Need advice on raising Serama/Run Design

[Kseale1986]

I’m wanting to raise Serama. I have read about them online but would rather get more information from people that know about Chickens and Serama in general. Guess I just don’t believe everything I read on the internet. I live in Southwest Arkansas, so, for the most part, we don’t get very cold winters but the summer can be brutal. I don’t want to keep them with the rest of my bantam flock. I want them to have their own coops/pens. I have seen that a lot of people keep them in rabbit cages, and was wondering if there is a specific reason for that? (Disease prevention, They prefer small spaces, Etc) Obviously, show birds would need to be accustomed to smaller spaces.

I have designed pens/runs to keep 2 separate Serama groups, which I will screenshot and post in the comments. I guess the big questions on housing them are: 1. Do I need to fully enclose the runs? 2. At what temperature is supplemental heat needed, so I can plan to incorporate that if needed? I’m trying to do this affordably. I don’t have thousands of dollars to sink in chicken pens right at the moment. Fortunately, my husband is in construction and gets contractors discounts. He said I did a good job on my run design, even though I don’t have the doors pulled out flush in the drawing.

Note: I did not design the coops. I just dragged those over. I only designed the runs/pens. They are designed so there isn’t any material waste or minimal waste.

I would also just in general like to know about other people’s advice keeping them and experiences. Is there anything breed specific that I need to watch for? Or be careful about? Specific health concerns? I have read about a few, but I would like to hear from the poultry community vs someone with ZERO experience with chickens that’s getting paid to do a good internet search and write an article.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[Kseale1986]

 

[NNYchick]

I am new to seramas too. I keep mine as pets and don't keep them in the rabbit cages like I have seen. That maybe so you can have multiple breeding pairs, I only have one rooster so I am not sure but it maybe problems with multiple roosters. Although he seems to do fine with my silkie roosters. Mine have run of the coop with the silkies and love it. I like your set up idea its awesome, as soon as spring comes I'm going to add a divider wall to my coop so I can keep the seramas separate from silkies. I have not done anything different than with my silkies - they eat the same food (nutrena feather fixer and all flock pellets), use the same nest box ect. Mine are not teeny tiny like I have seen but somewhere around 16oz, they are turning out to be a lot sturdier than people are giving them credit for but like with any breed if the breeder is breeding weak birds then you'll get weak offspring.