Quote:
You will need crumbles for the chicks..and something small for the water, like a quail waterer, or you can put lots of marbles in a shallow dish.
If the crumbles are too large, you can wet them down, or crush them up.
I keep my breeders in separate pens, like big rabbit hutches (from
TSC) or ones we built, stacked in my shed..some are in chicken tractors to get yummy grass and bugs, some are loose with the big chickens.
I even have one in in the house thats in a plastic bottom rabbit cage.
Mine do pretty well in the cold, but they are acclimated to the weather, outdoors whenever possible. In the winter I let them all out of the pens and put them in the big shed with a run so that they can all stay together for more warmth. I do have to watch the roos combs, and brought in one or two when we had nights in the negatives. But I didnt bring them into the heated part. I put them in one side of our big old house that we dont heat in the winter, that way its not too drastic of a change for them.
They are friendly, I have many that are "born tame". I have so many that I dont handle all of them all the time, and if we have one that is a little flighty, I can carry him around for a bit and give him some scratches and some love and in less than a day they are tame. Its just their nature.
Other than feeding crumbles, they are like any other chicken!
The only thing that you have to worry about Serama is getting the best you can. The birds originally brought into the US are all the genes we had to start with. If you are going to seriously breed,
study type, know what to look for. Look at Jerry's birds, and buy the best that you can afford.
Dont believe what they say (Like--THESE ARE JERRY's BIRDS!!--Jerry gives away culls for the cost of shipping..) believe what you see. Ask for good pics, with weights of the birds and preferably with them on scales. Get more than one picture per bird, and ask them for close ups from different angles.
You are going to have to cull to keep the serama type, and a big problem is that people don't do that. They get eggs, raise some birds, and think that they can make money..lets say they keep the best, and sell the "culls" trying to get money for them.
They sell the non-typey birds to the next person joining the serama-craze who doesnt know any better and then there is more and more junk out there being bred that is deviating from the goal. Thats less good blood going around. The worse people are the ones that cross them with OEG to try to get more to hatch to make money.
If you have a bird that is long backed, not vertical...something diverting away from the standard, cull it or sell it as a cute tiny pet mixed bantam. Leave out the word "Serama" or that person is going to see dollar signs.
Best of luck..sorry to rant, Ive had one of those nights.....
If you have any Q's let me know, I'd love to help! You are going to love them!!!
Jessi
This bird has terrible type-- looks like a cross to me..long back, not vertical, too big (and irregular) comb--Look like OEG to me...
http://www.countrycoopchickens.com/seramas.htm
These are real serama--
http://www.seramas.com/pictures1.html
Here are articles--
http://www.seramas.com/articles.html
Jerry's good serama
http://www.geocities.com/jerrysseramasllc/flock.html
More good articles--
http://backyardchickens.com/?tag=serama
