The Serama comes from Malaysia, and it is a small chicken. We usually call small chicken breeds “bantams.” And they are so small, that they can be kept in a relatively small place. Now, bantams of all breeds produce tiny eggs, and if you want to eat one, there’s not that much to make a meal.
These little chickens are the Yorkies of the chicken world. They are bold and curious, and they are quite lively.
Now, if you’re not into that, well, there is a breed of bantam that is the golden retriever of the chickens– the silkie.
Silkies make perfect brood hens for hatching other birds’ eggs. They very easily can be coaxed into taking eggs that aren’t theirs. This broodiness trait has been bred out of most egg producing strains of chicken.
Also, they have black meat, skin, and bones. They don’t produce much meat, but the Chinese value this black meat for medicinal purposes.
These are but two breeds of chicken that are small enough for the average person to keep. Now, I won’t say that either is a great egg or meat producer, but both can make wonderful and rather exotic looking pets.
Bantams are a good choice if you must keep the chooks in strict confinement anyway and want a pet or hobby.
If you have the option of free-ranging, even for a little while each day in a suburban or urban yard, or if you can make a large run, I recommend heavy standard breeds.
They are calmer, and very important, they are poor flyers. Bantams remember that they are birds, and can take off over the fence. Heavy breeds have a brief period of inept flying as teenagers, then pretty much give it up as they get to laying age.
Buff Orpingtons are, IMO, the golden retrievers of the chicken world. Very nice friendly temperaments, no aggression. They also go broody, though not with the predictability of silkies. I have three; two have gone broody so far this spring, one still sitting on eggs in a trance. They are big-looking birds with fluffy (though normal) feathers.
Any broody hen will brood whatever eggs you slip under her. They just aren’t that bright. They’ll brood golf balls. Silkies will hatch them.
I knew a fellow from Australia who called them chooks. That’s the second time I’ve heard that word.
I’m not a chicken person. I really love gamebirds, especially ornamental pheasants, like Lady Amherst’s and goldens (which can hybridize).
Some friends of ours have some silkies and Old English games (not for fighting). I’ve never seen such a contrast in temperaments. The Old English remind me of ring-necked pheasants. They never settle in captivity. The silkies are just very much into being pets.
Now for eggs, I like coturnix quail eggs.
Interestingly, the games also have a reputation for being good broodies.
But your friend did pick an odd mix. Kind of like keeping pugs and Jack Russell terriers in the same household.
Some of the game birds are beautiful, but they require so much infrastructure — secure covered pens, etc.
The chickens are so civilized. One of the things that tickles my husband most is how they put themselves to bed at night, and get very grumpy if one of us doesn’t come down to close the door promptly.
Having just spent far too much time last night trying to herd 16 brainless ducklings into their new night shelter, I’m now inclined to agree that this is one of their best features.
These birds are their son’s pets. He also keeps pygmy goats, which have to be watched closely because they just scream to coyotes “Come and eat me!”
I live in a state where cockfighting has been banned, but it’s only a misdemeanor and law enforcement isn’t too keen on stopping it.
You often go driving along back roads and see hundreds of roosters tied up to what look like small doghouses. I know of some people whose neighbor down the road (by half a mile) started a chicken yard like this. And the noise is just deafening even from that distance. Those roosters crow and challenged each other all day long.
Yes, I live in a state where people are allowed to do anything to a chicken that you want to, but you can’t hold cockfights. If you do, there is a fine.
Now, the most interesting poultry I’ve kept have been Muscovy ducks, which don’t come from Moscow. I had one that had imprinted on dogs, which was a fatal mistake considering what kind of dogs I have. And another that imprinted on people. The one that imprinted on people was excellent. Much more intelligent than mallards and their domestic variants.
However, you’ve got to get past their wattles. The drakes can be absolutely obnoxious. The hens are usually quite nice.
I once paid a social call to a dog breeder in another state. Yard full of fighting cocks tied up to those little A-frames. And casually mentioning that her husband and brother were away on the cockfighting circuit in Louisiana (where it was still legal at the time.)
Ooookaaaay….
I mean, NO awareness that blood sport for gambling purposes is not socially acceptable.
It was a little like being at a picnic and having some jackass let rip with racial epithets in the mistaken belief that because everyone else there is white, everyone else is the same sort of klan-wannabe trash as he is.
I had a moderately good opinion of that particular breeder before the visit. Notsomuch afterwards. And her subsequent behavior over the next few years validated the impression that the fighting cocks had begun.
My training mentor had ‘scovies. I found them weird. But they were clearly clever survivors. My khakis have to be protected from their own suicidal impulses — but I’m told they will lay epic quantities of eggs.