I'm getting a Trio of Seramas today! New Pics pg 2 post 20

[monarc23]

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haha awh thanks! Will do!

 

[monarc23]

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If you really wanted to start with good birds, but then you would want to buy them at 5 months and up....
Then you can see them nearly grown, and tell for sure what kind of type they have. Get a pair that will benefit the other's weaknesses.
You could start with 2-3 month old chicks from reputable breeders, that will tell you what they see in birds that young. Good breeders will want to teach you what to look for and make you a good breeder too!
You can get eggs from breeders but there you will find a few problems. Some breeders have them all loose, and you dont know who are the parents. Get eggs from a breeder that keeps separate pens, and preferably records of what they produce, and have tested eggs to prove that they are fertile. Make sure that the parents are typey, and if they have a fault, they are being bred to something that will improve the chicks. (ie-I breed my softer curving tail feathered birds to ones with stiff hard tail feathers etc) Dont get birds with DQ's like wry tail etc (of course)
Serama eggs, like any others, can have problems shipping....but not as bad as everyone says-----I have actually had customers with great hatches (better than I have sometimes, lol) and I use a TON of bubble wrap.

You should get a range of what the parents are........

I just want to add, that the reason that Serama breeders get upset when people say that they are going to breed non-typey birds is because that we have a limited gene pool. There were only so many seramas brought into the US. We would like everyone to try to preserve what we have, or improve it!
If you buy 'junk' (no offense intended) from a breeder that has less than desirable birds, then you are encouraging them to produce more of that.
If you then breed birds that are non-typey to begin with, their chicks lose even more of the qualities that make them stand out as the friendly,proud little birds they are. Everyone you sell to is going to see $$, and then they are going to breed the even worse birds and so on...
Pretty soon all that makes them serama is lost.
If you must breed....sell them as tiny cute pet bantams.
I do that with culls birds (with inverted combs or something)...I never say the word Serama and dont have a problem moving them locally. People love the novelty of little tame birds.

Once you lose size and things like length of back, they are really hard to get back!

I completely understand that!

As with Marans, I have been through several colors already and have stopped on one that's really rare as to avoid all the crossing of varieties that im seeing that's going on. I don't WANT the birds crossed as it produces poor coloring.....but if they're just going to call them "dark egg laying chickens" that's fine in my book! So I completley get where you're coming from. I am going to call them seramas as I want people to know what they are, but make no mistake about the fact that theres going to be a huge disgussion on the person not expecting anything "nice" and nothing show worthy.

Just like people sell pure bred dogs that couldnt even step foot into a ring

They're still purebred but aren't worthy of much more than a pet. So the title will be "Pet Quality Serama Bantams" just like I call my call ducks that look nothing like the show type

I highly doubt that me breeding my seramas will hurt someone elses show quality birds in the long run, as I'm pretty sure most show quality breeders will spot right away that they aren't worthy of much mre than a pet. Now with marans I've seen that they can hide what they've got carrying, but since color really isn't an issue in serama only type/stance and all of that I don't see a big deal in calling them Pet Quality Seramas

. I won't be out to make a buck on these cuties as you can tell right off (even me) that they aren't show worthy, but it would be nice to share these friendly guys with others.

As for finding a good breeder(s) and the ages to look for or get eggs from THANK YOU!