Bantam Owners Out There - Give Me Your Opinion, Please...

[seedcorn]

1) I have chickens as a hobby and I love to hear roosters crow in AM.

2) Bantams fit #1 and eat less feed. Lay eggs, just not as large.

3) Started w/cochins--bantams are much nicer than standards w/feathering. For me LF cochins are a waste, don't lay, eat too much feed, lose look of feathering.

 

[lady and her girls]

They are fast movers and a bit shy- flighty. Survival of the fittest I guess. If your able to work with them when they are chicks they will follow you like dogs.

 

[lisa new chickens]

Are you talking about Seabrights or Bantams in general?..Are seabrights Bantams?

 

[lady and her girls]

seabright as far as I know are banties correct me if I am wrong.

 

[TK Poultry]

sebrights are true bantams meaning there is no LF counterpart

 

[bantybev]

I have never had standard size chickens to compare, but I love my bantams. I chose bantams over large fowl as a beginner because I was less intimidated by them. I can have more birds per space and there are just so many colors and types. With the bantams I can get more variety because I can have more chickens

I have always liked miniature pets (maybe because I am only 4'10"...lol) We like the smaller eggs, and the yolk to white ratio in the eggs is suppose to be greater with bantam eggs. I do worry more about preditors with my little ones, so I keep them in a large, divided run for now.

 

[TJ]

My goodness, thank you all for responding! What great advice too!

I just posted another post regarding ordering straight run bantams. Do you all have advice in regards to what number of each type to order to beat the odds of receiving all roosters? I know this sounds silly but I don't know if I should order 5 of each type or 3 of each type...I've never ordered straight run before.

If any of you have any advice on this I would sure appreciate it!

Thank you so much!

~tj

 

[schellie69]

I have 3 bantam EE's all three lay blue eggs, I have one Mix cochin bantam rooster I love all 4 of them rest of my flock are standard sizes I would love to get more bantams just because there are such a variety of colors now I have noticed that there are some bantams that are smaller then others. my EE"s are half the size of my cochin rooster I think each size has their own positive and negatives now my EE"s are more stand offish but i got them as older chicks and they were not handled as much so when I get more I will handle them more then mine where. I use 2 bantam eggs for one regular egg works just as well and on your last question I guess it would depend on how many chickens you want or can have now with straight run your chances of getting more roosters then hens so you might want to think about what your are going to do with the extra rooster's

 

[Southernbelle]

I love bantams! I have both standards and bantams, but I prefer raising chicks with a broody so I love how broody bantams are. I also love how cheap they are to feed, how much quieter they crow and how darn cute they are!

To answer your question about ordering stright run, I'll give you an example...

First time I ordered Silkies, I ordered 20 from a hatchery:
5 Buff
5 White
10 Blue

I ended up with exactly 50% roosters and 50% hens, BUT...

all 5 of the buffs were roosters
4 whites were hens, 1 rooster
6 blues were hens, 4 roosters

I also order 10 D'uccles and ended up with 4 hens and 6 roosters.

The more chicks you order, the better chance you have of getting close to that 50:50 ratio.

 

[L0rraine]

When I added Silkies to our menagerie, my husband said "We should have started with these!". I'm now hooked on the bantams as they are easier to house and feed (and more entertaining for our guests). And we love the tiny little eggs 'sunny side up'.

However, the nice thing about our standard hens, is that they can free-range with less worry about the hawks and eagles, and we do find it calming to watch them out and about in the yard foraging. I'm a nervous wreck when I let the 'little ones' out (and ONLY when I'm right there gardening). My husband loves how easy it is for me to round up the 'big' hens. I just shout "Come on girls -- time to get 'tucked-in!" and they come running and follow me back to the coop.