The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[chickenneighbor]

I have a dumb question, if you don't mind - is it possible for a bantam chicken to come from large fowl parents? I know dwarfism is a throwback gene, but how about bantams? Are they actually separate breeds, or a mutation, or just small chickens bred to even smaller chickens to get the desired size, etc? Thanks.

 

[speckledhen]

I have a dumb question, if you don't mind - is it possible for a bantam chicken to come from large fowl parents? I know dwarfism is a throwback gene, but how about bantams? Are they actually separate breeds, or a mutation, or just small chickens bred to even smaller chickens to get the desired size, etc? Thanks.

I'm no expert on all the types of dwarfism. I encountered one type when I put my McMurray rooster over my Ideal hen (BRs) many years ago, and on one occasion, they produced a dwarf when someone out west hatched the eggs. It was not like Pooh and Piglet, but short and small version of its normal brothers, appeared at first to be a pullet due to the stunted male traits like lack of comb development. He lived probably a year or so I think, did reach maturity, of course. I think bantams are a type of dwarfism. Some are created by choosing smaller and smaller parents, yes. But, remember that some bantams have no large fowl counterpart, like my Belgian D'Anvers. They are a true bantam.

To answer your question, I think anything is possible, but I'm not an expert on this subject.

 

[1muttsfan]

Not stupid at all. Bantams are separate breeds, just like Doberman pincers and Miniature pincer dogs may look alike and sound alike, but are completely unrelated. Bantams are not dwarfs, just birds bred to be smaller in stature. Likely some came from "breeding down" standard fowl, but others were developed separately from their larger cousins, and as Cyn says there are some Bantam breeds for which there are no standard fowl lookalike.

 

[chickenneighbor]

Thanks, everyone. I learn something every day on BYC. You guys are the best!

 

[GingersHuman]

I love the feeder! I hate how much feed is wasted. Do you feed layer, and pellets or crumbles?

 

[speckledhen]

I love the feeder! I hate how much feed is wasted. Do you feed layer, and pellets or crumbles?

I feed mini layer pellets. So far, a lot less waste. No food all over the floor, yea!

 

[1muttsfan]

I have two of those, one for granite grit and the other for oyster shell

 

[speckledhen]

I have two of those, one for granite grit and the other for oyster shell

Thankfully, we don't have to feed grit. Our entire property is grit, LOL. But, that is the 3rd PVC feeder we've made. Xander's pen has one (sure miss that boy still) and the bantams have one. I ought to put them in every pen, I swear.


Oh, little tidbit. A lady I watch on Youtube in NC who is fairly new to hometeading but makes excellent videos, Jaime of Guildbrook Farm mentioned me at the end of one of her latest videos as someone who doesn't whitewash the ups and downs of keeping chickens and put a link to my channel on her video. It was really nice but wow, overnight my subscribers jumped from 85 to 149! I didn't expect it. Heck, within an hour or her video coming out, they had jumped to over 100. Crazy! That shows what an audience she has. Her latest was how to cure bacon in the kitchen so it doesn't have those nasty nitrites/nitrates in it. I may try to do that some day if I can afford the pastured pork belly, but apparently, it came out to close to the same per pound as her store-bought bacon.


Candled the eggs under Bonnie with my new Atomic flashlight. Though it wasn't completely dark in the barn, every one seems to be developing, all ten.

 

[GingersHuman]

What's your opinion on the calcium overload issue when feeding layer to roosters and non layers? I assume you feed chick feed to your babies til laying age...

 

[speckledhen]

What's your opinion on the calcium overload issue when feeding layer to roosters and non layers? I assume you feed chick feed to your babies til laying age...

I have never really worried about it and never seen any issues from it in my roosters. Maybe because the boys jsut don't eat as much as the hens anyway, but I keep my roosters with the hens so they can't be fed separately. The only exception here is when they are separate for some injury or like my late Zane, they live in their own place and don't share their feed.

Yes, I feed starter/grower from Tucker Milling until they are with the adults. Sometimes, I have to fudge on the age thing and they get layer a bit early. In those times, I often will pick up a bag of a Flock Raiser type feed in the interim, but most of mine free range on a rotating basis and eat a lot "out there".