Bantams or fullsize for eggs?

[crooked stripe]

An under the radar chicken would not be a Black Australorp in my experience. I have 2 and any given time of the day they are out talking loudly. When egg laying comes you can hear them outside the coop then they come out to the perch in the outside run and start all over again. They are great fun to have, very friendly and calm but quiet they are not.

 

[lorihadams]

My EEs are pretty quiet but their eggs are smaller. I also have a red sexlink and she is the best chicken ever. Faithfully gives me an egg a day, even in the cold weather, and is very affectionate and quiet. I also have a little Japanese banty roo and I want to get him 2 hens cause he is so much smaller that I just feel sorry for him....poor thing, just can't prove his manhood!

Get what you like and start small...definitely don't get any roos....whew!

 

[AtRendeAcres]

I got fertile eggs to hatch today & wanted to share!

Giant Cochin vs Silkie
Feed to egg ratio is just so much better (but, I keep getting more LF anyway)

 

[phoenix rooster]

my bantam cochins are quiet compared to the standards, good for under the radar.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Bantams, and LF do not lay better than bantams. Laying ability is dependant on breed more than size.

 

[CK Chickadilly]

My Isa browns are power house layers & lay about evey day, laying a BIG brown egg. I have 4 & usually get 4 eggs per day.

My banties do take off time in the winter but have since started laying again & lay maybe 5 eggs per week each. It takes 2-3 bantie eggs to make one large egg.

I like the taste of the bantie eggs better, my bantie girls egg yolks are richer & oranger than the ISA browns.

The banties are OEGB's & Silkie/Cochins

I kinda like getting a size variety

 

[Akane]

Even my japanese bantam eggs (which are tiny chickens, chicks, and eggs) are not less than 1/3rd of my standards and I have standards laying large eggs. The japs average 25-35grams, the standards 40-50grams, and my xlarge-jumbo layers 60-75+. Xlarge and jumbo are not standard eggs. They won't even fit in a carton from xlarge store bought eggs. The breakdown of store bought egg sizes in the US is :

Jumbo 2 1/2 oz (71g)
Extra-large 2 1/4 oz (64g)
Large 2 oz (57g)
Medium 1 3/4 oz (50g)
Small 1 1/2 oz (43g)
Peewee 1 1/4 oz (35g)

Bantam eggs are usually no more than half of standard eggs in my experience and even if your standards lay larger 2 bantam eggs will usually fulfill the requirement of a large egg in a recipe.


It comes down to how many eggs you need. With 4 bantam hens I don't use all their eggs. Even though I could eat nearly a whole dozen scrambled or hard boiled in one meal I usually don't feel like it and have 3 dozen in my fridge by the time I do feel like eating that many. Now if you eat and bake with a ton of eggs your going to want to maximize the size and number you get. Do you want to just keep a few more hens in bantam size to make up some of the difference? Do you need large eggs for baking? Do you need a breed that lays 200+ a year? Most bantams only make 100-200 a year while some standards can get near the 365 (an egg every single day) if kept under lights over winter.

 

[BoiseBubba]

Quote:
Okay, I know everyone is saying "Rhode Island Red" or " Red Sex-Link" or even "Leghorn" but I have come to find that RIRs are poor layers, they don't start laying until 8 months, plus they are loud as heck. And the same with Leghorns, except they aren't cold hardy. Sex-Links are OK, but still not great. Try Easter Eggers (Amercaunas, Araucanas) they are quiet and calm,as well as great layers, they lay Green and Blue and Pink eggs and are hardy and come in many colors. And if you don't want EEs then try ducks, their not as quiet but are much more hardy than ANY chicken. Oh and bantys are useless for eggs, their not as reliable as full size hens.

 

[al6517]

Quote:
This is why you can't just double your eggs and adjust to size when baking. baking is a science of exact measurements, if you are serious about your cooking use standard eggs that are called for, if your not serious then do what you want.

AL

 

[crooked stripe]

RChicks those eggs are beautiful. I wish I had a few for the bator.