Serama

Traditional Serama bred by Jerry Schexnayder, the importer of Serama to the USA CC Author: Rsteagall

Serama Hen from the US. File by Brian Sparks CC

Grey King 2015 Author Ramesh 86 CC

Origin: Malaysia

Category: True Bantam, Softfeather Light

Egg Colour: White to brown

Sitter:

The Serama is a true bantam breed that may have arisen in Malaysia through the crossing of Japanese and Malaysian bantams. It was named after a popular character Sri Rama from the traditional shadow puppet plays. In Malaysia the bird is known as a small brave chicken with a persona of fearless warrior or toy soldior. The shape, behaviour, temperament and size of the bird are the most important characteristics. In their native country they are trained to display on a table before a panel of judges, and are regarded as a living work of art. The breed is relatively new to both Britain (2004) and Australia. It was included in the 2016 importation of poultry from Britain to Australia.

Male Characteristics

Carriage: proud, upright with a feafless confident stance. They are calm and manageable and should be easily handled and show no aggression. The bird should post readily and when viewed fromt he side should create a vase-like or wide 'V' shape outline. They shake their wings and pose, walk with pride, pull their head back to reveal a large chest, lift the legs, and in some cases have neck/head vibrations similar to that of a pigeon.

Type

Body: compact muscular body, short back, broad chest. From above the shape is somewhat elliptical, tapering towards the tail. The body should be short.

Back: short almost fully covered by abundant hackle.

Shoulder: Hidden beneath neck hackle - set high on the bird.

Breast: well developed, held high and carried visibly forward lending upright stature.

Wings: Large but proportionate, held vertically or slightly lifted, tips just clearing the ground leaving the feet partially visible, carried close to the body.

Primaries: Long and of medium width.

Secondaries: Moderately long and broad.

Tail: full and carried high, pointing upwards and held close to the body of the bird with no space between the body and tail. The sickle feathers are relatively straight and spear-like - a minimum of one inch longer than the other tail feathers, but ideally no more than a couple of inches above the head is desirable. The remaining tail feathers should ideally be no higher than the top of the comb when the bird is standing to attention. The main tail feathers should be broad and should overlap neatly. The tail should be open and when viewed from behind should be open to an angle of 45 degrees creating an open "V" shape. The tail held very high - between 70 and 90 degrees from horizontal.

Head: The head should be small and carried well back.

Comb: The single comb is small to medium in size with a minimum of five serrations preferred. The comb should be straight, smooth, free of folds or any deformities and tending towards flyaway type.

Eyes: bright and bold.

Earlobes: small.

Wattles: should complement the comb, smaller being preferred and free from folds and wrinkles.

Neck: short and covered with abundant hackling that falls over the back, shoulders, secondaries and even onto tail coverts.

Legs and feet: Legs are of medium length, straight, smooth and set wide apart to allow for full and muscular body. Thighs well muscled of medium length with shanks of good thickness. Legs should not appear soft and weak. Four toes evenly spread.

Plumage: Australia recognises smooth and silkied Serama.

Female Characteristics

Colour

Seramas are not colour bred in their native country. In Australia any colour or combination of colours is accepted.

Weights

Bantam Male up to 500g

Bantam Female up to 450g

Scale of points

More than half of the points are allocated for type and carriage. The remaining features are given far smaller consideration.

Serious Defects

Comb defects or contrary to standard (e.g. inverted comb), poor posture (too low or drooping carriage), unbalanced body proportions (excessively long body), other structural faults that detract from the defined breed type.

Scale of Points

In Australia 55 of the points available are allocated for type and carriage, reflecting the dominant feature of the bird. Temperament is a very distant second priority at 15 and other features are granted even fewer points.

In American they split Type and Character to arrive at a scale of points like this, however if you combined the first two into one it would be very close to the Australian scale of points: