#silked serama

[homeofhousechickens]

Zinger! He dropped his tail feathers recently so fingers crossed he is going to grow some prettier tail feathers lol

One of my favorite things about him is his purple earlobes

[homeofhousechickens]

The hookless gene appeared on its own in serama likely from Japanese Bantam/Chabo and Ma-Lai bantam ancestry in the breed. Both Kirikiri and Serama are landrace true micro bantams and they are similar but have different genetics. I think the confusion stems from both "Serama" and "Kirikiri" both being catch all words for these kinds of micro bantams in their respective locals. You also get people mixing the two together which leads to more confusion.

A silkie is a crested, bearded, feather footed, loose feathered, polydactly, and fibromelanistic bird. A serama is NONE of those things.

That being said you will have bad breeders try to sell cross breeds as pure bred silked serama when they are not, they will be oversized and will not fit either breeds standards. They are a mutt.

Here is someone's Silked Serama x Silkie rooster. As you can see he looks nothing like a serama

And here is my Silked Serama rooster Cannoli, they are completely different.

Since Kikiriki’s are also known as Serama’s, are the Silkie Seramas a Kikiriki/Silkie mix?

Kikrikis are not seramas, they are similar but not the same. For one seramas don't come in rumpless or naked-neckified or bearded like kikirikis. Some people call seramas kikirikis though. Silkied seramas are their own thing, a recognized variety of serama. I do not know where they got the silkied gene from

[wellthatschaotic]

uhh chicken infodump for distraction purposes

they were domesticated from red junglefowl (mixed with a bit of other junglefowl) (also, if you have the energy, look up red junglefowl hens vs brown leghorn hens. they look super similar) uhhh many centuries ago, at first mostly for entertainment (bleh) but later for eggs & meat as well, although that didn't happen until the 1600s(? please fact-check me on that)

lots of chicken breeds can lay over 300 eggs per year (like leghorns, for example) and others can lay 100 or less (like silkies). their egg colors are genetic, with the four colors being white, brown, blue, and green. green eggs are a combination of a blue egg layer and a brown egg layer, and that also applies for stuff like pale blue, light brown, brownish green, basically every color you can think of

the sultan chicken breed was originally lost, but it was recreated by pulling in traits from other breeds (feathered feet, crest, beard & muff, and a thing called "vulture hocks" which are like if stiff, long feathers protruded from their mid-leg joint behind them)

silkies are known for going broody. they also have a gene which makes their feathers not stick to themselves and therefore all of their feathers are downy, and this trait can be found in other breeds, although i can only think of silked seramas right now.

and speaking of seramas, they hold themselves very upright. i recommend looking up pictures of them, they stand like they've been told they need to be V shaped.

it takes about a month for an egg to develop fully, and for this reason that's usually how long broody chickens will brood, but they can often go for longer, 2 or 3 months or even until they are forcibly prevented from brooding

polish crested chickens need their "bangs" (the feathers on the front of their crest) trimmed so they can see. chickens can fly pretty well, one of our heaviest birds (maybe like 6 pounds?) regularly flies up on people if she thinks there's treats in it for her, and our polish laced hen likes to sleep twelve or fifteen feet off the ground in a tree (she starts off like seven feet up, on top of the coop, but still). chickens are amazing ridiculous creatures and i love them

ok i had to look up seramas and like

the POISE. the POWER

absolute models

[homeofhousechickens]

I like how Skittles went from this

To this

They call this messy overly melanized split wheaten "calico" don't they 😂

[homeofhousechickens]

Also i found out the reason Smores was so different is because she was from a breeding project. I think if someone is buying a specific hatching eggs from you in a specific type of feathering you shouldn't throw in birds who are mixed breeds who won't even have the feathering your seeking. But it's whatever Smore added much needed genetic diversity.

[homeofhousechickens]

Wondering if the person posting with the user name "Junebug" is also the same June from the silked serama group. Here is June's white micro silked trio

@allosaurusrock you would know more then me 😅

[homeofhousechickens]

Mr. Ben Beeper jumpscare. He thinks Beeper is so pretty and keeps dancing for her. Beeper doesn't like it.

Beeper is wearing a diaper because she followed me outside from indoors.

The black and white chicken is Papi he is an Ermine Ameraucana. He keeps trying to intergrate into my flock and he follows me around because I give him treats. I give the others treats but Papi just really likes me and my birds for some reason.

Papi is a large fowl so a "normal" sized chicken.

Beeper is a bantam brahma which is a mini version of a Brahma (in reality it's actually closer to a pea combed cochin bantam)

Mr.Ben is a silked serama

[homeofhousechickens]

Wait Beeper’s a bantam??

Yep! She isn't very big at all.

Here is her next to Muffin. Muffin is a silked serama, serama are the smallest chicken breed

Now here is that same serama (less molty) next to one of my leghorns. Keep in mind leghorns are on the small side of large fowl

Here is some pictures of Beeper next to the leghorns

Finally the most damning evidence, prepare yourself

She smol 🤏

Also

Here is a normal sized brahma from the same hatchery. Large fowl Brahma are one of the largest chicken breeds actually.

Beeper is small confirmed! Her aura is just so powerful!!

[homeofhousechickens]

I just saw a video of your chicken Fondue(?) and, not to be rude or presumptuous, but she(?) looks... kinda ratty. I don't want to sound mean towards her but idk any other word to use here. Is something the matter to make her feathers all ruffled like that or is she just a fuzzed up lookin gal in general?

Fondue is silked! He has the hookless gene which means his feathers do not zip together like it does with normal feathers which makes them look very fuzzy. It also makes them very soft.

This is the trait associated with Silkie bantams but seramas and other breeds also have the hookless gene in their gene pool.

Silked birds do have draw backs, they are not water proof and they cannot fly as well as normal feathered chickens so they need to be well protected from the elements and potential predators.

Here is a visual difference between a silked bird and a normal feathered bird

Zinger- Fondues father is a silked bird

Ibis- Ibis is Zingers son and normal feathered since silked feathering is recessive and Ibis's mother isn't silked

I would like you to send Fondue an apology for calling him ratty! He is very healthy and in great feather condition. He feels like a fuzzy little cloud when you pet him and he is a great little guy. I don't believe I have ever tagged him as a hen either I was so sure of his sex i told his future owner not to bother sending me money to DNA sex him as a tiny chick because I was sure he was a cockerel so I'm not sure why we are misgendering this little lad here.

Here is one of his younger brother Donuts as well. You can see he is also fuzzy because every chick from this most recent batch was silked as he gets older he will look even more like Fondue. 😁

[homeofhousechickens]

I am so jealous!! I’m saving up money to get a silked Serama shipped to me as well 😩

Welcome home Kodja! This 3 1/2 month old silkied serama cockerel will be one of my breeders when he gets older. He came all the to way to Washington State from Becky Schulz in Oklahoma!

[homeofhousechickens]

Oof butterscotch's owner is also a serama breeder and she got her silked serama from the same person I did and unfortunately a rooster and his son seem to be displaying serious neurological signs. It makes me worried about Cannoli's long term health. This same breeder friend of mine also produced chicks with brain deformities the same as Cannoli did so I'm thinking their is some serious problems with her line. I'm not to worried about Zinger because grandma Smores who is a dubious breed of bantam likely brought in much needed genetic diversity so he hasn't produced any deformed chicks or shown any worrying signs like Cannoli has.

[homeofhousechickens]

i’ve more or less gathered through following your page for a bit about your breeding projects and such, but i’m curious about what you’re breeding for? Silked seramas specifically, or temperament, or conformation, or all of the above? I’m especially curious about your silked project/s as it’s similar to one i’m working on!

Im breeding towards my own ideal and not following the serama standard as im not a huge fan of how serama look and are traditionally bred. With this breed im making i want both silked and normal feathered birds in the gene pool. I basically want to consistently produce birds that thrive in indoor urban environments.

I am breeding for temperment and health the most right now while color and type is secondary. I eventually want birds that are small, have great feed conversion, they should have a very meaty breast and legs and i will get this by crossing birds like Ohikis, and bantam cornish into my gene pool eventually, i also want my birds to have long tail genetics (the ohiki will also help with that) and hopefully if i get my way fibromelanism as well. My birds should be great broodies who lay lots of eggs with phenomenal temperments.

Whats nice about me only selling locally right now is that i can keep an eye on how those birds i do sell develop and how their own offspring develop. So far none of my birds from my lines have had any health issues that i am aware of which pleases me.

[homeofhousechickens]

So small... little creatures...

[homeofhousechickens]

Exactly because I'm selecting for a more horizontal type these birds who have a more upright posture end up looking strange and unbalanced, what do you think of his face shape? His beak is also much more curved then my other birds it looks a bit strange compared to my others.

Donuts for comparison

Talking about why Fax Machine might be a cull.

I think if I was someone who bred towards the serama SOP and not my own thing maybe I would like Fax Machine but compared to his brothers in terms of weight, type, and temperment for the stuff I'm selecting for I don't like him very much.

I don't know what do you guy think of him 😁?

[homeofhousechickens]

Babies :)

[homeofhousechickens]

This is her now at around 5 months old I really love how she has developed. Her feather quality is pretty great which is something silked serama struggle with.

I really like how she has thickened up. Compared to Lollipop her head is way better and more proportional.

To me she kind of looks like a normal silked serama just smaller. Sometimes I see micros and they kind of look like something is wrong with them like pinched faces and eyes that are a bit to big. She doesn't feel dainty either she is well muscled and quite a bossy bird.

Something i do dislike about her is the curve of her neck. I feel like it's just a bit to curved when she is showing off. I want a well feathered elegant neck but I don't want any strain on the vertebrae. She still might grow some more so maybe it will improve but it might also not. I'm not worried about it since my breeding roos have better necks.

Its getting around that time she may start to lay. She has been squatting when I reach for her and I saw her go in and out of the nest a lot today. Sometimes micro sized chickens can have issues with egg laying or even be infertile due to their size which none of my birds have experienced, but I'm keeping an eye on her anyway.

She is in her uglies right now but there is a lot I like about Honeybun.

Unless she drastically changes color I believe she is a mottled buff but she likely has some columbian giving her some black on her tail and wings.

I like how her head is nicely proportioned to her body despite her size and her legs are strong and thick. Her weight is focused on her breast area and she feels dense when picked up.

She has very lovely silked feathering and some lovely long tail feathers. I'm aiming for a more horizontal tail carriage but that won't happen till I add in a bird with lower tail carriage lol intill then I can work on the quailty and length of the feather structure.

She is quite the sassy and bossy little pullet but she is very easy to handle. I'm very happy with her because I have wanted a Princess Cream silked granddaughter for so long.

Sassy raised her but genetically she is Sugars

Here below is Honeybuns bio sister I sold a while back to another breeder. I didn't like Lollipop as much as her because she was so small and not as proportional but you can see that she was a similar color just on a normal feather base.