Bantam chickens.. a friendly discussion about all pure and mixed breeds.

[ChickNanny13]

I wish I could say the same! I haven't been nearly as lucky. From here on out, I think I'll stick with pick-up, whenever possible. I'd rather make a ridiculous drive than go through this again. It's SO heartbreaking!

Living here (HI) is the worst when ordering chicks Very nerve wrecking and the PO isn't very "helpful". I have a friend order several times, at the PO as they open hearing chicks but told none arrive She didn't handle that very well. Many times we order double of what we want, anticipating we'll loose half what's ordered which is very heartwrenching People have has success and we continue to order, no other way to get some of the breeds offered by hatcheries (some are willing to deal with the red tape).

There are a few bantam breeds I just but have yet to take the plunge. Still researching

 

[igorsMistress]

Hmmm ... online orders. If I were to do it again, which I really do't plan on doing, I would do just as I did this time. This looks and may sound detailed, but it isn't hard, honest!

First, double check that your shipper knows exactly which post office to use - call the PO for the ID number, if you have to. It's easy and a good safeguard. A few days before your chicks are due to ship, call the PO and let them know to expect live chicks "on or about" the date. Make sure they know whether to deliver them to your home or to hold them at the Post Office for you to pick up. If you can, pick them up right away. If you send them out for regular delivery, there is no telling how long they will have to sit in a super-hot truck.

Call again as soon as you get the "Your chicks have shipped" notice from your hatchery. Your PO can usually tell you what time the delivery truck is due, so you can be ready. If you have an order tracking number, provide it to the PO. They can put out a track from their end and tell you exactly where your babies are sitting.

When you get the call that your babies are in-house, head to the PO. Mail trucks are notorious for schedule changes in either direction, so if you leave before you get "The Call," have a distraction on-hand, especially for Little People!

Some people like to bring their chicks home to check, but both times, my babies were late, so I checked them right there in the Post Office. Lemme tell you, I drew some interesting stares and comments, sitting on the floor in the corner with a box (and a handful) of very vocal chicks!

Suspecting that I would be in "Rescue Mode," I prepared a Delivery Kit. It worked out so well that I recommend it to anyone! It had:

Prepared electrolyte solution
Chick Saver, NutriDrench, Pedialyte, in a pinch, Gatorade. There are also DIY electrolyte mixes. Brand doesn't matter so much as getting something into their stressed systems so they recover quickly
An eyedropper to give them the electrolytes. They haven't learned how to drink yet and can drown, otherwise.
Paper towels or a soft tee shirt - to limit panic struggling (theirs, not yours!)
A fresh transport box - lined with a puppy piddle pad or paper towels (not shavings - no grip!) It especially helps if any chicks have died in transport. You can get the other babies out and get a clear picture in an empty box. Take your shipping box home with you, as the Hatchery will usually ask you questions about it, especially f there are losses.

Once you get them home, dose them again with liquids/electrolytes/vitamin water, whatever you have. Most bounce back pretty quickly, given some time to rest. The hardest part is letting them do that ... rest ... when all you really want to do is HOLD THEM!

I'd LOVE to see pics of your Fayoumis when they come. I've only seen adult birds. well, I've SORTOF seen adult birds ... they wouldn't stand still long enough to get a really good look at them, and no one could catch them!
And I LOVE me some Naked Necks! What breed will you start with?

Wow, thanks so much for this!! I really appreciate the detail.

I have a Naked Neck crew right now. And one Silver Dorking/Red Ranger mix. Oh and now 2 Ayam Cemani chicks. I'd like to breed my current roo with the EF hens since they're heat hardy. I recently lost 2 hens to the heat here and I think they'd be a good addition to the gene pool. Plus, according to a study I read they're Marek's resistant. That's a huge plus.

 

[MROO]

Living here (HI) is the worst when ordering chicks Very nerve wrecking and the PO isn't very "helpful". I have a friend order several times, at the PO as they open hearing chicks but told none arrive She didn't handle that very well. Many times we order double of what we want, anticipating we'll loose half what's ordered which is very heartwrenching People have has success and we continue to order, no other way to get some of the breeds offered by hatcheries (some are willing to deal with the red tape).

There are a few bantam breeds I just but have yet to take the plunge. Still researching

That stinks - both literally and figuratively! But I guess some of the losses are understandable, given the distance and the heat. Still, you'd think the employees would be better about it. Even if they don't care about a little creature's life, you'd think they'd want to take better care of them to avoid the smell in the office. After just one day's delay in shipping, the one tiny dead chick in my own order positively REEKED! Avoiding that smell, alone, would make me want to take better care of live animals coming through the Post Office! Eeeeeewwww!
What type of bantams are you considering? There are SO many fascinating options. It's like wandering through a candy store ... but then, I'm lie that with Standard fowl, too. Luckily, I have limited space, so I went the bantam route ... so I can have more. I say "luckily" only because it limits my options ... at least a little bit!

 

[ChickNanny13]

What type of bantams are you considering? There are SO many fascinating options. It's like wandering through a candy store ... but then, I'm lie that with Standard fowl, too. Luckily, I have limited space, so I went the bantam route ... so I can have more. I say "luckily" only because it limits my options ... at least a little bit!

EEs are fun cause they have the varied colors ... However the Mille Fluers and Nankins have perked my interest. Just can't get past the feathered feet issue ... Serama's are easy to come by here but I know that they're not the "best" of stock. OEGB are plentiful here, found someone that raises Japanese Bantams but haven't seen the actual birds.

 

[MROO]

EEs are fun cause they have the varied colors ... However the Mille Fluers and Nankins have perked my interest. Just can't get past the feathered feet issue ... Serama's are easy to come by here but I know that they're not the "best" of stock. OEGB are plentiful here, found someone that raises Japanese Bantams but haven't seen the actual birds.

My four remaining bantam EEs seem to be doing better ... fingers crossed. I have a handful of Nankin eggs in the incubator. They should hatch out in the next few days, if they're going to hatch at all. We had turner issues the first week, so development hasn't been very consistent and we've had quite a few quitters already. I've left them completely alone for the last week, in hopes that they'll settle and decide to keep going!

I like the feathered feet, too, but I'm a sucker for the Nankins. I had Porcelain D'uccles a while back and I LOVED them! They were a bit timid, bordering on flighty, but when things were calm, they were friendly and talkative ... always talkative. I miss the hen's soft, near-constant chatter and the cock's open curiosity. And Holy Cow, they were pretty! The male had the biggest foot plates I've ever seen on a chicken ... bantam OR standard! They ween't really porcelain colored, either. It's more like someone took every color in the rainbow and bleached them down to a soft pearl-tone before blending them together in a soft camo pattern. Gee, can you tell I really liked them? If I had more space, I would have kept that pair ... but my Nannies come first ... always. Besides, if I'd kept the D'uccles, I wouldn't have my beautiful rooster flock ... and I dearly love The Boys. They're eye candy and entertainment all rolled into one run. Fun!

 

[renk777]

Hi! Posted this in the general breed discussion but haven't received a reply. Then I found this thread! Anyone have any insight to offer? Basically, I need to rehome the boys but if one will give me some unique offspring (if girls start laying soon enough), I'll hold onto that one the longest. If any of you have mixed color cochin bantams, I'd love to hear what you crossed and see pics of the result! I'm thinking that if I keep the gold/blue boy, I'll get a variety of blue or blue/gold or black/gold offspring. That's the way I'm leaning even though he's not pure. But I also like the idea of more b&w. Would the silver penciled be the way to go then to increase my chances of black patterned silver birds? https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-choosing-which-roo-to-keep-the-longest.1400757/

 

[MROO]

Hi! Posted this in the general breed discussion but haven't received a reply. Then I found this thread! Anyone have any insight to offer? Basically, I need to rehome the boys but if one will give me some unique offspring (if girls start laying soon enough), I'll hold onto that one the longest. If any of you have mixed color cochin bantams, I'd love to hear what you crossed and see pics of the result! I'm thinking that if I keep the gold/blue boy, I'll get a variety of blue or blue/gold or black/gold offspring. That's the way I'm leaning even though he's not pure. But I also like the idea of more b&w. Would the silver penciled be the way to go then to increase my chances of black patterned silver birds? https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-choosing-which-roo-to-keep-the-longest.1400757/

Hi! I don't have cochins (except for one little hen who goes broody at the drop of a hat) but I can probably point you in the right direction for genetics questions. Do a search in the Articles section & you should come up with some good articles ... a the names of a handful of serious chicken geneticists.
Good luck on yor color mixes. And if you can't rehome your boys, don't stress too much over it (unless they're not allowed where you are.) A lot of us keep very successful bachelor coops/flocks. I LOVE my handsome fellas!

 

[renk777]

Hi! I don't have cochins (except for one little hen who goes broody at the drop of a hat) but I can probably point you in the right direction for genetics questions. Do a search in the Articles section & you should come up with some good articles ... a the names of a handful of serious chicken geneticists.
Good luck on yor color mixes. And if you can't rehome your boys, don't stress too much over it (unless they're not allowed where you are.) A lot of us keep very successful bachelor coops/flocks. I LOVE my handsome fellas!

I can't keep roos I have in the past because I have some really cool neighbors but we've had new people move in. I've utilized collars before but 2 of my roos got distended crops from them. And in our congested community, they were still pretty loud. I was holding onto my avatar bird as long as possible as he wasn't crowing yet but he passed last week..as did a couple other birds. I suspect they ingested debris from fireworks a neighbor set off I'm having a necropsy done to find out. If I'm right, that'll create tension, I'm sure...which will make keeping a rooster more difficult I did use the kippen calculator to get a basic idea but it seems chicken genetics are wacky sometimes and the blue/gold bird isn't a standard mix so I suspect he could throw some odd offspring. And if I'm looking for black patterned silver birds, the penciled one might be the one to keep but I don't know...perhaps not. I did do searches on Cochin mixes which is how I arrived here but I didn't check the articles. I fear they might be over my head but I'll take a peek. TY!

 

[fuzzi]

Oh, yes, I definitely understand needing to tell them apart for properly calling them by their names! I've never had pecking problems with leg bands over the years, so the only difficulty is finding the right size and getting them on. Sometimes those birds can really give you a fight when you're trying to band them!

The leg bands they're wearing in that picture were 9mm EZ Elastic Rings that I got from Foy's (link: https://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/leg-bands/2792-e-z-elastic-rings-starter-kit-size-9mm-20-of-each ), which were a recommendation of a friend and I honestly love them! They come in a bunch of sizes and are perfect for newly hatched chicks all the way up to tiny bantams! That said, I'm not sure how your Sebrights and Rosecombs compare in size to those OEGB girls, who are truly tiny, even smaller than my own Sebright hen.

You can also get small zip ties at a hardware store or sometimes even a general store in multi-color packs, and they work well for leg bands as long as you're careful not to tighten them too much. Zip until they're just tight enough that they won't slip off over their foot, and then snip off the excess so it's not dragging. With zips, you'll also want to keep a close eye on them just to make sure they don't get too tight. If your birds are older and fully grown, that's less of a concern, but still best to check every now and then to be safe. Those two OEGB girls are in zip ties now, only really because the EZ rings were meant for babies and they're not really babies anymore. This picture is more recent and shows Vega with her zip tie band on, loose enough to be comfortable without being so loose that she can get it off:

View attachment 1946285

There are a lot of other leg band options, too, which I'm sure others can recommend or review. These are just what I've used with my birds here.

I know this post is four years old, but I found it extremely helpful.

Link to the EZ rings no longer works but I found them here:
https://foyspetsupplies.com/ez-elastic-ring-starter-kit-9-mm/