bantams vs. standard size

[wildorchid053]

i would like to add some easter eggers to my flock.. i have 4 red sex link hens and one rhode island hen.. the sex link have short legs and chubby and the rir hen is tall and slim. could the red sex link be bantams? i see they have bantam and standard easter eggers but i don't know which would fit in the best? i don't know how small bantams are.

 

[Akane]

There is a wide range. Some bantams are very tiny. Even if we ignore seramas there are several breeds that are close to 1lb and other breeds that are close to 3lbs. Then there are standards from 4lbs to 8+. The dividing line between a bantam and standard isn't always clear especially when you get into mixed breeds like easter eggers. EEs are basically mutts. They can be anything and have any characteristics so long as they lay colored eggs. It really doesn't matter which you get. You just have to decide what size eggs you need and what size chickens you want to take care of. Generally problems only occur when you have very small bantam hens with very large roosters. I had a tiny hen injured by my huge rooster.

As an example of the amount of size difference I'm talking about here's one of my little bantam hens near the big rooster. She's hardly any taller than his legs

 

[Rooster1235597]

dang the bantam looks like a 3 mounth old chick

 

[Akane]

I think she was a few months past starting to lay then and the same age as the roo in this pic with her

The bigger hens are standard EEs that hadn't started laying yet. They are a bit smaller than the hens from the same mix and hatch as the big roo. The bantams and standards still get along fine except for the problem of the large roo attempting to mate the tiny hens.

I'm pretty sure that's how one ended up with an injured leg so I'm building a bantam coop for my smallest bantams. I have a few lakenvelder and hamburg chicks now which are rather small standards so the size differences should be interesting when they grow up.

 

[wildorchid053]

that is one tiny hen.. think i will get the standard.. ty

 

[shelleyd2008]

Bantam easter eggers aren't usually that small, and standard easter egger hens (that I've seen) are not as big as that rooster. They are kind of in-between.
My bantam EE hens are probably twice as big as the hen in Akane's pics.

 

[Akane]

Most standards are not as big as my rooster. He is huge compared to those EE hens. Many bantams are not as small as my japanese bantams. Especially the ones that were created from standards. Japanese bantams have no standard version. They are a true bantam. Bantams that are bred down from standards will usually be bigger. If you have small standards that you are questioning if they are bantams anyway then you won't notice a huge size difference if you get one of the larger bantams. If you don't have an oversized rooster then everyone should get along fine no matter what you choose to get. My tiny bantam hens have no problems around even my largest standard hens. The big roo is the only issue and only since that bantam roo in the pic got killed protecting his flock. He's no longer around to keep the big roo in his place and off the bantam hens.