Help with seramas

[Moocow789]

My son wants to show seramas in 4H. We ordered eggs from show quality breeders (we were told annyway) and had 5 eggs hatch. Since there is no color standard, we are not sure what to look for in terms of which may be the best show birds? Can I please get some help/evaluation on his five birds? They hatched the beginning of October.

At our shows, the birds are judged in the cages and then showmanship the kids work with the birds and show them.

He has two pullets and three cockerels

Thank you for any help!

 

[Rose the Legbar]

They are a bit young to get a perfect idea on how they will fill out in the future. You can always put them all in your fair and have them all judged to see who is the best. I would suggest (for better information than what may be found here) joining a serama breeders facebook group and get more information from there as they know their serama stuff!

 

[fluffycrow]

As mentioned, it's better to judge them when they're more mature than this, but you can get a pretty good idea of what they'll look like as adults, even at this stage. The best thing to do is judge them on a flat surface, preferably not a hand. What I've found is that young birds, as well as adults that are not used to posing, will not posture properly, as they're more focused on balancing.

That being said, there's still some differences and general things to point out. I don't think you got exactly what you were told. While excellent starting birds (and I am sure, excellent in temperament), I'm not sure if they're show quality.

Both pullets look nice, but they are still immature, and this might drastically change when they come into lay. It does seem like they have quite long backs, but with the right posture that won't be too bad (not to mention more healthy for the birds). I really like their tails, they fan out quite nicely.

Onto the boys, the white one seems to have feathered legs. That's a no-no in seramas. Not sure how heavily your particular fair focuses on the bird, but if the bird was the only one being judged, it wouldn't place very high. For us, it's a disqualifying trait. I have my eyes on the middle boy. Right now, he seems the best. I really like how he carries his tail, his head, and his wings. His back is good as well. Hopefully as an adult, his tail carriage will become more dramatic, but it's a promising start. His comb is nice as well, and his head is very nice as well. Most of those apply to the predominantly black boy as well, but the other one is slightly better. I'd keep a close eye on both of them, and see how they mature. At the same time, the white boy can also mature really nicely, but you'll still have those leg feathers to deal with.

As a general note, I notice that most of them seem to have green legs. I'm not too sure how strict the APA is about green legs, but over here they are completely unacceptable in certain colours, and disliked in others. To be honest, I doubt anyone's going to give you too much trouble about the leg colour, but it's worth mentioning.

I hope my post isn't discouraging in any way, in general I think that you've got a nice start for some good show birds. More importantly, they are not extremely built, so hopefully you won't have to deal with heartbreaking illnesses early-on in your keeping and showing journey. They also seem to be very friendly and comfortable with you, which is the temperament every serama should have. They are friendly, personable birds, great fun to work with. I wish you the best of luck with your gorgeous little group

 

[dannichols525]

Pictures can be deceiving. That said these are the ones I would watch,

 

[dannichols525]

This one is pretty good. He has his faults. Too many points on the cold. His legs are too short. Posture is good. Better than what the picture shows.