Good banty breed & hatchery choice for young girls stock?

[gabbyscritters]

We have had banty chickens for years, nothing special baryard types from large hatcheries, far from quality chickens. Our 8 year old has been incubating and raising chicks since she was 5, keeping some and selling the rest. Last fall she sold all "her" chikcens so she could buy some "fancy" banty chickens.

We are probably going to try Urch-Turnland. From this forum and others it looks to be a good choice for quality and potential for show chickens?

She is intrigued by showing her birds, so we would like to get her quality stock. Instead of the cheaper chicks from the large hatcheries. I would like to get birds for a change that don't have crooked feet and crossed beaks.

She spends alot of time with her chickens and tames them. She likes the "fancy" looking chickens but mostly she likes a nice friendly bird.
Do some of these breeds sound like good choices for her, looking for temperment, maybe some 4-H showing and letting her continue to raise chicks.
Thinking 5 or 6 banty breeds depending on what they will have available.
Buckeye
Bearded Golden or Bearded Buff Laced Polish
Salmon Faverolle
Bearded Mille Fleur
White Frizzle
White Cochin
Wheaton Ameraucana
Silver penciled rock
Any thoughts?

 

[Penny Pacific]

I don't know about the other breeds you mentioned, but I have silver and wheaten Ameraucana bantams. I got the wheaten ones because I thought they were so pretty. They are! I love looking at them. They are beautiful! But for some reason they seemed to be the most shy of all my chickens. I got a total of 56 last spring, all Ameraucana, most of them large fowl (Silver, Wheaten, Black, and Lavender) and also a few of the silver and wheaten bantams. I did not choose the silvers for their looks, but rather because I understood them to be best for laying blue eggs. The silver bantams are my favorites. They are not shy, and just have to be OUT of the pen. I can't help spoiling them. They don't usually mind me holding them, though they are often too "busy" to let me hold them. Maybe it is their unique personalities I like.

It could be that if I had been able to spend more time with the wheaten ameraucana bantams they would have become less shy. It was hard to spend a lot of time with each of the 56 chicks. I have less now after getting rid of most of the roosters. Only 5 of them were wheaten Ameraucana (three hens and two roosters the roosters were and still are the shyest - probebly a good thing as my silver bantam roosters, not being shy at all like to attack people!).

One of my wheaten bantams knows how to get out of the pen to lay her egg more privately. She will sometimes let me pick her up to put her back in the pen, but usually wants to go in by herself when I open the door for her.

 

[Godiva]

I don't have experience with all the breeds you mentioned. However, my daughter who is 6 yrs old adores her bantam cochins and belgian bearded mille fleur d'uccles. They are very tame, easy to handle, and beautiful too. But if you get show quality bantam cochins you may need to help her out with trimming the very fluffy vent feathers or the fertility is not good. If the quality of cochin is not that good the fertility goes up with less effort. But having said all that I think that the bantam cochins are a fantastic choice for a kid. Just be sure you get good quality ones though, we had some hatchery stock and some from a private individual on this forum that really were not nice (personality or looks). So do a little looking around before you commit to a particular source. Good luck!

 

[jossanne]

Only bantams I have ANY experience with are bantam cochins, and we love them! Ours are just regular hatchery quality, but they are friendly and sweet. My 10yo daughter loves them and packs them around. They started laying this week at 5 months old.

I gave away 4 little bantam cochin roos, and one woman took two of them for her grandson. A few days later, she came to my house saying the little guys were so friendly and sweet, and now they needed a pullet to go with them. So I sold her a bantam cochin pullet to go with them. Now I'm short one, but I couldn't tell her grandsons no.

SO... I've had great experience so far with bantam cochins, and would highly recommend them to anyone. Calm, sweet, pretty, very showable (not mine, but good ones )) and great with kids.

 

[Ryu]

If I were you, I would go to an early show and look at the breeds. When she finds a couple she really likes, approach the owner about getting some birds.

In my experience, breeders love to get young people involved with their breeds, and give/or practically give free better birds than she could have gotten from a hatchery.

My sister raises bantams (Dutch and MGB) and I know she has a real soft spot for the kids...I'd take advantage of that. That's how she got her start years and years ago.

Good Luck!

 

[EweSheep]

Faverolles are so laid back and they are good for kids!

My orp bantams are laid back too and good for kids for showing!

I agree with Ryu about visiting a poultry show, you will get a better idea of the show birds and have your daughter pick a few breeds that she wants to have.