tell me about bantam breeds please.

[Jody]

Today I visited a small farm to purchase a goat and she had various bantam chickens and I really liked the Sebrights so much that I want to get some and perhaps other bantams.

can you tell me about what breed(s) you have and a little about them w/a photo please?

How much smaller are bantam eggs? Are they tiny?

 

[Break an Egg]

I don't have any pics on this computer, but silkies are a very fun bantam breed. Try feathersite.com they have an a-z index of chicken breeds with pics.

 

[jeslewmazer]

I have owned bantams for many years but in the past 3 years I got rid of my mixes and ordered Silver Duckwing Old English from Ideal. I never could find anything other than just a barnyard special in my area. The are not much different than standard chickens. Mine eat the same feed that my standards eat. Whole corn is no problem even though I would have guess that it would be to big, but they love it. Of course cracked corn would be a lot easier for them but they don't like it as much. They do seem a little on the crazy side. They think they are King Kong and try to dominate over the whole yard when free ranging, but the funniest thing is sometimes the run off the 5+lbs roosters. They are defiantly the most entertaining as far as chickens go, in my opinion anyways. The eggs are a good bit smaller but they eat the same. I have never weighed or measured mine but I would guess around 1 1/2-2in long. They do move very freely in a egg carton for large eggs. Mine have always been seasonal layers. I only have one pic as of right now but here it is. It is not the best pick.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Bantams are VERY enjoyable to have around. I like standard chickens, too, but now that I know I can basically have whatever I want in my flock (as opposed to just being limited to what I can get at the feed store and whatnot), I've gradually gotten my flock to where it's almost entirely bantams. I just love bantams' feisty and vivacious personalities. I think they're a lot more intelligent and filled with personality than most standard birds, and many of the varieties are very attractive. They tend to tame down easily, too.

Bantam eggs are fairly small, but they taste the same and you can still make whatever you want with them! Just takes a few more eggs.

I'm not going to post pictures because it would be far too many, but I've owned OEGBs, seramas, sebrights, cochins, silkies, Japanese, d'uccles, hamburgs, and...gosh, probably quite a few others. I have a number of mixes, too. I really love them all! OEGBs and seramas are my favorites.

Good luck, and I hope you decide to get a few at least! They're great.

 

[Silkiefan]

Oh, dont get me started on Silkies! I love my girls! I have two Silkie hens that combined only lay about 3 -5 eggs a week - that's not much at all... not to mention that they're smaller than the small size you get in a store.... uh, about the size of an Italian Prune if that makes any sense. So what must one do if they love bantams and need more eggs? Get more bantams of course! I have a day old Silkie chick, and two bantam COCHIN chicks.
I figure it this way:
my Silkies have definite personalities, very sweet, very silly, and very cuddly. Cochins apparently have those same personality traits. If I barely get enough eggs from two Bantams, then five should make things all right... right?

 

[TomKat]

Our flock of nine are all bantams. We have seabrights, cochins and frizzled cochins. They are wonderful little creatures. My bantam seabright rooster has to be one of the bravest souls. Whenever my larger dog gets close to the run, the roo charges him. Quite funny to see a pitbull jump back from him! As far as the eggs they are about half the size of a store-bought egg. I've also noticed my bantam eggs are half yolk; whereas, regular size eggs are about 1/3rd yolk. In recipes I just count each egg as a half. My seabrights are much faster than the cochins. Seabrights are built more like a roadrunner, and the cochins have more of a waddle to their walk. All are wonderful entertainment and each has definite personality (but then all animals do if you take the time to notice it). I definitely recommend bantams and the more diversity in the flock the better. Happy chicken ranching !

 

[poltroon]

Egg size is variable - some bantams lay very tiny eggs - other bantams lay bigger eggs. We have bantam buff Brahmas, and they are as large as the small standard breeds.

Most standard breeds also come as a bantam.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

We have Buff Orpington Bantams along with some others. The Orps are my favorite. No photos yet, but here is another breeders photos. The breeder is Akers and is a member of the United Orpington Club. A few years ago when we had the Buff orps the culls were more than big enough to eat. You will be pleased with them. Most important is to looka t photos of different breeds and colors. Choose the color you want in the breed you like. Then find a breeder taht will sell you a start.

Being on BYC is a good start!

 

[JordanFamily]

I have two bantam frizzled Polish Roos and 2 bantam Polish females that live with 4 standard Polish hens and two large red hens... My Roos are a little bald on top from the bigger girls pulling their feathers off their heads but they all seam to get along ok... My Roos are just a little smaller than my standard Polish hens and they mount them just fine when doin the wild thing... Now my bantam hens are half the size of my Standard Polish but all get along fine. Oh and my two large red lady's would not even let the guys try to mount them. If one gets an idea to and gets close the red hen just turns towards him like " Do you really want to start this today?" and then the Roo runs for it before she tackles him to show him who's boss.... Now small bantam chicks need to be kept seperate from larger standard chicks because of the pecking order thing... And when they are adult size I put them all together for short recesses to gether for an hour while I watch several days in a row and once the bigger birds are acting nice to them then I allow them all to live together. I also keep the smaller bantams in a dog excersize pen with chiken wire on top, inside the pen with the other standard birds so they get to see eachother all the time and get to know eachother that way to.... My bantam Polish eggs are small to medium sized. Some are about the size of a gulf ball. The standard Polish lay a medium sized egg and the large red girls lay large brown eggs. Now if I can just get my studs to grow back their Rock Star Hair.

Picture below; first bantam Polish egg, second is a standard Polish medium size egg, and third is a red hens large brown egg.

My half bald bantam frizzled Polish Roos... The cookoo is young in this picture. He's older now:

Pullet: Polish bantam

Pullet standard Polish:

Just for fun:

 

[Megs]

i just love my bantams, they are so comical, i breed several varietys. keeping in mind i dont hand raise any of my birds, they may get handled occasionally (mostly for lice/mite checks periodically) but they are looking at pets for me, not handling pets

There are lots of breeds that make good pets if handled lots while they grow up.

in my experiance the sebrights can be a bit nasty (hens esp) and are more wild/active than a lot of my birds. My polish are a lot more flighty/spooky, i think due to limited vision because of their large crests. my d'uccles are very active but fairly mild mannered, the rest of the breeds i have are relatively placid (cochins and japanese).


from my birds bantam eggs weight in from 30-40 grams vs my large eggs from standard chickens that are 60-70 grams (L-XL). some weight in a bit over and some a bit under (bantam pullet eggs when they begin to lay can be tiny, and the occasional huge egg from my standard australorp and EEs) so this is an average weight.

ETA: my mottled cochin bantams are quite large and lay larger eggs than stated, and my polish has only laid a few eggs so far, they were also a bit larger than the 30-40g. so depends on the size of the idividual as well