American serama thread!

[froggiesheins]

...

If you read my signature you would see I have aviary birds.  The buttons are my cleaners in the aviaries.  They do a good job of keeping mosquitos and other bugs away and eat left over seed.  We hatch out button eggs about every 3 months and cycle out the oldest buttons to keep only young ones.

I will check it out.  The nicer seramas I've seen on craigslist are about 200miles from me and pricey, even if I wouldn't call them show quality..granted they were not advertised as SQ, but if they want 50+ for a rooster it better be a darned nice one and they are not.  Occasionally a pair will come up at the local animal auction and you can bet that it's on a night where I did not take $$ with me and my birds which I was "culling" did not bring enough or had not reached auction block yet.  Hoping my eggs will be here today so they do not sit in the truck over the weekend, that will end badly
[/quot

As a good point, at least you KNOW what a serama is supposted to look like..
Join SCNA and Jerry Schex will be more than happy to get you the REAL DEAL

 

[the poppster]

I don't have a forward facing camera on my tablet, so it's tough to get a good picture...but here's a pic of "Toes" the Silkie mutt chick and her Serama boyfriend. They hatched out around Christmas. Within a day of each other...the Third-party in this trio is a Silkied Serama chick who is half the size of the boyfriend...but he jumped out of the photo just as I took it.

 

[yellowherb]

My husband nearly had a calf when he seen how much I paid for the eggs. He's felt bad for me today and been especially sweet since he knows I'm depressed about the eggs. He took me out locally where there were reported to be seramas and bought me 4. While they are no where near SQ, they are pretty little girls and guy. I bombed on my Rooster choice and went for beauty over form, kicking myself now for it, but he's a looker on pattern and color. So far he is not standing as upright as the girls though..It's ok, since they are pets anyway and I still did sneak in a small egg order which may possibly give me 1 or 2 chicks more.

I'll try to get pictures tomorrow, even though my little coop/brooder isn't set up the best for photos.

So the bummer is after a winter of no eggs laid by my sultan girls, 4 out of 5 are laying now but I have to keep enough room in my bator for serama!

 

[froggiesheins]

My husband nearly had a calf when he seen how much I paid for the eggs.  He's felt bad for me today and been especially sweet since he knows I'm depressed about the eggs.  He took me out locally where there were reported to be seramas and bought me 4.  While they are no where near SQ, they are pretty little girls and guy.  I bombed on my Rooster choice and went for beauty over form, kicking myself now for it, but he's a looker on pattern and color.  So far he is not standing as upright as the girls though..It's ok, since they are pets anyway and I still did sneak in a small egg order which may possibly give me 1 or 2 chicks more.

I'll try to get pictures tomorrow, even though my little coop/brooder isn't set up the best for photos.

So the bummer is after a winter of no eggs laid by my sultan girls, 4 out of 5 are laying now but I have to keep enough room in my bator for serama!

I hope they at least have yellow legs and beak....SO MANY peoples confuse OEGBs with serama

 

[yellowherb]

I hope they at least have yellow legs and beak....SO MANY peoples confuse OEGBs with serama

o.o
I did not know to look for yellow...
do certain ages or colors have dark beaks? It's dark here but I do recall they have yellow legs and the legs look thicker than a small body bird would have, disproportionate. I'm hoping I do not get the "stumpy" leg gene, it was hard to tell with the wings being dropped so far to the ground. Stumpies are adorable but I know that 2 copies is a fail. LOL with my luck, they are all stumpies. I did not have time to look them over good after getting home since I had to tend to the birds and chickens before dark.

ok, dang it, I have to go out with a flash light and look at beaks. Blast you!


They freaked out over the flashlight and were doing the face down sneaky hiding thing. Looks like the brown pullet has a black tip on her beak and the roo never looked up, but the other two pullets are yellow beaked. They stand upright WAY more than this picture shows.

 

[nchls school]

this is our sole serama that made it through our first incubation. Hatched Jan 5th.

Thoughts on a gender yet?

Cockerel.

 

[the poppster]

Thumper and his girl Miss Piggy...

and Bob and Penny...

not very good pictures, but they don't stay still for more than a few seconds....busy, busy, busy! Thumper is a nice size...but his comb is a little funky. Bob is a bit big...Penny is a beauty in my eyes...but I'm no expert! That's for sure!

 

[yellowherb]

Grabbed a few pictures of my babies. The 3 largest are about 3 months old and 1 young one is 1.5-2months, it's hiding with the sultan chicks who are 1month old.
Can someone name their colors for me? The youngest I am pretty sure is just a black barred. The one I'm going to name Pigey (because she is colored like my friends roller pigeons) is a dark chocolate color, not sure how well that photographs. The lighter brown is more like a brown leghorn with gold hackles and a reddish brown body color. My little roo is really bad, but pretty colors and just fine for me as a pet as they all are.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

If you read my signature you would see I have aviary birds.  The buttons are my cleaners in the aviaries.  They do a good job of keeping mosquitos and other bugs away and eat left over seed.  We hatch out button eggs about every 3 months and cycle out the oldest buttons to keep only young ones.

I will check it out.  The nicer seramas I've seen on craigslist are about 200miles from me and pricey, even if I wouldn't call them show quality..granted they were not advertised as SQ, but if they want 50+ for a rooster it better be a darned nice one and they are not.  Occasionally a pair will come up at the local animal auction and you can bet that it's on a night where I did not take $$ with me and my birds which I was "culling" did not bring enough or had not reached auction block yet.  Hoping my eggs will be here today so they do not sit in the truck over the weekend, that will end badly

So your inbreeding button quails...good to know i have coturnix quail that will test to see if they keep bugs away if not ill eat them

 

[meltel]

WHOA U have LOTS AND LOTS of Serama breeders not that far from you. AND a good breeder will rehome their "culls" rather than killing them (Stay away from ASA serama group, they LOVE to kill their culls, I know from first hand experience ... U can contact Jerry Schex for birds also.. .http://jerrysseramasllc.weebly.com/about.html He WILL sell pert quality. Thats all I own is pet quality.. LOVE THEM LITTLE shavers!

This post angers me beyond belief.

You are entitled to your opinion, however you are extremely short on facts. Culling is entirely up to the specific breeder and NOT affiliated with a specific club or organization. Some of the best breeders worldwide are member of all 3 clubs-ASA, SCNA & Serama USA. Each club has a slightly different way of showing and scoring, however ANY GOOD BREEDER works to better the breed according to breed standards. If you have ethics issues that would prevent your from buying from a breeder that culls for type, personality etc. then that is your perrogative. But please refrain from bashing an organization based on your personal opinion and not fact!

I have wonderful friends and breeders in all 3 organizations. Some cull heavily. Some rehome their culls as pets. But let me call an ace an ace and a spade a spade here! Only about 10% of hatches are breeder quality and 5% are show quality. That leaves a lot of undeesirablle birds out there to be "rehomed". As mentioned by @Poultrybonkers Seramas are a special breed that require special care, housing and feed and do not "provide" as far as a meat bird or good layer if they can not sell for show or breeding. They make wonderful "pets" but many times people choose something other than a mini chicken if they want a "pet" bird.

The problem with "pet quality" and people buying and selling them is drawing the fine line as far as intentions and representation of the bird. I read the above post of someone looking for "pet quality" but looking for a specific type, size color, standard, fertility etc...... None of these should be a concern if you are truly looking for "pet quality"!!! Sex, color and mostly personality/disposition & health should be your only concerns if truly want just a pet. People will buy culls from people "rehoming" birds and still try to breed them as a representation of that breeders line. They think that because there is a big name behind the bird, it's a "good bird". This could not be further from the truth. They will often breed them and then try to sell their eggs on ebay with pics of "parent birds" when in fact they are selling eggs from culls of the parents that are more likely to carry traits such as the lethal gene, wry or squirrel tail and aggressive dispositions that will be passed down to future generations.

Most disheartening is when "starter birds" are offered to Juniors for free just pay shipping. These birds are often rehomed culls-often given at 3-4 months of age who are not nearly mature enough to tell if they have automatic disqualifications. They are all excited to show and proud of their bird only to find out they spent their $65 hard earned 4H money (or their parents) only to find out that their bird will be disqualified every time it shows as there is no fixing a wry or squirrel tail or an aggressive bird. You can find a good local breeder (i work with several just in my area) who will sell you a bird that is decent enough to breed or show in the $50-$100 range for Juniors and 4H kids. Well worth the extra money in my opinion.

I do not like to cull and have not done it yet as I have the room and luxury to grow out my birds to see how they mature. I have successfully rehomed several of my birds. Some have gone to petting zoos, some to friends and other to people who state they want "pet birds". I ask them to sign a contract stating that they are aware that these birds are being sold as "pet quality" only and are not meant to breed or shown at any level. That way my name stays reputable as far as breeding and showmanship. I also do not sell eggs or birds that are not of laying age to see how the bird grow out to ensure people are getting what they pay for.

Also, in regards to yellow legs and beaks, seramas show 2 different ways-in cage and tabletop. Cage right now is APA/ABA standards which is white only with hopefully blacks next to be admitted. Tabletop is colorblind. Although yellow legs/beak is preferred as far as breeding, I feel that focus on type, tail and wing carriage, feather quality and disposition character are so much more important until the groups can work together to get more varities can be accepted for cage judging.

I am proud to be showing at the dual ASA/SCNA show in Lima, OH on 3/18. I have been fortunate to have acquired birds from and mentored by some of the finest breeders in the country-ASA, SCNA & Serama USA. My pullet won champion pullet 2016 and my silkie cockerel took reserve champion of show 2016 at the ASA Serama Nationals. Also all 5 birds that I showed at Ohio Nationals won quality ribbons scoring 75 pts or higher. My focus this year is to try to improve feather quality and disposition on white birds, further develop my reds and successfully breed more of my Malaysians since they have proven a challenge for me to breed, hatch and raise.