Hi, I am fairly new and starting to get myself confused. Sorry if I appear to not have searched myself to death, just some times it helps for direct answers. Right now I have some English bread Bantams that supposedly have been bread to produce blue eggs. I have one rooster and 3 Hens. I want them for Easter eggs and eventually all the colors. These ones are going to make normal sized eggs to eat right? What about the other colors and which bread to get? Do I stay the same and look for a hen producing a different color? My goal I wanted was to add all the Easter eggers in a section with a couple silkis white and splash colored. With this "my bantam rooster I have that is from the same line" produce some broody offspring and use the broody's to raise Guini and Peacocks. Do the silikis lay eating eggs too? How do I know if the rooster fertilized the eggs or not and to leave them alone for the birds to take care of till they hatch? This folk was at least in my head intended to produce eating Easter eggs and to raise the baby's. Am I doing this right? The last part is I need another flock to produce normal eating eggs and offspring to eat. Which chicken should I get to give me meat and eggs? I am feeding them scratch and grow 15% and fruits from my garden. there penn right now is 8x12 and used a dog house with milk crates inside for them. They like to sit under the house though. lol the rooster is crowing right now hehe. There is hay laid in it and I been cleaning it every 3-4 days. Is this to often? The old hay is going in a pile to make compost for the garden.
If they are Bantams, their eggs will be smaller than Large fowl eggs. There are Easter Eggers in Bantam size, that may/should lay colored eggs. Fertile eggs are fine to eat. The only way they will develop into babies is with consistent heat (like under a chicken) You can use the same fertilized eggs for eating, or leaving under a broody hen to hatch. I have read that Bantams go broody often, so getting someone to sit on the eggs shouldn't be a problem. If I were you I would take things slowly, and do LOTS of research. It is nearly impossible to learn all you need to know just by asking questions. Many times, a person doesn't even know enough to ask a question. Go back on this forum and read the old posts, so you will be prepared for what ever comes up, AND there will be less chance of getting taken advantage of when you buy chickens, AND you won't inadvertantly harm your chickens. Do a web search for Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart. It gives lots of good information on breeds, size and color of eggs, broodiness, temperament, cold hardiness, etc. Scratch feed should be a treat. Their main diet should be the grower feed, then layer feed after that starts.
The eggs will be smaller than normal eggs from the store. Silkies are broody as heck, so that's a trait that can be passed down to the offspring. How to tell if an egg is fertile: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008 Dual purpose breeds are the best for meat and eggs. Look into the following breeds: Plymouth Rocks, Orpington's, Sussex, Delaware, etc. Scratch is like candy to chickens and should only be fed in small amounts as a treat. Give them layer food for their main food source.
How much smaller are my bantam eggs going to be? Worthless to eat? Should i use this whole line & silkies to raise my flock then? What ones do i need for normal easter eggs? Blue green purple pink. Thank u on the food, i will cut back on scratch. There all adolecent hens and rooster is a tad older not much. Will post a picture on them in a few hours to show size
Blue come from amauracana's and EE's. Green come from a EE , olive eggs are an blue egger and a maran mix. purple never seen or heard of purple eggs. Pinkish eggs can come from mixed breeds wish I could be more help. there are some Production Red crosses that produce a mauve/brown egg.
They won't be too small to eat, but they are considerably smaller than store bought eggs. Here's an example. The egg on the left is an egg from one of our standard size hens who lays a medium-sized egg and the one on the right is a bantam egg.
The one in the second pic the others are making be alone. They pushed her off the top of the house today.
