American serama thread!

[WVduckchick]

This is silkied at just a few days old. (Maybe 10 days)

 

[Compost King]

My first Serama rooster with a can of beans

 

[Faraday40]

Here's my blue orp chick next to its serama "sibling." They are 6-7 days old.

Had a big scare this morning with the seramaxsilkie mixes. Mama hopped out of the nest box. The Orp chick followed, but the 2 tiny ones could not get out of the nest. I found them cold & unresponsive/ lifeless.... but one may have twitched slightly. I brought them inside & warmed them with a hairdryer. I've heard of such miracles happening with cold chicks but didn't really expect much. DD took over with the hair dryer while I went out to do the chicken chores. When I returned to the house, she was holding 2 peeping chicks. They were back to running about an hour later and are now inside with the silkie mama & the serama chicks. The orp remains outside with her orig mama. Perhaps she'll do a better job with just ONE chick. (Plus orps are very hardy.) I'm going to keep the more fragile ones inside for a while longer.

 

[WVduckchick]

Here's my blue orp chick next to its serama "sibling." They are 6-7 days old.
View attachment 1611113

Had a big scare this morning with the seramaxsilkie mixes. Mama hopped out of the nest box. The Orp chick followed, but the 2 tiny ones could not get out of the nest. I found them cold & unresponsive/ lifeless.... but one may have twitched slightly. I brought them inside & warmed them with a hairdryer. I've heard of such miracles happening with cold chicks but didn't really expect much. DD took over with the hair dryer while I went out to do the chicken chores. When I returned to the house, she was holding 2 peeping chicks. They were back to running about an hour later and are now inside with the silkie mama & the serama chicks. The orp remains outside with her orig mama. Perhaps she'll do a better job with just ONE chick. (Plus orps are very hardy.) I'm going to keep the more fragile ones inside for a while longer.

I’ve had that happen too. Glad she was able to revive them.
That’s what is meant by “they aren’t dead till they are warm and dead”. They have a way of slowing down their own heart rates to survive cold. Scary stuff for us!

 

[Compost King]

Looks like I may need to bring my Seramas inside for winter, I just got an electric bill and with all the heat lamps I have going for Seramas and brooders I have a $200 electric bill. close to 3 times what I usually pay. Whats the smallest cage I can get away with for a pair of Seramas?

 

[Suzi18]

Can I join your group? I have 5 Seramas....my original 3 are a Smooth, a frizzle and a silkied Rooster. My smooth hatched 2 babies in Aug and one is a silkied rooster and the other a frizzled hen. Even though the babies are15 weeks old now, momma still takes care of them. She is so sweet and such a devoted momma.

Here are some pics of them

 

[Faraday40]

Looks like I may need to bring my Seramas inside for winter, I just got an electric bill and with all the heat lamps I have going for Seramas and brooders I have a $200 electric bill. close to 3 times what I usually pay. Whats the smallest cage I can get away with for a pair of Seramas?

How warm were you making their area? I think they can live through 30-35'F nights. (Just not the very cold that we get up here.) I guess I'll find out soon how much my electric bill increases. If you only have a few seramas, bringing them inside is probably the easiest / cheapest way to go.

I would recommend just using a cage you already own - like a rabbit cage or dog crate. If you don't have anything Goodwill or Craigslist are good places to look. Maybe a storage tub could even work - if you allowed them a little play time. I had a couple chicks who we raised in a plastic tub /brooder. I never put a lid on them because they always roosted along the top edge - but stayed there. They would fly up to my DD's arm when she called & the kids would play with them a little each day. Otherwise they pretty much knew where they belonged and stayed there. I never found a dropping farther than 12" from their cage. Not sure if this behavior was normal, but we enjoyed it while they were here.

 

[WVduckchick]

Looks like I may need to bring my Seramas inside for winter, I just got an electric bill and with all the heat lamps I have going for Seramas and brooders I have a $200 electric bill. close to 3 times what I usually pay. Whats the smallest cage I can get away with for a pair of Seramas?

I had one girl inside for the winter, started with a mild respiratory infection. I didn’t want to take her back out to the cold after she got better, so I’d rotate bring others in to keep her company occasionally. I had a rabbit cage, she seemed to do fine with, even with 2 or 3 in there.

View attachment 1611609 View attachment 1611610 View attachment 1611611 View attachment 1611612 View attachment 1611613 Can I join your group? I have 5 Seramas....my original 3 are a Smooth, a frizzle and a silkied Rooster. My smooth hatched 2 babies in Aug and one is a silkied rooster and the other a frizzled hen. Even though the babies are15 weeks old now, momma still takes care of them. She is so sweet and such a devoted momma.

Here are some pics of them

SUZI!!
Beautiful birds!

 

[Suzi18]

I had one girl inside for the winter, started with a mild respiratory infection. I didn’t want to take her back out to the cold after she got better, so I’d rotate bring others in to keep her company occasionally. I had a rabbit cage, she seemed to do fine with, even with 2 or 3 in there.
View attachment 1611708



SUZI!!
Beautiful birds!

Thanks WV!

 

[Compost King]

I would likely make a cage out of materials I have. All my rabbit cages are too big to bring in and out of the house easily and I use them for Chicken transport because hey fit perfectly in my van. I think I will just put them in the inside brooder on the nights it goes below 30 I have a few inside that I no longer use. On those days where its below freezing every day I might just put diapers on them and let them free range the house and find out the hard way why that is a bad idea.