I needed to keep my flock small so bantams were a logical choice. On my birthday last year (October)I read an advertisement on craigs list and made arrangement to buy a trio of Red Pyle O.E.G.B.(8 week old) from a local farm. On the way home the 2 pullets were quiet in the cardboard box but the cockerel decided to fly out of the box up on my shoulder, I guess he wanted to see where we were going.
They started laying in January but I had to put golf balls in the nesting boxes to get them to lay in the nests. In march both hens went broody at the same week, And I was totally unprepared ( only 4 eggs on hand ) I managed to slip out the golf balls and put the eggs under red and next day blondie was setting on 2 golf balls. Twenty One days later red hatched out 3 little fuzz balls out of 4 eggs one chick died ( cause unknown ) I wound up getting 1 cockerel and one pullet from the first hatch. Next in early July Red goes broody again this time I'm ready I have 6 eggs available and blondie contributes one to the cause, 21 days later hatch 7 of 7.
Now I have 1 adult rooster 2 adult hens 1 juvenile cockerel 1 juvenile pullet and 7 able to fly short distances fuzzbutts. My little flock of 12 is self sustaining!
These small birds have big personalities I let them out for a couple of hours before sundown to roam the yard ( chicken psychology 101) when the sunsets they are ready to go home on their own.
All in all these are great birds to have IMHO the adults are protective of their babies and not as flighty as I was told, they are prolific breeders, they won't break the feed budget and I think they are compact beautiful chickens. They interact very well with human contact in my experience.
The only real drawback I have is if a recipe calls for 3 large eggs I have to use 6 banty eggs.
They started laying in January but I had to put golf balls in the nesting boxes to get them to lay in the nests. In march both hens went broody at the same week, And I was totally unprepared ( only 4 eggs on hand ) I managed to slip out the golf balls and put the eggs under red and next day blondie was setting on 2 golf balls. Twenty One days later red hatched out 3 little fuzz balls out of 4 eggs one chick died ( cause unknown ) I wound up getting 1 cockerel and one pullet from the first hatch. Next in early July Red goes broody again this time I'm ready I have 6 eggs available and blondie contributes one to the cause, 21 days later hatch 7 of 7.
Now I have 1 adult rooster 2 adult hens 1 juvenile cockerel 1 juvenile pullet and 7 able to fly short distances fuzzbutts. My little flock of 12 is self sustaining!
These small birds have big personalities I let them out for a couple of hours before sundown to roam the yard ( chicken psychology 101) when the sunsets they are ready to go home on their own.
All in all these are great birds to have IMHO the adults are protective of their babies and not as flighty as I was told, they are prolific breeders, they won't break the feed budget and I think they are compact beautiful chickens. They interact very well with human contact in my experience.
The only real drawback I have is if a recipe calls for 3 large eggs I have to use 6 banty eggs.
