Thanks for all the congrats. My daughter is over the moon over this tiny bit of fuzz. It is the first egg to hatch from the pair that I bought from Nancy Perry last month. The hen laid an egg every other day, a total of 7 eggs, and I put them in the incubator the day they were laid. Egg #2 is now pipped and cheeping, so I'm checking on it every time I'm near the 'bator. I think I must be a glutton for punishment, these staggered hatches are killer! At least when the eggs all go into the incubator at the same time, you get all the anxiety over with at once! My daughter loves the cheepies, she'd be happy to have new ones hatching every day. I just wish she'd remember to write the date on the eggs when she puts them in the incubator; it makes candling much saner.
Chickenaddict, I cringed when I read about your hen. I have lost many, many birds to a variety of predators over the years. I've kept my Serama pair in a cage for fear of this very thing happening, but have put them in a big cage on the lawn for a little "grass time" now and then (not today, of course, they'd drown!). Why is it that it always seems to be the beloved animals that go too soon, while those that I'm kinda indifferent to go on, and on, and on?
Yep always the favorites, I think i need better roos to hold the fort down, I keep a few too many around in hopes that the predators would go after the roosters instead of the hens. Never the case here I am always loosing hens, the roos hit the deck before they sound the alarm while they shiver in the corner. Not that I like to loose any birds but it had been one heck of a winning streak for me with free ranging the seramas for 3 years before any losses, they stayed really close to their covered run and coop but this particular day they ventured off into the lilac bushes in the front yard. I gues the bugs were better over there and they like weeding the big perrenial garden up there for me, that was a prime location to take her down right along the 6 ft privacy fence that runs along half of the front yard. She was stuck and probably defending the rest of the flock, she had more guts then any rooster I ever had here. I am definately kicking myself over the loss of her and keep trying to tell myself thats the price they as well as I pay for their freedom. The sad reality is these guys have me wrapped around their little beaks and will give me the sad puppy dog look and I will end up letting them back out but perhaps this time in moderation and not without me out there with my pitch fork.
I have heard, through Mr. Mongold, I believe, that off-colored legs, ears, etc. will be tolerated until 2012. So we can continue to use white/green/polka-dot legs and breed it out for another full year before they start to crack down.
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It use to say 2010 on the SCNA, lol
Time flies when you are having fun!
I have mostly bred out any pink in the earlobes and have been lucky enough to have all yellow legs in my line! Woot!
Now I still have to figure out thigh length, lol
Got the pics of the micro baby for you guys... just have to get them uploaded.
Festival of the Horse is here in Georgetown and I have to run to the Firemen's chili cookoff and festivities downtown.
Be back later!
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Hey. I sometimes hate doing this because I dont want anyone's feelings to get hurt.. but I talked to Krystal and she said that it would be OK to post so everyone can learn more about PQ birds (if they care to hear my humble opinion)
Type is the essence of any breed. Without proper type, a bird is not recognizable as a member of a given breed. Type refers to the silhouette of the bird and is the general outline of the bird......... The head carriage of the Serama is also very important to the type. The proper head carriage is for the head to be pulled back as far as possible, so that the back of the comb touches or nearly touches the main sickles and the eye is behind the leg when viewed from the side, that is if you were to draw an imaginary line from the front of the eye down to the leg. Thus, the breast will be held out at maximum extension. Breast fullness refers to the well-extended breast that is required to have proper type. The breast should be well muscled, held far forward, and yet high and not at all low to the ground.
BODY
It is vitally important to the breed that the Serama's body be full and well muscled, especially the breast. Thin birds, without full, solid breast muscling should be disqualified. The muscling of the bird is an indicator of vitality. Thin birds are of no use to the breed, as they are very susceptible to disease and are lacking in vitality and are generally of poor reproductive qualities.
TAIL
The tail must be well held, solidly set on the body. Poorly set tails and wry tails must be disqualified. Low tails are to be discouraged. The very high angle of the tail is of great importance in creating the outline of the breed and is a major factor in the type of the Serama.
WINGS
Wings that are held above the vertical line (forward) are undesirable. Birds with wings nearly horizontal should be disqualified. Wings should not drag along the ground to the point of damage or tattering . They should clear the ground just enough to be intact and well groomed. Wings that drag along the ground and are constantly dirty, tattered and broken are an unpleasant sight.
LEGS
Legs should be long enough to keep the wing just above the ground. Legs should be of medium length, but not long either.
COMB/WATTLES
Combs should be small to medium to present an elegant and refined look. Wattles also should not be overly large. Long pendulous wattles, very large combs, or combs that flop over and combs or wattles with folds and thumb marks are to be strongly discouraged.
"Chester" my smallest rooster in my breeding pen 1.. in breeding pen 1 I have two pullets that have JUST started laying so no chicks from him just yet
Ok.. Chester.. I would say that he has little serama type. To compare to a serama, he has nice waddles and red earlobes, but his comb is a bit on the large side. Although he seems to be a bit more vertical than most of the others, his back pretty long. You really look for no back, and start looking when the birds are young. Hackle feathers can cover a longish back, and you can see in the 2nd picture where he definitely has plenty of room for his saddle feathers. I always call this area the tail-bed, but in reality it is just the last part of the back. Seramas should not have this area. Its really important to cull this out early, because getting rid of long backs is really hard to breed out of your line. His wing seems in a good position to carry vertical, but his neck is a bit too long..and he seems to have long legs. His wings should be carried just a bit lower so that they barely show his foot. His neck might seem to shorten if he had the "Dolly Parton" look that you want to achieve when breeding seramas. Chests fill out as they mature, but as his chest is still so slim at this age, I doubt he will fill out too much more. I think white legs are undesirable in a breeding program, but its not required in the standard...yet. It makes me worry about OEGB crossing. Compared to the others his legs seem to be in a better position for him to stand vertically.
"Calico" (I know real orig.. haha) Rooster in breeding pen 2. He has a mille colored pullet in with him and has a few chicks we have just hatched in the last 2weeks
Calico has a nice even comb and waddles, but white earlobes. His chest is still a bit on the slimmer side, but it sits high and right under his beak. His shape and tail are his worst faults. He is very horizontal, not vertical. He has a long tail-bed, and his tail is positioned not quite at the back of him, but more at the top of his back with tail pointing forward like a Japanese Bantam. His wings look like they are in ok position on his body, but are also too short because of his legs. I think if he were to stand vertically his wings would be in front of his body because of his body shape. His legs seem to be set too far back for a serama. Just talking about the shape of his body, I would not think he was a serama at all.
"Chet" my rooster in breeding pen 3 and is where all 90% of all my serama chicks I have hatched myself have come from. The rest are Calicos.
He has a brown hen who I will post a photo of in a min and a black hen who I have a pic of but its a very bad pic so more of her to come this weekend..
Chet....See how Chet's "tail-bed" is still a pinch too far from his body, but he has the shortest back of all four. Some of it is covered by his hackles at the top, and this happens a lot in seramas. He has nice even comb and waddles and red earlobes. His chest is very slim, but seems to start at the top, but you can see that his neck is still very long. Because of his shorter back (compared to the other two) his tail seems put on the best. I think his wings look like they are attached too low on his body and that is why he carries them horizontal as opposed to vertical. His legs also seem to be set back under him a bit. Although he looks more like a serama, he is still pretty far from the standard.
Unnamed Rooster Would like to know what is thought about him
This one.. just cut his head off... lol, just kidding.... He is very horizontal, has even less serama type than the others..... Im sure he would make a great pet tho. Wouldn't breed him as a serama at all.
"Broody" (again real orig but shes been broody twice since June) This is the Brown hen in Breeding pen 3 with Chet... A bad pic as well I know as shes walking but figured I would throw it in here.
This hen has an interesting tail..its almost rooster-like. She has a longish back and tail-bed. Her chest seems to be put on right, but she could use more muscling. Wing length looks Ok in the pictures, but still worried that her legs may be set too far back to become vertical.
This is really just an opinion. Im sure that you could get someone with more or less experience than me to say something different. I'm kind of leaning toward that these are possibly Jap x OEGB crosses. They seem to have characteristics in shape to both of those breeds. Or maybe they could be part Nankin and serama... ?? Who knows....... it IS all about shape though. Later Ill have to tell you about my V.I.S policy, lol
NANKIN ROO
I would not breed these birds as serama. I think that if you were to breed a ton of birds and cull heavily, that you might be working for years to get something a lot closer to the standard. Hell, Im still working on it! Im sure you bought these thinking they were serama, but this is a reason that everyone should be familiar with the standard of a breed that they choose to raise. Especially if they want to breed them and sell them to other people. You might get a bad reputation for selling crossbreeds later down the road. You can probably sell just as many poor quality birds as "Small cute bantams", and dont have to worry about people coming back to you unhappy with their purchase. If you really want to raise serama and better the breed and sell some birds I would start fresh. If you are ever near Lexington Ky, Ill trade you birds and try to give you a better start. Just my two cents tho.. probably not worth too much, lol
Here she is.. for you guys I took video too, but have to upload it still.
She is the same age as the frizzles (who two seem to be running a bit on the bigger side anyway, but one is closer to her size and very small) She is one month older than the whitish speckled chick hiding in the back! They are the same size though!
You can see that she is closer in size to the other tiny frizzle Im keeping in the front (same age)
Isnt she soo little and cute!
Here is the little frizzle.. he rear is red from dye--part of my breeding records. I promise she is not bleeding! I looked at the picture later and was like OMG! lol
Here the little one is next to the little frizzle in the front, you can see she is still smaller.
got Lots of colors but no whites.
