New hatching, older hatching, older batch. Whew!

[cricketmt]

So these two little beauties hatched within an hour of each other this morning. These are the eggs my daughter acquired from her teacher for her science project. They're partitioned off from the next little guy who hatched on Sunday because he was pecking at the little golden one.


This is "Benedict"...not sure what sex any of these are at this point, he hatched on Sunday morning around 4 a.m.


These 6 are the straight run Bantams(mixed Bantam breeds)...if anyone has an idea of what we have here, or how to tell male from female, I'd love to know. 2 are smaller and mostly black, 3 are yellowish underbelly and mostly black with yellow and black beaks, the 6th is the one in the dirt bowl right there...it's much lighter in color.


Not sure how many of the 5 that she's hatching for the school project we're keeping, I don't think I want 11 birds though!!!! I think I bit off more than I could chew on! The local place that has chicken coops may not have one big enough for us!

 

[justplainbatty]

Very cute! Whatever coop you buy, if you're keeping bantams, they need 2.5 to 3 square foot of floor space each and about 8" of linear roost space each. That's how you will know how many you can keep. Nest boxes do not count as floor or roost space. One nest box per 4 birds is sufficient. Do not go by manufacturer's or store employees claims.

Happy chickening! Welcome to our flock!

 

[cricketmt]

Thank you for that info...it's been a long time since I "did" the chicken thing. We'll be keeping the bantams for sure, and I have an email into the science teacher about the other 5.

 

[justplainbatty]

Thank you for that info...it's been a long time since I "did" the chicken thing. We'll be keeping the bantams for sure, and I have an email into the science teacher about the other 5.

If you keep large fowl, they need 4 to 5 square foot of floor space and 1 linear foot of roost. Same deal as above with the nest boxes.