Bantams And Standards

[Madie'sOddFlock]

This is probably a stupid question, but I just bought my first incubator(so I can stop relying on my unreliable broody hens). And for a while now I've been thinking about getting bantams(actually I've wanted them since the beginning but it wasn't the right thing for the business at the time). I figure if I hatch them out then no one can say I can't have them... Anyways, my question is if it's possible to breed your own line of bantams from standard sized birds? I've tried finding the answer a bunch of different times and have come up with nothing.
Thanks,
Madie

 

[sylviethecochin]

You could. But it would take a long, long time to breed your line of bantams solely from standard stock. And generally, any animals that are significantly smaller than their siblings or parents have something wrong with them (inability to process certain vitamins properly, hormone problems, early sickness that stopped them from growing properly to begin with) so you'd have to be super-vigilant about culling any animals that show problems.

I'd just buy some bantams.

 

[Gray Farms]

Agreed. Were talking decades of work and hundreds of chicks per year. Picking the smallest for breeding yet culling for defects. Line breeding and finding unrelated breeding stock from time to time. If your going to do it then more power to you. But I wouldn't have the patience.

Are you trying to breed a bantam that currently isn't out there?

 

[Madie'sOddFlock]

Are you trying to breed a bantam that currently isn't out there?

Well, I was thinking of trying to get blrw bantams, but from the sounds of it I'll just live with my big softies. They've got enough of little-man-syndrome as it is.

 

[Gray Farms]

There are BLR Wyandotte bantams out there if you can locate a breeder. I've seen some at auctions here in the Midwest.