American serama thread!

[nchls school]

hi everyone .just purchased a pair of seramas. they haven't been handled and are very fearful of me. does anyone have helpful ideas?also can someone recommend a good book on raising seramas? 

The serama I have are quite trusting and easy to tame-at any age. To tame them I take them to an area that is strange to them, hold the bird until it calms down, and then just let them sit in my lap as I enjoy a cup of coffee or a beer. Usually they remain in my lap/on my leg being more fearful of new surroundings than of me. Having a tame bird present with the "wild" one make progress faster-monkey see, monkey do. Throughout the process I offer favored treats; when a tame bird is present eating treats the bird being tamed is faster to grab the treats being offered. Usually I sit for an hour or two working with the bird. Serama tame quickly.

 

[froggiesheins]

hi everyone .just purchased a pair of seramas. they haven't been handled and are very fearful of me. does anyone have helpful ideas?also can someone recommend a good book on raising seramas? 

Poor little darlings were neglected Bring food with you and (mealworms-YUM!) gently & quietly sit on the ground with them OR if they are in a cage get to their height toss a few treats around you and leave some in your hands out in front of you and wait..Talk to them (baby talk ) Just takes some time and patience and before you know it they will be all over you like VELCRO!

 

[froggiesheins]

How soon after eggs hatch can a serama go broody? My chicks are 4-5 weeks old and all my hens want nothing to do with them after 2-3 weeks.

Strange question that humans honestly cannot answer. Some serama hens are great mamas and some are crappy...some will keep their "kids" forever and some will kick them out after a short period of time.
All depends on the individual bird

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Strange question that humans honestly cannot answer. Some serama hens are great mamas and some are crappy...some will keep their "kids" forever and some will kick them out after a short period of time.
All depends on the individual bird

I seperated the kids as the hens were picking at them not enough to harm them....also so i could handle them more as there skiddish.

 

[QuoVadis]

Hello everyone! I just got my first Seramas. I have four and they are two weeks old today. I hatched them from hatching eggs I got on Ebay and I am so pleased with them. Each one is a slightly different color, and they are such a cute combination of nosy and cuddly! I have always liked bantams, but these are different from any others I have raised. I just ordered more Serama egg too so I should have more babies in less then 4 weeks if all goes well!

I am hoping to get a male who has a very quiet crow. I have watched a lot of YouTube videos and it seems that some have normal (but maybe higher and a bit quieter) bantam sounding crows, while others have more of squeak than a crow, or crows that are extremely soft. Does the sound and volume of their crow have to do with body size, or does it just depend on the individual?

I live in the city and am technically not supposed to have a rooster, but in reality it seems like the city I am in doesn't care much what you do as long as you pay for your chicken lisence each year and no one complains (roosters = complaining neighbors). So I can't have any normal roosters for sure, because someone would complain, the normal loud "cock-a-doodle-doo" seems to be the kicker. I do have hens who make a racket at times, pigeons whose cooing is louder than you might expect, and a male Red Golden Pheasant who chirps... so I do have a decent amount of bird noise coming form my yard, so as long as it is really quiet, or sounds more like a squawk or a squeak, or even just a "cock-a-..." to blend in with the other sounds, it should be fine. I also thought of keeping him inside the house all/most of the time since I know that is common in Malaysia... I guess I will see when they start crowing! It is just driving me nuts not being able to breed my own chickens or keep any roos when I have broody bantams all the time and an incubator! I know if I have to I won't have a problem selling extras, but I hope I ge lucky!

 

[Fluffyserama]

To QuoVadis,

Years ago I had 17 adult serama roosters at one time. Not by choice I might add, just luck of the hatch. only 5 serama hens and 20 roosters out of 3 hatches.
I did notice that in general the larger boys seemed to have the louder crows, BUT my loudest roo was also the smallest and flock leader. I had a few of the beta roos who either never crowed or crowed very seldomly and at much lower volume. Once I rehomed them, they each got a chance to be alpha and they found their voices. I got calls from new owners all along the lines of "I thought you said he didn't crow!!"

My serama's voices didn't carry as far as a standard sized birds would but they can still be quite loud.

Or it might just be the consequence of 17 roosters ;p

 

[nchls school]

On another thread I am told that my understanding is wrong. I have always thought that sizzle, frizzle, frazzle, and silkied were feather types and not breeds; each feather type occurring in many breeds-if not all breeds.

Can someone on this thread verify or explain this to me?

And if a sizzle is a breed what are silkied serama that are frizzled called called?

These feather type-breed names are confusing. Frizzle and silkied are feather types occurring in many breeds. Frazzle has two frizzle parents of any breed. Right?

I thought sizzle was any breed that has silkied-frizzles feathers???????

 

[Fluffyserama]

Its my understanding that you are right and all breeds could possibly exhibit different feather types. However there is a distinct breed called the silkie which the other poster may have been referring to.

Many people assume if you get a silkied bird of a different breed they must have a silkie ancestor somewhere, Although others say its a relatively common mutation that has the potential to occur in any breed especially if inbreeding has taken place over several generations. I would assume other feather type inheritance is the same, but I don't know of any recognized breed that exclusively exhibits sizzle, frizzle, or frazzle feathers and you want to out breed these feather types with smooth feathered birds to prevent brittle feathers and other genetic issues that have come from past inbreeding.

 

[nchls school]

Its my understanding that you are right and all breeds could possibly exhibit different feather types. However there is a distinct breed called the silkie which the other poster may have been referring to.

Many people assume if you get a silkied bird of a different breed they must have a silkie ancestor somewhere, Although others say its a relatively common mutation that has the potential to occur in any breed especially if inbreeding has taken place over several generations. I would assume other feather type inheritance is the same, but I don't know of any recognized breed that exclusively exhibits [COLOR=333333]sizzle, frizzle, or frazzle feathers and you want to out breed these feather types with smooth feathered birds to prevent brittle feathers and other genetic issues that have come from past inbreeding.[/COLOR]

Thank you for replying. Mostly, it is the term sizzle that I wonder about. The other poster insists that sizzle is a breed in progress and not a feather type. I acknowledge this as true, but I thought the term also referred to other breeds with silkied, frizzled feathering.

 

[Fluffyserama]

Sizzle is a feather type, not a distinct breed. I'm not sure what sort of development has been done with them, but I've always been told breeding two sizzles together was a bad thing to do, and two sizzle genes made a very ugly bird with possible other issues. So I don't know how that could be developed into healthy true to type birds with strong feathers.

I've never kept or bred sizzles so all I have is hear say. I might be totally wrong about breeding them, but I know I'm not wrong on calling it a feather type.