Japanese Bantam Thread!

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Hello all! We are SUPER new to Japanese, but my son has always wanted them since the first time he saw them in the SOP. SO...we bought 8 chicks, that were supposed to be 4 self blue and 4 grays. Well....LOL...I don't care, because the person I got them from is a friend, and she didn't know exactly what she had either, and because they are "just for fun"...they are about 8 weeks old now.

We ended up with one gray cockerel, one black cockerel, one black pullet, one blue pullet (VERY light blue, almost looks lavender, but has lacing) and three splash cockerels (one lighter, and two darker). (We lost one pullet along the way). We will be trying to get a couple of gray pullets along the way to go with our gray boy, and will breed the light blue pullet to the black cockerel to verify that she is indeed a very light laced blue and not an actual lavender.

 

[Chicksrulefarm]

Hi everyone
I have a bit of an odd Jap Bantam question...
My family and I have kept a few egg and meat chicken breeds for years.
This year my 3 yr old twin girls begged for some "pet chickens", eventually we settled on a few silkie pullets and a few JB pullets and so far they've been a lot of fun. My kids absolutely adore them.
As "luck" would have it, one JB "pullet" was a VERY late bloomer and is a cockrel.
And of course he's their favorite. Tons of personality, tiny little "dachshund" legs, about the size of a can of soda at 10 wks old and a total lap chicken. My dilemma is that our city doesn't allow roosters on less than an acre of property.
.... So, just how loud will this little guy crow? At 10wks he still makes a tiny squeaky crow a few times a day, barely louder than the cackles and chuckles from the silkie pullets. If he stays "quiet" I'm hoping to keep him.
I also worry about him becoming aggressive as he gets older, my only Roo experience is with Leghorns and I still have the scars from spurs to show for it!
What's everyone's opinion on JB Roos as "pets"?
Thank in advance, I look forward to reading your replies.

I have white Japanese cockerel. He is not loud and high pitched like my other bantam rooster, but his crow in not completely quiet. It hardly can be heard in the front of the house because building block the noise, but it can be heard in the back. He doesn't crow that often and mostly he starts because the other roosters crow first. You can bring him inside for the night, or even keep him inside for the most part, and let him outdoors sometimes. My boy is not aggressive at all, but sometimes he doesn't want to be picked up. But at other times he will fly on my shoulder or even head and try to perch there. He likes to watch me what I am doing when he is inside the house. It is truly a pet chicken type. He does gets in fight with other roos but it is their normal behavior, and sadly he never wins, too short poor guy

This breed flies well, so he likes to find some interesting places in the house to get comfortable.
This is he, on the chandelier that was decorated with peacocks for the party. I looked for him for 10 minutes before I finally found him up there


And here he found another perfect perch.



These little guys are full of personality and fun to keep as pets. I hope yours will be fairly quiet.

 

[jockeyeba]

The chandelier pic is too cute!

 

[Whittni]

 

[jockeyeba]

Question: Are the Japanese hens usually good mothers? Mine is leaving her chicks to fend for themselves at night now & their only 3 1/2 weeks old.....

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Picked up more Japanese youngsters for my son. One more black cockerel (shorter legs than our other one) 2 light blue pullets, and 4 black pullets. My son already named the new cockerel Tofu! LOL The two oldest pullets he has named Tracy and Jessica....I'm not sure how Tofu fits into that, but whatever.

 

[Whittni]

Hmm..

 

[tracysbantams]

I just wanted to let people know that I listed for sale over in the Buy/Sell/Trade Everything Else thread a lot of Japanese reading material. Books, Journals, and Articles. Please take a look. There is a lot of really good information in them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/687182/japanese-bantams-books-journals-and-articles-from-apa

 

[lorijohnson823]

I am currently raising just Silkies. I was thinking about adding a couple other Bantam breeds to my flock. Do you think Japanese Bantams would get along with my Silkies? I was also thinking about getting Bantam Polish Laced. Any suggestions would be great! Here is a couple pics of my Silkies.

 

[tracysbantams]

I had silkies and Japanese bantams together with no problems. I don't know about Polish bantams. I never raised them.