Your description sounds like Cookie, my bantam Black English Orpington. She started laying almost an egg/day at 5 months. At 6.5 months during the 1st snow, she went broody which I broke after 4-5 days. Then a minor molt & back to laying an egg a day. (No supplemental heat or light added.) She's pleasant most of the time but yells at anyone disturbing her while making an egg. I feel Cookie would go broody very easily, so I make sure she's on the roost every night & never leave an egg in her nest. (She prefers to only use HER nest & will kick the big hens out if she feels the need.) She's our only bantam & quite feisty. Cookie's nickname: The Bantam Menace. Because she's little, the rest of the flock allows her to get away with all kinds of things. She's also a little faster than the full sized chickens.
Most of our hens are full sized orps who lay very big eggs (2.5 to 3oz). Cookie's eggs look small, but she eats & poops less than the others. Her eggs = 1.43 to 1.69oz. She's still a pullet so the size may increase a bit. She's my 1st & only bantam.
Mine has a good temperament like you described. Even when she "yells" from the nest box she does not peck at fingers. Unlike our Orps who love to cuddle & constantly get underfoot, Cookie prefers to fly up to a shoulder or jump onto the arm of a chair for her share of the treats. She adds a little personality & a lot of cute factor to our flock.
Here's a pic of the girls (Cookie in front) when I opened the door & they saw all the snow.
"Does she seriously expect us to walk through snow to get our treats?"
Below: Cookie playing Barbies with my daughter.
It's the bantam's cuteness factor that keeps her around.LOL! ALL my bantams are known as the "bantam menace!"
