Need help picking which banty to get!!

[jjdward]

I want to get some banties but I just cant pick which breed to get. I have looked a few and I think I'm leaning towards Dutch and I like the Old English too. I'm not looking for an extremely rare color/type but I'd like to get one thats not so common. Does anybody have these breeds? Pics? What are these breed's temperament? Thanks for your help!!!

 

[Pathfinders]

One of the best ways to determine what breed of bantam to buy is to figure out what you want to do with them. Are you going to breed them? Show them? Just have them run around the back yard? Tell us more about what you want to do, then we can help make a recommendation. I breed Dutch, fwiw, so can help with describing those.

 

[TexasVet]

My Old English are the friendliest. I have a couple of bantam cochins, but it took them a long time to adjust to humans, and they're still not what I'd call friendly. The OEs will ride around on your shoulder. The white leghorns are good layers, but very flighty. The only time you can get close to them is after they've gone to roost.

The breed I'll never buy again is Seabright... meanest roosters on the planet! The hens are ok, but the roosters attacked every time I turned my back, no matter what I did to tame them. And they drew blood!

My full-size Brahmas are really friendly, so if I were to get another bantam breed, I'd probably go with them.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.ChickenTrackin.com

 

[jjdward]

Quote:
I wouldn't mind breeding them down the road but mostly to just have.

 

[Pathfinders]

Perhaps you might consider buying a mixture of chicks from a hatchery, to get an idea of what breeds you want to focus on the in the future. Hatchery birds are not generally of good enough type to show at sanctioned shows, but they are a cost effective way to get a number of different breeds to check out.

 

[jjdward]

Quote:
Thats kinda what I was thinking. But I don't want to get breeds that are overly aggressive or hard to deal with. Any recommendations on a Hatchery? I have used Ideal for my egg laying flock.

 

[City Gardener]

We have bantam brahmas (lovely, cold-hardy, laying eggs even on the coldest days, but a little shy).

And we have one bantam EE, who is the bomb. Smart, friendly, curious, awesome and was laying tiny blue eggs. She went broody in the late fall, and hasn't laid an egg since. Oh well, nobody's perfect.

If I were doing it again, I would get standard sized chickens, but I do love our girls.

 

[kycowgirl78]

We've got 7 Japanese bantams of different colors, I think they are super gorgeous and look mighty fancy.

 

[YB192004]

If you are going for something medium rare

color/type with great temperament, your best breed is serama. They are great birds but a little expensive if you buy show quality birds. Here is the link to serama forum if you want to learn more about them. http://jerrysseramasllc.com/scnaforums/. There are a lot of serama owner and pictures in this forum for you to look at and ask questions.

Pics of my birds when i first got them at 4 months old, they look much better now.

 

[teddiliza]

If you want pettable bantys that are fair layers and the roosters aren't mean to you or each other, I'd go for d'uccles! Or you could go for bantam barred rocks. I've had bantam cochins and bantam japanese, both very pretty, but not the 'cuddly pettable type' like my d'uccles who are genuinely affectionate, and calm even as chicks.