What bantam breed next?

Pjacct

Songster
Dec 1, 2017
109
271
132
Sydney, AU
Hi All,
So we went away on holidays for a week and a lovely friend of ours cared for our chickens. Unfortunately one of our older ladies didn’t handle the heat the other day and passed on. Bless her, she was one of our original Pekin (Cochin) bantams and would have been 7 this March. This also leaves us with 1 bantam bantam lady :(
Anyways, long story short, I would love to get some more bantams, but not too sure about getting the same breed again.
We have 5 pullets (standard size breeds) just about to come into lay, so looking for plucky little girls but no more than 3-5 of them. Egg laying is not top of the pick here, but more personality and fit in with the bigger girls. Eg, they need to be able to stand up for themselves. And yes, I know Pekins / Cochins do fit this, was hoping for any others that may work well?
Thank you for your help!
Pen
 
Silkies? They seem to get along with anyone and they are sweet girls. It really depends on your big girls whether they'll let any new girls (big or little) be. Otherwise, I'm a belgian d'uccle "fan" but they are so little I'd worry if there were any meanies in the big girl group.
 
I have thought about the d’uccle.... are they much smaller than Other bantams? I can always house them separately, I have a second unused coop at the moment.
Not really a fan of silkies, but may be open to giving them a go.
I guess it may end up being what we can source.
 
I have thought about the d’uccle.... are they much smaller than Other bantams?
Well, they are smaller than most of my bantams, but I don't have much experience with bantams, these are the only ones I have ever had.

I only have one now, she's tiny BUT it's hard to say how her size compares because some/most of the the other little girls have boofy feathers which might disguise their similarly tiny frames underneath (it's hard to know how big a silkie really is underneath, and Jeannie has her little "dress and pantaloon" thing going on so I don't see her frame). All I know is that she's just a handful of chook, not an armful. It isn't so much her size compared to the other little girls but there is a HUGE size difference between her and (say) Marcy, my light sussex.

My "top girl" in the little girl house is also a tiny little thing. She's only a little bit bigger than Pearl. She is a plucky little general, despite her size, she can hold her own against the big girls. I think it really depends on the dynamics. I'd be concerned that with such a small bird a concerted effort by some big girls wouldn't take much to really hurt her if they got her in a corner and piled on, whereas with another big girl it would take more.

I don't know, I think I'm just a worrier. I've let my little girls out to roam with the big girls and nothing happened (except for a wound on one girl, but I don't know who/what is responsible). The big girls are more interested in looking for grubs than picking fights - but I've lost 2 of my "mean girls (isa browns) so everyone now is much "nicer". It really depends on personality(and environment - coop them all up in a smaller space and they'll get cranky about it), I'm not sure you can predict how chickens will get on.

EDIT I found a photo of some of the girls when I first got them. Their respective sizes are sort of the same in fully grown status. That's Flossie (top chook) in the front and Jeannie in the back. You can see how the d'uccle's head and neck are "finer" than the other girls. When you pick them up, they are as light as a feather. The other girls are light, but they've got a bit more "substance" to them. To me, the d'uccles are like picking up a parrot, not a chook. Having said that, I've only ever had 3 so not much of a sample size to tell you anything definite.
DSCN0110_001.JPG
 
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Well, they are smaller than most of my bantams, but I don't have much experience with bantams, these are the only ones I have ever had.

I only have one now, she's tiny BUT it's hard to say how her size compares because some/most of the the other little girls have boofy feathers which might disguise their similarly tiny frames underneath (it's hard to know how big a silkie really is underneath, and Jeannie has her little "dress and pantaloon" thing going on so I don't see her frame). All I know is that she's just a handful of chook, not an armful. It isn't so much her size compared to the other little girls but there is a HUGE size difference between her and (say) Marcy, my light sussex.

My "top girl" in the little girl house is also a tiny little thing. She's only a little bit bigger than Pearl. She is a plucky little general, despite her size, she can hold her own against the big girls. I think it really depends on the dynamics. I'd be concerned that with such a small bird a concerted effort by some big girls wouldn't take much to really hurt her if they got her in a corner and piled on, whereas with another big girl it would take more.

I don't know, I think I'm just a worrier. I've let my little girls out to roam with the big girls and nothing happened (except for a wound on one girl, but I don't know who/what is responsible). The big girls are more interested in looking for grubs than picking fights - but I've lost 2 of my "mean girls (isa browns) so everyone now is much "nicer". It really depends on personality(and environment - coop them all up in a smaller space and they'll get cranky about it), I'm not sure you can predict how chickens will get on.

EDIT I found a photo of some of the girls when I first got them. Their respective sizes are sort of the same in fully grown status. That's Flossie (top chook) in the front and Jeannie in the back. You can see how the d'uccle's head and neck are "finer" than the other girls. When you pick them up, they are as light as a feather. The other girls are light, but they've got a bit more "substance" to them. To me, the d'uccles are like picking up a parrot, not a chook. Having said that, I've only ever had 3 so not much of a sample size to tell you anything definite.
View attachment 1264298
Thanks for the info..... my pekin had a lot of feathers but body was really like a small tin can of veg in size.
 

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