Do Micro Serama Bantams Exist?

[Chicken raiser393993]

Hello, I have been reading up on serama bantams lately and I realized there are different classes of seramas based on weight. The smallest of which being the Micro class, where males are under 13oz and females under 8 oz in weight. I just find this hard to believe.

I breed and sell some serama bantams, and mine would be considered class B (males 13-15oz). But I'm measuring mine when they are full grown at over 18months old, with full spurs, a healthy diet (not starved). When I've sold in the past, a couple people thought they were big, and when I asked what they were expecting, they said 10oz for a full grown rooster. I thought either they don't know what they are talking about, or they know exactly what they are talking about, so I did some more research.

I found that apparently there are micro seramas that are as small as they claim, but most of the pics online just show chicks and young cockerals under a year old (see example pic below). I need proof of adult roosters with spurs and all weighing 10oz fully healthy. If they are real, I want to find where to buy some, because I've been trying to breed smaller and smaller seramas for years. Anyone know where I can find these suspiciously rare tiny chickens?

 

[cavemanrich]

I have been keeping Seramas for a long time. I don't breed, and I only keep hens, as pets. I did encounter one hen that was TINY, but again not fully grown at that time. She came out from a stock of the B- size that my other Seramas did. Possibly she was a runt..
When I see that person in future time, I will ask about availability of the Micro size ones.
I never weighed any of mine. You can see one of them from long ago in my Avatar.

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[allosaurusrock]

Hello! I’m an apprentice serama judge and breeder of 7 years.

The Serama Council of North America no longer recognizes weight classes. They just have to be under 14 oz for hens and 16 for cocks.

“Micro” seramas do exist, but should never exist intentionally (in my opinion). They can have shorter lifespans and significant difficulty laying eggs. Occasionally you’ll get a bird that is undersized and healthy but it’s very rare. Your birds aren’t too large, they’re just right. Mine tend to be on the larger side of the standard but I’ve never been docked points for a within standard bird.

The micro serama fad was something I saw a lot of right when I started breeding seramas. Within show breeding circles, I barely ever see them mentioned outside of the “look how small this one turned out” sort of context. You are right to be skeptical of them, as the only people I ever see advertising “micro seramas” are not responsible breeders.

 

[allosaurusrock]

Also part of the reason you see only young birds being pictured when discussing micros is because they very rarely make it to adulthood. My 4 year old silkied hen, Thistle, is clearly starting to feel her age. She has only ever laid fairy eggs. I’ve had two functional micro seramas out of this line, and then another that was not functional and didn’t make it past six months. Chickens aren’t meant to be this small and it can do some really awful stuff to their organs. I’ve just gotten lucky with mine.

 

[TwoCrows]

Seramas are SO darn cute!

@fluffycrow come see!

 

[fluffycrow]

@allosaurusrock is far more knowledgeable than me, when it comes to serama, and I fully agree with the aforementioned. Tiny isn't always everything, and should not be the goal of your breeding programme

Thanks for the tag, @TwoCrows ! Always glad to read more about serama

 

[Chicken raiser393993]

Hello! I’m an apprentice serama judge and breeder of 7 years.

The Serama Council of North America no longer recognizes weight classes. They just have to be under 14 oz for hens and 16 for cocks.

“Micro” seramas do exist, but should never exist intentionally (in my opinion). They can have shorter lifespans and significant difficulty laying eggs. Occasionally you’ll get a bird that is undersized and healthy but it’s very rare. Your birds aren’t too large, they’re just right. Mine tend to be on the larger side of the standard but I’ve never been docked points for a within standard bird.

The micro serama fad was something I saw a lot of right when I started breeding seramas. Within show breeding circles, I barely ever see them mentioned outside of the “look how small this one turned out” sort of context. You are right to be skeptical of them, as the only people I ever see advertising “micro seramas” are not responsible breeders.

Thanks for the information! This is very interesting. I thought I was doing something wrong or that micro seramas were a specific breed at first. So it turns out the micro can just be an occasional runt of the flock in a sense I guess. The way I've been breeding is just keeping the smallest ones and selling the bigger ones. Maybe for these people who are looking for "10oz roosters" who don't know how rare that is, I'll just start selling some cockerals to them since they clearly don't know the difference between what's realistic and what's not. Thank you again for the reply, this will change the way I approach breeding them for sure.

 

[allosaurusrock]

Thanks for the information! This is very interesting. I thought I was doing something wrong or that micro seramas were a specific breed at first. So it turns out the micro can just be an occasional runt of the flock in a sense I guess. The way I've been breeding is just keeping the smallest ones and selling the bigger ones. Maybe for these people who are looking for "10oz roosters" who don't know how rare that is, I'll just start selling some cockerals to them since they clearly don't know the difference between what's realistic and what's not. Thank you again for the reply, this will change the way I approach breeding them for sure.

I’m so glad it was helpful and you’re totally correct that they are just little runts that aren’t anything to brag about.