Hypothetical Question

[JesWith3]

If you want to, you can breed a bantam rooster to a full-sized hen. Chicks will probably grow up to be medium in size. Females from that can be crossed to a bantam rooster, and some of the next generation should be smaller.

Of course you will have bantam-sized chickens faster by just breeding from bantams, but if you enjoy breeding projects and like the traits of your current hens...



You might think about whether you want extra feathers and fancy traits (crests, feathered feet, muff/beard on the face, sikie or frizzle feathers, extra toes.) Some bantams have them and some bantams do not. Silkie feathers are recessive. If you cross a Silkie with something else, you get chicks with normal feathers. The others are mostly dominant traits, so they tend to show up in a first generation of a cross. If you breed the mixes to each other or to another "normal" type chicken, you will get some without the extra traits.

If you want to avoid broodiness, you can selectively breed among whichever chickens you have (mainly a matter of hatching eggs from the hens that go broody less or not at all, rather than eggs from the ones that go broody most often.) If you like having some broodies, then obviously you do not have to do that.

I assume you know that hatching eggs will give you a bunch of males as well as females. I hope you have a plan to deal with the extras. Bantams are just as edible as any other chicken, if you want to eat the extras. They're just smaller.

Fanciness doesn't matter *much* to me. It's fun of course and we do love the fuzzy Silkies, but I'm most interested in personality and egg color. That aside, I am not opposed to eating smaller chickens (enough of them make great bone broth and stock, especially). That's exactly what we plan to do with the extras
My son saves one here n' there...ones he forms a special bond with. Currently, he is housing 'Crook' (short for Crooked due to cross beak) the mauve Silkie roo in his room with the bird's own giant dog kennel lol This, of course, aside from his Snake, Iguana, and two cats (sigh).
But yes, I think I'll just have fun with my own little breeding programs and create the perfect bitty flock. I'll breed for personality, smaller size, best layers, broodiness (we want broody), resilience, and egg color.
Thanks a million for all of your input!

 

[JesWith3]

If you want to, you can breed a bantam rooster to a full-sized hen. Chicks will probably grow up to be medium in size. Females from that can be crossed to a bantam rooster, and some of the next generation should be smaller.

Of course you will have bantam-sized chickens faster by just breeding from bantams, but if you enjoy breeding projects and like the traits of your current hens...



You might think about whether you want extra feathers and fancy traits (crests, feathered feet, muff/beard on the face, sikie or frizzle feathers, extra toes.) Some bantams have them and some bantams do not. Silkie feathers are recessive. If you cross a Silkie with something else, you get chicks with normal feathers. The others are mostly dominant traits, so they tend to show up in a first generation of a cross. If you breed the mixes to each other or to another "normal" type chicken, you will get some without the extra traits.

If you want to avoid broodiness, you can selectively breed among whichever chickens you have (mainly a matter of hatching eggs from the hens that go broody less or not at all, rather than eggs from the ones that go broody most often.) If you like having some broodies, then obviously you do not have to do that.

I assume you know that hatching eggs will give you a bunch of males as well as females. I hope you have a plan to deal with the extras. Bantams are just as edible as any other chicken, if you want to eat the extras. They're just smaller.

P.S. Yes, I've hatched enough to know that I should buy EXTRA, extra, because I'll likely end up with 3 pullets out of 15 eggs IF the hen gods happen to be smiling down on me at that particular time.