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Shelly, we are at the KY river by Jessamine/Garrad Co. I don't care to drive to get birds.... I just want once my little ones can raise and show for 4H.
I have never had Seramas.... how hearty are they in KY? Will they do ok outside in a coop in winter, given their size? Are they ok on wire if they are free range most days? My kids cart the chickens around all the time. i think we had 3 different ones in the house today. They are bird obsessed....
I had 3 hens and a roo that were in an open-bottomed chicken tractor last winter. I lost the rooster but the hens did okay. Though I did move them into a dog house/coop with some younger bantams after the rooster died, so that might have helped. If they are kept away from drafts and have a small enough area that they can keep warm in they should do okay.
My friend keeps his in wire cages raised off the ground and they do fine, I don't think he ever lets his out on the ground and I know he doesn't move them inside. He moves younger ones into a smaller shed behind his house that he can put a heat light in if he needs to, but the adults stay in his barn and do fine. I think it depends mainly on acclimation and proper housing.
The only problem with cages is that the birds waste a lot of feed, you have to get kinda creative to keep them from wasting so much. My on-ground pens get to clean up what they've spilled before they get fed again
I don't let my Serama free range but that's mainly by choice. Most of my birds, even the 'bantams' are easily twice as big as the Serama, but those little Serama roos think they have super powers. They'd get hurt real quick and you can't have show birds with beat up combs.
Plus I'm kinda partial to the little sweeties, I don't know if I could handle losing any of them to predators
I'm in Adair Co. about 20 minutes south of the Green River Lake. My friend lives in Casey Co. a little ways west of Liberty.
ETA: The Serama I had outside last year were shipped from Miami FL in November. The guy had 5 birds--4 hens, 1 roo (1 hen went to my friend)--in a Single N.E.S.T. shipping box. Those boxes are made to ship 2 bantams at most and he had 5 in there. The most I've ever sent in those is 3 and that's if they're real small. The roo was not 'right' when I got him, his comb was purple and never did 'warm' up. I think he got squished from all the hens on him. They have enough problems with their hearts and lungs as it is, plus the stress of shipping? Then to have 5 birds in a box? It was just too much for him.
