I wouldnt guarantee fertility on A class, but you can breed them. Quite a few of my birds are A class. Has anyone seen our Mr.Wonderful? Fertile tiny A class roo. The ones that I have def. seen problems in are the very small A's or the Micros...not always though. In our squeaky line we have a fertile Micro roo named Perdue. If you search on here for 'Telula' in my posts you can see his size in his sister.
I would never trust anyone that says they have all A class breeders. A lot of A class birds dont have the size for vertical wing or leg length that I have found...its best to cross them with a larger bird that has the qualities that they may lack.
If someone has an A class pair, make sure they have done test matings for fertility!
I dont kill my culls. (unless they are terrible--wry tail or something--I havnt had to do that yet, but I would)
I give them away or sell them as 'cute tiny pet bantams' and never say the word 'serama' so they are not bred as so.
If the person (not many) are educated enough to know the breed, and wonder if they are serama, I tell them they are not, just tiny mutts from my mixed bantams.
These are birds that maybe are large C class and not as typey, too long in the wing, way long in the back, too soft of feathers, flat breast.....etc
Usually with more than one fault, and Im pretty picky about what I sell.
I just think with all the people wanting to get into the breed that they should start with good stock and breed better and better and know what type is.
Some people will breed and have some junk chicks turn up, and they think I woulnt breed it, but they then see dollar signs and want to make some money.....
Think about it..you give culls away to someone who heard about the breed and thinks they are cute. You tell them these are not good breeders, they are culls.
Later that person is on a computer somewhere and they see all the $$ prices for quality birds and then look on ebay and find they can make up to 40 on a dozen eggs. They are surely going to breed them. I bought a flock of birds like this when I started out...found a lady in KY that sold eggs for tons on Ebay. I was just starting my research and wanted to talk to a breeder so I wrote her, figuring anyone that could get 40 for 12 eggs must have great birds and know all about them. Long story short, she seemed to know what she was talking about, had all B class birds, sent me a few distant pics of what looked like tiny chickens with big upright tails and told me how she had gotten her first birds from Jerry. She had a surgery and wanted to sell them. BTW-her camera and scales were broken so no exact weights and no new pics---I drove three hours and not a singe bird was typey, and they were D, E, F class.
This person sold on Ebay for 2 years and made TONS of $$, and all her junk eggs are out there somewhere!
Lots of people do that here, look at some of the parents of people that sell eggs....ask them all for good pics! I do it often looking for new blood to add maybe once a year, and lots have crosses/or super bad type or are culls they are breeding. (Not all, there are quite a few on here with really great birds I think!)
Not everyone charges 300 a pair for A class. Last year I sold my birds for around 30 bucks each as 6-7month olds. This year Im having to charge a little more because of all the separate breeding pens I have built, lots supplies and food and time that I have to put into them to breed healthy quality (or even SQ) birds. It takes a lot of time as a serious breeder.
If people keep selling (or giving away) junk, that "next generation" of breeders are more than likely going to produce birds that are worse than their parents..10 years from now when they have spread around its going to be alot harder to find good birds. This is especially terrible with the Serama, as we only had a handful of birds to start with...
I would never trust anyone that says they have all A class breeders. A lot of A class birds dont have the size for vertical wing or leg length that I have found...its best to cross them with a larger bird that has the qualities that they may lack.
If someone has an A class pair, make sure they have done test matings for fertility!
I dont kill my culls. (unless they are terrible--wry tail or something--I havnt had to do that yet, but I would)
I give them away or sell them as 'cute tiny pet bantams' and never say the word 'serama' so they are not bred as so.
If the person (not many) are educated enough to know the breed, and wonder if they are serama, I tell them they are not, just tiny mutts from my mixed bantams.
These are birds that maybe are large C class and not as typey, too long in the wing, way long in the back, too soft of feathers, flat breast.....etc
Usually with more than one fault, and Im pretty picky about what I sell.
I just think with all the people wanting to get into the breed that they should start with good stock and breed better and better and know what type is.
Some people will breed and have some junk chicks turn up, and they think I woulnt breed it, but they then see dollar signs and want to make some money.....
Think about it..you give culls away to someone who heard about the breed and thinks they are cute. You tell them these are not good breeders, they are culls.
Later that person is on a computer somewhere and they see all the $$ prices for quality birds and then look on ebay and find they can make up to 40 on a dozen eggs. They are surely going to breed them. I bought a flock of birds like this when I started out...found a lady in KY that sold eggs for tons on Ebay. I was just starting my research and wanted to talk to a breeder so I wrote her, figuring anyone that could get 40 for 12 eggs must have great birds and know all about them. Long story short, she seemed to know what she was talking about, had all B class birds, sent me a few distant pics of what looked like tiny chickens with big upright tails and told me how she had gotten her first birds from Jerry. She had a surgery and wanted to sell them. BTW-her camera and scales were broken so no exact weights and no new pics---I drove three hours and not a singe bird was typey, and they were D, E, F class.
This person sold on Ebay for 2 years and made TONS of $$, and all her junk eggs are out there somewhere!
Lots of people do that here, look at some of the parents of people that sell eggs....ask them all for good pics! I do it often looking for new blood to add maybe once a year, and lots have crosses/or super bad type or are culls they are breeding. (Not all, there are quite a few on here with really great birds I think!)
Not everyone charges 300 a pair for A class. Last year I sold my birds for around 30 bucks each as 6-7month olds. This year Im having to charge a little more because of all the separate breeding pens I have built, lots supplies and food and time that I have to put into them to breed healthy quality (or even SQ) birds. It takes a lot of time as a serious breeder.
If people keep selling (or giving away) junk, that "next generation" of breeders are more than likely going to produce birds that are worse than their parents..10 years from now when they have spread around its going to be alot harder to find good birds. This is especially terrible with the Serama, as we only had a handful of birds to start with...
