I assume Saffron is a he?

[NatJ]

I wish I had them lol. Why do they have to be straight run 90% of the time, or 20 dollars a chick for female chicks

When I want bantam pullets, I typically order 3x that many straight run chicks, and expect to eat a bunch of tiny cockerels (or feed them to a dog, who is not at all picky about what size a chicken is.) I think it's still cheaper than buying sexed pullets, especially because it can make the order large enough to avoid small-order extra shipping charges.

 

[ChickenChick46]

I wish I had them lol. Why do they have to be straight run 90% of the time, or 20 dollars a chick for female chicks

Yeah my youngest Self Blue I so wanted to be female. But by 2 weeks, I knew he wasn't, lol.

 

[ella2025]

When I want bantam pullets, I typically order 3x that many straight run chicks, and expect to eat a bunch of tiny cockerels (or feed them to a dog, who is not at all picky about what size a chicken is.) I think it's still cheaper than buying sexed pullets, especially because it can make the order large enough to avoid small-order extra shipping charges.

Where do you usually order bantams? I feel like most reputable hatcheries are around 5-6 dollars a straight run chick with pullets being around 16-17 dollars. The cost to raise the straight run chicks until they're meaty enough to eat is more than the meat is worth too, which is so frustrating. I guess I'm not getting bantams any time soon

 

[ChickenChick46]

Where do you usually order bantams? I feel like most reputable hatcheries are around 5-6 dollars a straight run chick with pullets being around 16-17 dollars. The cost to raise the straight run chicks until they're meaty enough to eat is more than the meat is worth too, which is so frustrating. I guess I'm not getting bantams any time soon

I've never ordered from a hatchery and had them shipped. Bantams, anyway. But the Rural King here, if you catch them within the first few days of getting chicks, usually has probably 4 dozen in their assorted bantam bin. You'd have to be good at telling what breed is what, of course. But one of my last trips in there, they had about 8 cochins. It was all I could do not to get those!

 

[ella2025]

I've never ordered from a hatchery and had them shipped. Bantams, anyway. But the Rural King here, if you catch them within the first few days of getting chicks, usually has probably 4 dozen in their assorted bantam bin. You'd have to be good at telling what breed is what, of course. But one of my last trips in there, they had about 8 cochins. It was all I could do not to get those!

Although I don't have any Rural kings here in new england, i have seen assorted bantam bins at TSC and i'll do a bunch of research to hopefully get some cochins and d'uccles.

 

[MROO]

An update! I forgot about this thread like I always do, but now saffron and pepper are 2 weeks old. I still think saffron is a Cockerel, but maybe I'm just paranoid. So far pepper looks like a pullet.

Saffron: this photo was taken on friday
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Pepper yesterday
View attachment 4231157

Don't give up hope, yet! I honestly think it's still too early to be certain either way. The width of the comb isn't as tell-tale as the color - and you're still a couple of weeks away from seeing any "pinking up." They are both beautiful, healthy-looking babies.

 

[NatJ]

Where do you usually order bantams? I feel like most reputable hatcheries are around 5-6 dollars a straight run chick with pullets being around 16-17 dollars. The cost to raise the straight run chicks until they're meaty enough to eat is more than the meat is worth too, which is so frustrating. I guess I'm not getting bantams any time soon

I have most often ordered them from Ideal Poultry.

They have weekly specials on various breeds during the early spring and late summer, and some of the bantams are often included. That brings the price down quite a bit.

If they aren't on sale, then I've noticed that any place selling bantam pullets for $20 each (or similar prices) will typically have straight run for 1/3 of that or less, which is not cheap but at least is a little bit less expensive.

Regarding meat, I don't necessarily raise them until they are "big enough" to butcher. Once I can identify the males, I figure that is as big as they need to be. I do have a dog that likes to eat raw chicken, so sometimes he gets them (I do the killing, he does the eating.) But more often I partially skin them, cut off leg/thigh sections and boneless breast, and then let the dog have the rest. It's like getting two small wings and two chicken nuggets per bird and doesn't take me very long, so I feel the small amount of meat is worth the small amount of time.

 

[ChickenChick46]

Although I don't have any Rural kings here in new england, i have seen assorted bantam bins at TSC and i'll do a bunch of research to hopefully get some cochins and d'uccles.

TSC is where I got my first ones. Where Rural King will get me in trouble is that unlike TSC, RK sells chicks year round.

I definitely need to get better at IDing breeds with a quicker glance. My 2nd group this year, I saw dark color and feathered feet and thought I got 2 cochins. They were both buff brahma bantams. They're beautiful though so I don't regret it. And they're pullets. One other I thought was a cochin is actually a silkie. Same group, so I didn't do so well with guessing lol. I did get my MF d'Uccle with that group though.

It can be tough when you can only see into the bin from above and catch small glimpses of their feet to see if they're feathered. My 3rd group though, the lady actually picked them up to check their feet for me. I got the Self Blue d'Uccle, a blue cochin that unfortunately didn't make it, and a Red Cochin. Those guesses were correct. But what I thought was an OEGB is an EE. I realized that as soon as I got home with him and saw muffs, lol.

 

[ella2025]

TSC is where I got my first ones. Where Rural King will get me in trouble is that unlike TSC, RK sells chicks year round.

I definitely need to get better at IDing breeds with a quicker glance. My 2nd group this year, I saw dark color and feathered feet and thought I got 2 cochins. They were both buff brahma bantams. They're beautiful though so I don't regret it. And they're pullets. One other I thought was a cochin is actually a silkie. Same group, so I didn't do so well with guessing lol. I did get my MF d'Uccle with that group though.

It can be tough when you can only see into the bin from above and catch small glimpses of their feet to see if they're feathered. My 3rd group though, the lady actually picked them up to check their feet for me. I got the Self Blue d'Uccle, a blue cochin that unfortunately didn't make it, and a Red Cochin. Those guesses were correct. But what I thought was an OEGB is an EE. I realized that as soon as I got home with him and saw muffs, lol.

I had a similar situation where i wanted 2 black sex links in a bin with rir, amberlinks and Bsl. So basically the black chicks are all supposed to be Bsl. The lady picked 2 for me and I swear I saw a tiny white dot on one of their heads and that same chick had a much paler underside. When I got home I saw that she had a beard. Lol I got an olive egger pullet! That was so lucky of me that it's a pullet as they are not autosexable. I'm very happy to have gotten her instead of getting 2 identical bsl.

What I don't want to get in a bantam bin are oegb. They seem like the most common bantam the hatcheries have, with like 12 colors. I assumed that most of the bantams in those bantam bins will be oegbs lol. Actually on the same day I got the bsl chick mixed up there was an assorted bantam bin that I could have gotten a few cochins and duccles out of lol.

 

[ChickenChick46]

I had a similar situation where i wanted 2 black sex links in a bin with rir, amberlinks and Bsl. So basically the black chicks are all supposed to be Bsl. The lady picked 2 for me and I swear I saw a tiny white dot on one of their heads and that same chick had a much paler underside. When I got home I saw that she had a beard. Lol I got an olive egger pullet! That was so lucky of me that it's a pullet as they are not autosexable. I'm very happy to have gotten her instead of getting 2 identical bsl.

What I don't want to get in a bantam bin are oegb. They seem like the most common bantam the hatcheries have, with like 12 colors. I assumed that most of the bantams in those bantam bins will be oegbs lol. Actually on the same day I got the bsl chick mixed up there was an assorted bantam bin that I could have gotten a few cochins and duccles out of lol.

Haha that's awesome! One batch of bantams I got were in a bin full of New Hampshires. They were so much bigger I could barely see the bantams to try to guess what they were.

OEGBs do seem to be very common. I've only got one. Shirley was a part of my original 4. She's a BB Red and is so amazingly sweet. She loves to pancake down in my hand (she is no bigger than a yard dove at 12 weeks old now) and she makes the most adorable little trilling sounds, almost like purring. I had heard they could be feisty due to game birds being used for fighting, etc, but she's not at all. I only know one other person (in person) who has had one. She got him on accident from a TSC mix up, and he was the same way. He rode around on her shoulder all the time. He was also a BB Red.

I think in the bantam bin, it's safe to assume any chick with chipmunk stripes is an OEGB. I know lots of breeds have that pattern, but at least where I am, all the ones in the bantams bin with it are OEGBs. But I think bantam EEs can have it too, and Hoover's has those. So maybe that's not actually a safe assumption, lol. My EE from RK though (which is Hoover's chicks) was almost solid white when I got him.