probably end up getting rid of most of my quail or wait until most of the quail die out, they only live for a few years. I’ve become attached to some of my quail and I really do love having them, but I have always preferred chickens. If I wasn’t so attached to some of my quail I wouldn’t mind having quail for thanksgiving and getting some cool chickens Instead! I don’t mind waiting a little bit to get chickens if I have to, I just wanted to know if it was possible for them to live together. I guess I kind of assumed that since they were so close in size, there wouldn’t really be any problems. If I had more land I would build them their own chicken coop and get normal sized chickens, but that’s not the case. Currently I have two pens, one 8x4 pen that all my coturnix live in and one 3x6 pen that my two bobwhites live in. I guess if I decide that I really need these chickens I can do some switching around and make it happen, but until then, I’ll stick with quail. Thanks so much for all your help and advice! Any more info on serama bantams would still be appreciated too

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@ColtHandorf raises them

 

[raingarden]

Since you are waiting for the quail to die out anyway, put chickens with them to hasten the process.

They're different species so there is no flock instinct. Anything not part of their flock is competition and, as such, a threat to their survival.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Ive had seramas before they are aggressive they scalped eachother. Got so sick of it i processed them all.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Hi! I’ve been keeping quail for a few years and I have always wanted to get chickens too. Due to spacial limitations, chickens wouldn’t exactly work in my case. I just recently discovered Malaysian Serama Bantams, and I was wondering if they would be able to live with my coturnix quail. They don’t get much bigger than quail, and they are an unaggressive breed. I’m wondering if anyone has had experience keeping these two types of birds together? Malaysian Seramas don’t seem to be a very popular and well known breed and I am having trouble finding information online. If anyone has tips for me, or any more information about this breed of chicken I would greatly appreciate it. I am also wondering if it would be best to get hatching eggs or live chicks or full grown birds, and where would be the best place to get them from. Most hatching eggs for sale are being sold on eBay and not from well known breeders and farms, I don’t know if ebay is a trustworthy place to buy hatching eggs from. Thank you so much!

I have never kept them with quail. I wouldn't think it was a very good idea, but sometimes things work out. I would absolutely not recommend throwing them together in hopes that the Seramas kill off the quail as suggested by someone who has literally no idea what they are talking about suggested above me.

@ColtHandorf raises them

I raise American Seramas. They aren't as derpy as the Malaysian ones.

vs.

 

[quailheart]

Cool! I haven’t heard of American Seramas, I’ll have to look into them as well. Yes, I wasn’t planning on putting chickens with my quail in hopes that they will die quicker, I’m not sure that would be very helpful in my situation. If I am going to wait for the quail to die out I will either butcher some for meat or wait until they pass away naturally. Are American Seramas bigger than Malaysians? I literally can’t find any information on either of these breeds online! They must not be very popular.