Critiquing an Ayam Serama

Here’s a photo of one of my Ayam Serama. We’re going to go over what is good and bad about this boy.

First we’ll hit the bad. The white arrow is highlighting the fact that his wings are too short for his leg length, IMO. I’d like to see his wing tips almost touch his outer toe. He needs to pull his head back just a touch more. His eye should line up just behind his leg, which is indicated by the light blue line. The wings could come forward more, the front feather of his wing could line up closer to purple line.

The good: His tail is at a 65 degree angle. I actually measured it with a protractor. The yellow line for his tail needs to be aligned with the edge of his sickle feather but trying to do that on an IPhone is difficult! His chest is nice and round, the yellow circle how round his chest is. His tail is full but not so flowing that he looks like he has an Old English Game Bantam tail. His back is nice and short. He does not have scissor wing.

If I was to place him in a home I could be sneaky and say he is a Modern “type” Ayam Serama because of the longer legs or the shorter wings. That’s not the case. He is not a modern type. There are a ton of other attributes that make a modern a modern. He just has a fault in that area. If you are looking for good, show bloodlines to add to your flock don’t get caught up in a sales pitch and hone your “eye” so you can pick out the good and bad in a bird even if it’s your own!

It’s difficult sometimes to pick apart your own birds but in order to improve we have to be able to find things that need improvement and choose birds that can fill in those gaps in our breeding programs. You also don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. If there are more good things than bad you may want to keep the bird and pair it with something that can help improve those faults. That’s part of the fun of breeding is know you built your flock and your bloodlines one piece at a time.

Enjoy!!