Stop killing seramas!!!

[Mitsos Lamprogiorgos]

No. I don't have time for school.
To busy breeding all these non recognized color leghorns.

Which are not recognized?

 

[chuckachucka]

It's not horrific to me. I don't breed seramas, but I do breed large fowl Chanteclers. The substandard ones are a food source. The closer to standard ones are bred to produce more for eggs and meat. It's simply a different way of choosing which ones you eat---intentional selection towards uniformity and health, vs buying one batch of a specific breed and slaughtering them all. If you can afford to keep hundreds of old, sickly, and nonproductive hens and roosters, great! Do what makes you happy! I can't, though. I think it's way better than buying meat from the store, where they're crammed in large barns to grow until they can't walk. My birds get to run as far as they want, eat bugs, and scratch for goodies for about a year, sometimes more. I treat them well, keep them safe, and give them quick deaths. Better that than getting ripped apart by a hawk, fighting to the death because I don't have the facilities for so many roosters, or slowly choking on their own spit and being in more and more pain as they die from old age.

I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, I'm trying to present my own opinion and learn more about why you think eating birds by a different set of criteria is wrong.

OP: Like Moonshiner said---if you don't like standardized varieties, don't breed for 'em. I'm not a Serama person so I don't know if it's actually changing the breed like I think you're claiming. If I'm wrong about that, correct me! I personally like the general idea. It adds another aspect to a challenging and enjoyable hobby, and the standard is there for those that want it.

I meant 'horrific' if chickens are being slaughtered ONLY for the reason of not being quite right looking. I don't know a lot about if/how this is actually done but the idea of it brought to mind the way unwanted male chicks are callously ground up after hatching. If imperfect seramas are being eaten at least it is not a waste and better than eating industrially reared chicken meat for sure, but it matters to me how long of a life these imperfect birds get before being culled. But these are issues for debate about the eating of all chicken meat in general and, as a vegetarian, my opinions differ from many people's.

How do you expect a serama to look like a serama if breeders aren't selective about what they breed?
What do you think will happen to the breed if everyone breeds birds with undesirable traits.
You may see culling as horrific but if it wasn't for breeders being selective and culling there wouldn't be the serama breed or any breeds at all.
Culling doesn't have to mean slaughtering. It means removing from a breeding program.
I've culled 1000s of birds in my life time and that has never meant killing them.

I was under the impression the word 'cull' always meant kill. Sorry for my ignorance.

 

[BantyChooks]

I meant 'horrific' if chickens are being slaughtered ONLY for the reason of not being quite right looking. I don't know a lot about if/how this is actually done but the idea of it brought to mind the way unwanted male chicks are callously ground up after hatching. If imperfect seramas are being eaten at least it is not a waste and better than eating industrially reared chicken meat for sure, but it matters to me how long of a life these imperfect birds get before being culled. But these are issues for debate about the eating of all chicken meat in general and, as a vegetarian, my opinions differ from many people's.
I was under the impression the word 'cull' always meant kill. Sorry for my ignorance.

Oh, killed and wasted? I definitely agree with you there... if you're going to take a life, at least be grateful, respectful, and use it to further your own. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Shorty22366]

I meant 'horrific' if chickens are being slaughtered ONLY for the reason of not being quite right looking. I don't know a lot about if/how this is actually done but the idea of it brought to mind the way unwanted male chicks are callously ground up after hatching. If imperfect seramas are being eaten at least it is not a waste and better than eating industrially reared chicken meat for sure, but it matters to me how long of a life these imperfect birds get before being culled. But these are issues for debate about the eating of all chicken meat in general and, as a vegetarian, my opinions differ from many people's.




I was under the impression the word 'cull' always meant kill. Sorry for my ignorance.

I thought cull meant kill too.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

So the poultry associations are showing up at peoples homes and killing their seramas?
Ya I didn't think so. Associations ain't killing them people kill them. Associations try to set up standards so people know what to breed towards. They save breeds. Without them and people just breeding randomly what they want you would soon not even be able to recognize what breed any birds are.
Besides all that most breeders do not have any connection to the associations or the breed standard and no one says they have to.
You can breed them however you want and so can everyone else. Then in a 50 years when you can't tell them from a Japanese bantam or OEGB then you may wish that the standard was more involved so the breed could be saved.

You can now because breeders before you bred all three breeds towards their standard set up by associations.
If you do away with their standards it won't be long until all the random breeding without a goal will produce breeds you can't distinguish.
If allowed varieties is your only issue then mix your colors or work towards getting different varieties approved.
Little drastic to be unhappy about associations wanting to separate out varieties to be blasting them as killing chickens.

x2!!!!

 

[chuckachucka]

I just read through this and I don't even know what a serama is.

This is my serama hen. She weighs just under 350g.

 

[BantyChooks]

This is my serama hen. She weighs just under 350g.

My goodness, she is tiny!

 

[Ginmary]

Here's my roo, Keanu. And don't underestimate the crow of a Serama roo!

My avatar is Keanu and his 2 ladies.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I meant 'horrific' if chickens are being slaughtered ONLY for the reason of not being quite right looking. I don't know a lot about if/how this is actually done but the idea of it brought to mind the way unwanted male chicks are callously ground up after hatching.

Not sure if this info will help alleviate your disgust with the ground up male chicks... BUT they aren't truly JUST trashed and wasted.

I volunteered at a wildlife rehab center and the male chicks come in whole in frozen bags to feed out to the animals both in rehab and in the zoos. I imagine it may also be used in our other animal (dog/cat) feeds and called "chicken by product", "meal", or the likes.

And raptors were fed "BOP", bird of prey meat... derived from ground up horse. Gross, yes. But ultimately... everything DOES have a life cycle. Whether I agree or disagree with horses being sent to slaughter.. I agree with @BantyChooks (who has obviously seen more than I hope I ever will), that dying slowly is not so humane.

Cull can mean kill, sell, give away, or even just move to a different pen from your breeding program. English can be a pretty confusing language with so many word having multiple meanings.

 

[Mitsos Lamprogiorgos]

This is my serama hen. She weighs just under 350g.

Goddess