Looking for more info on bantams in general

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I'm picking up some meat chickens from Meyer next month and I see they have some bantams available still. I'm thinking about snagging some, but I don't know a lot about them and can't seem to find some of the answers I'm looking for. We live in the city and are trying to be more economical with our chicken-raising, so my thought was that bantams might be a good addition. Below are some of my questions pertaining to all chickens considered "bantams", not just true bantams.

We only have a 4 ft fence. Can these little birds fly over that even with wings clipped?

How big, exactly, are bantams compared to standards? How much less feed do they eat?

Does anyone have experience with Green Queen and Sage Gem bantams from Meyer? We can't really afford to have more broody hens (talking about you Australorp, Salmon Faverolles, and Orpington!) since we don't have a rooster and Meyer claims these don't generally go broody. There aren't any reviews on their site that address this. They also claim they lay 4-6 eggs per week. Please comment if you have had these bantam breeds/hybrids.

We have 7 standards. Could we incorporate 2 bantams into that flock?

If we were to get a cockerel by accident, are they worth making into dinner?

Are there any other pros or cons I would need to know about?

 

[NatJ]

Below are some of my questions...

I only had answers to some of them. Hopefully someone else can help with the other ones.

We live in the city and are trying to be more economical with our chicken-raising, so my thought was that bantams might be a good addition.

Most bantams are poor layers. They keep taking time off to go broody. So if you have chickens for eggs, they probably give you less eggs for the amount of chicken feed you have to buy. (It is not that bantams must be poor layers, just that no-one has done the work to selectively breed bantams to lay as well as the best of the larger breeds.)

But if you want a specific number of pet chickens, and you do not care about the eggs, then a flock of bantams will eat less food than the same number of standard sized chickens. And the bantams do not need quite as much space in the coop and run either (of course like all chickens, they enjoy having more space than the minimum.)

We only have a 4 ft fence. Can these little birds fly over that even with wings clipped?

Most bantams probably can. Silkies and frizzles probably will not, because those kinds of feathers do not work as well for flying.

We have 7 standards. Could we incorporate 2 bantams into that flock?

Probably yes, but it depends on the individual chickens involved (which is true no matter what size chickens you are dealing with.)

If we were to get a cockerel by accident, are they worth making into dinner?

Some people eat Coturnix quail, and bantam chickens generally get bigger than those quail. Whether bantam cockerels, or quail, are big enough to be worth eating is a matter of personal preference-- some people think they are worth it, some do not.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I only had answers to some of them. Hopefully someone else can help with the other ones.


Most bantams are poor layers. They keep taking time off to go broody. So if you have chickens for eggs, they probably give you less eggs for the amount of chicken feed you have to buy. (It is not that bantams must be poor layers, just that no-one has done the work to selectively breed bantams to lay as well as the best of the larger breeds.)

But if you want a specific number of pet chickens, and you do not care about the eggs, then a flock of bantams will eat less food than the same number of standard sized chickens. And the bantams do not need quite as much space in the coop and run either (of course like all chickens, they enjoy having more space than the minimum.)


Most bantams probably can. Silkies and frizzles probably will not, because those kinds of feathers do not work as well for flying.


Probably yes, but it depends on the individual chickens involved (which is true no matter what size chickens you are dealing with.)


Some people eat Coturnix quail, and bantam chickens generally get bigger than those quail. Whether bantam cockerels, or quail, are big enough to be worth eating is a matter of personal preference-- some people think they are worth it, some do not.

Thanks for all the info! So you think Meyer isn't being entirely truthful that some of their bantams lay well and aren't broody? Here are the two I am looking at for example:

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Sage-Gem-Bantam-Day-Old-Chicks-p217964302

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Green-Queen-Bantam-Day-Old-Chicks-p296574070

There aren't many reviews on their site from when the birds were mature (most people review the baby chicks which I think is fairly pointless), and I don't know anyone who has these, so it's hard to tell.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thanks for all the info! So you think Meyer isn't being entirely truthful that some of their bantams lay well and aren't broody? Here are the two I am looking at for example:

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Sage-Gem-Bantam-Day-Old-Chicks-p217964302

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Green-Queen-Bantam-Day-Old-Chicks-p296574070

There aren't many reviews on their site from when the birds were mature (most people review the baby chicks which I think is fairly pointless), and I don't know anyone who has these, so it's hard to tell.

Some bantams lay extremely well. My Cornish bantams have two modes: Broody or egg machine. No in-between

 

[NatJ]

Thanks for all the info! So you think Meyer isn't being entirely truthful that some of their bantams lay well and aren't broody? Here are the two I am looking at for example:

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Sage-Gem-Bantam-Day-Old-Chicks-p217964302

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Green-Queen-Bantam-Day-Old-Chicks-p296574070

There aren't many reviews on their site from when the birds were mature (most people review the baby chicks which I think is fairly pointless), and I don't know anyone who has these, so it's hard to tell.

I have no experience with bantams specifically from Meyer, so I cannot tell for sure. I do notice that those bantams are listed as laying more eggs than some other bantams on their site, so it may be true that they are better layers. Maybe Meyer has been doing some strong selective breeding with theirs. Just breeding them to be non-broody could make a big difference in how many eggs each one produces in the year.

Egg production can also be very different depending on how you house and manage your chickens. If you provide artificial light in the winter you get more eggs than if you do not. If you break broodies as soon as you find them, you get more eggs than if you let the broodies keep sitting. Meyer could be honestly getting higher production just by managing them differently, too.

Some bantams lay extremely well. My Cornish bantams have two modes: Broody or egg machine. No in-between

I have seen that pattern in some chickens, too.

I personally hate the "eggs per week" estimates that some hatcheries use. A hen who lays 100 eggs per year is usually not doing it at the rate of 2 per week. Instead, she is probably laying them in clumps, with an egg most days of the week when she is laying and no eggs at all when she is broody or molting or taking time off in the winter. Listing eggs per week gives people the mistaken idea that the eggs will be distributed pretty evenly during the year.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I have no experience with bantams specifically from Meyer, so I cannot tell for sure. I do notice that those bantams are listed as laying more eggs than some other bantams on their site, so it may be true that they are better layers. Maybe Meyer has been doing some strong selective breeding with theirs. Just breeding them to be non-broody could make a big difference in how many eggs each one produces in the year.

Egg production can also be very different depending on how you house and manage your chickens. If you provide artificial light in the winter you get more eggs than if you do not. If you break broodies as soon as you find them, you get more eggs than if you let the broodies keep sitting. Meyer could be honestly getting higher production just by managing them differently, too.


I have seen that pattern in some chickens, too.

I personally hate the "eggs per week" estimates that some hatcheries use. A hen who lays 100 eggs per year is usually not doing it at the rate of 2 per week. Instead, she is probably laying them in clumps, with an egg most days of the week when she is laying and no eggs at all when she is broody or molting or taking time off in the winter. Listing eggs per week gives people the mistaken idea that the eggs will be distributed pretty evenly during the year.

I will say my polish bantams do tend to stick to roughly the 2 eggs a week during their (short) layer season between the two of them. It's a good thing I don't eat eggs, otherwise those ladies probably would have been culled and replaced for their poor laying.

 

[NatJ]

I will say my polish bantams do tend to stick to roughly the 2 eggs a week during their (short) layer season between the two of them. It's a good thing I don't eat eggs, otherwise those ladies probably would have been culled and replaced for their poor laying.

2 eggs a week when laying, and no eggs the rest of the time? Golly, that probably makes a whole-year average of less than one egg per week!

I've had several kinds of bantams, including Cornish bantams, and I had mostly seen the pattern of heavy laying alternating with no laying. I had not seen a pattern of slow production continued for any length of time-- I obviously need experience with more breeds of chickens

 

[JacinLarkwell]

2 eggs a week when laying, and no eggs the rest of the time? Golly, that probably makes a whole-year average of less than one egg per week!

I've had several kinds of bantams, including Cornish bantams, and I had mostly seen the pattern of heavy laying alternating with no laying. I had not seen a pattern of slow production continued for any length of time-- I obviously need experience with more breeds of chickens

I honestly probably only get a few dozen eggs a year from the two of them. Usually I'll get one or two spurts of 1-2 eggs every day for a few days. Think my last egg from them was back in early August? If not July

 

[Chicalina]

The replies on this thread just go to show how variable people's experiences are.

I have kept many different bantam breeds for many years and now would never have LF again.

They lay pretty well! And their feed to egg ratio is way better than LF. They lay what you'd call store bought medium sized eggs, which is much bigger compared to body size than LF chickens laying large sized eggs (or medium in the case of LF Orpingtons ).

Some go broody, some don't. I can usually break them fairly easily if they do. This is down to the individual bird rather than the breeds. I also had LF go broody when I kept them (even hybrid layers) and I've had bantams who never did. It's a chicken thing, not a bantam thing IMO.

My Polish are excellent layers. 6 or 7 eggs a week for most of the year with a short winter break of a month or so. Little pooffy headed ditzy laying machines they are.

So this is where I get to character. Bantams have so much personality! Esp some breeds.

And space. This is the biggest bonus for me. I only have limited backyard space, not acres of land, and I can keep up to 20 bantams free ranging, where I would only fit 6 or 7 LF. They also don't rip up the ground so much, but do forage well on dirt floor and grass areas.

Some can fly pretty well. Most don't leave my fenced area even though they can get up to the 6ft fence. Some just fly up to get the grape vine leaves I have climbing the fence.

They can get along with a flock of all sizes. I had a tiny sebright once who was bossy as hell and ruled the coop. Assertiveness or passivity is mostly down to the bird not the breed.

For your needs, I would say avoid silkies and micro bantams like seramas, OEGB, etc as they are more for fun than eggs.

Wyandottes, Sussex, Polish, Barnevelders, Araucanas, Naked Necks, Welsummers and many more, all come in bantam form. Go to a breeder if you can, not a hatchery would be my advice. You'll get better quality longer lived healthier birds bred for the love of the breed, not for commercial profit on a large scale.

 

[Chicalina]

Also feel free to ask me any other general questions you have about bantams.

I don't have experience with Meyer as I'm in the UK but happy to answer anything else honestly and directly.