Why We Raise Bantam Chickens
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มี.ค. 2023
- Welcome to Storybrooke Family Farm! In today's video, Lindsay discusses why her and Tracy have decided to only raise Bantam sized chickens, their true size, and how small their eggs actually are.
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#bantamchickens #chickens #chickdays #eggs #tractorsupply #farmfresheggs #homegrownabundance #storybrookefamilyfarm
Your life is so different from mine that you probably wouldn't consider me as part of your target market, but i've been really interested to get glimpses of what you're up to and your thoughts on things. You explain things nice and clearly. I'm not in a position to garden, etc, but your first video has inspired me to make an effort this coming summer to buy from local farmers instead of grocery stores. :)
Aww thank you so much! One of my intentions for starting this channel was to inspire people to become the best versions of themselves. Another big intention was to help guide/teach people how to do and conquer various things from mental health issues and physical health issues, to all things related to being a little bit more self reliant. I'm very glad to have you here ❤️
They are so cute and small. Thanks for showing their eggs.
You're welcome!
So excited to find some information about phantom chickens.
I hope it helped!
I have Japanese bantam and old English bantams. I love them.
They are the best!
Really good for your video to share❤
Thank you!
I have a bantam frizzle rooster. Two of my blue barred rock hens are sitting on tons of eggs. I’m glad you said you like bantams because I was worried about getting smaller chickens. My hen frizzle got killed by a freakin osprey .
After raising bantams for several years, we've only lost 5 to birds of prey, which is surprisingly low since our new homestead is surrounded by woods. You are going to have a beautiful new flock soon, congrats!
I have a bantam Cochin silver laced and I think she is a he roo but I don’t want to get rid of him he’s the sweetest chicken ever ever! I’m new to the chicken world and we’ll see how he turns out. Can you make a video of how bantam Cochin roosters behavior is like
Sorry, I'm not able to do that. I don't have any Cochin roosters, so I wouldn't be able to state anything from my own experience.
The best way to tell if it is a rooster is to wait and see if I tries to breed the hens. We have a hen that will occasionally start crowing, but she usually only does it to attempt to assert dominance over a young rooster lol
This video is very helpful, thank you so much! I love the bantam chicken, but I also can’t find much info , this was first time I saw how big the egg is from a Batam. Thank you! Also, Love how you support local, my family prioritizes the same thing!
I'm so glad this video helped you out! Supporting local is such an important thing to do ❤️
I'll try bantam chicken in the spring. Found hatching eggs of bantam welsummers and wyandottes.
We've had a few Welsummer hens, they tend to be some of our top layers. Best of luck to you!
May I ask where you found your welders and Wyandotte to hatch? Most of my neighbors don’t have chickens. My next door neighbor started me in silkies, and another neighbor gave me my start of bantams for making their kids quilts. Thanks
@@sandracarter2765this is what the world needs
I have bantam Cochins and they are so nice and beautiful colors.
Thanks for commenting! I'm sure they are lovely 😀
New subscriber, your channel came up and since I love chickens of course I had to watch your video! I just purchased a few Barred Cochin bantams from Cackle Hatchery. They arrived super healthy and I fell in love with them immediately. I bought them to set eggs (I also have 2 standard size Cochins for setting eggs and although sweet they are sooo big!). Speaking of size I also have Bielefelders which are super gentle but extremely huge birds. With my small flocks of Welsummers, Cream Legbars, & Bielefelders I am going through feed at an astronomical rate and with it not being cost effective, I am seriously considering just switching to bantams. Thanks so much for your informative video, I learned alot.
Thank you for your comment! We have a few welsummer bantams. They are about the size of a dove. They lay very well even throughout the winter. We've noticed that our smaller birds also tend to enjoy foraging more than our larger bantams. The savings in feed is well worth the cost to switch, in my opinion. Thank you for subscribing!
hello, there you should try raising some quails they are about the same size, they are fully grown at 6 weeks and start laying eggs about 6/8 weeks of age eat about 2 onces of feed per day and they are sweet and friendly, if you want for the freezer caamp make sure you get Jumbo ones as they a bout twice the size of reg ones and Dont buy button quails they are sweet adorable but they will fit inside your hand and not worth for meat just for adorable value :) have fun.Mum of a bunch of quails and bantams :)
Thanks for the suggestion! We actually do also raise quail. They have been a nice addition to our homestead :)
Thank you. Very helpful.
You're welcome!
I like bantams too
They are the best :)
Thanks ! Got some today, so tiny
Congratulations!
Thank you for this video! We are starting to think about chickens and think Bantams or the Bantem Crosses probably are better than full size standards. Could you do a video talking about the crosses you have, if you bought a cross at the start or started with a fullsize and did the first cross to a full bantam? I'd like to know a little more about their coop since I think I saw you did a mobile coop? How about wintering and how you choose to insulate and what you do with the coop in the cold season? I am up in Maine so trying to find as much information as I can now because next year is the year I think getting started with them would be good. Oh, and what time of year would you say is the best time to start? I'd assume it would be when the days are consistently in the 50's or 60s to bring a new flock to a property.
When we first bought our bantams, we just went to Tractor Supply and got and assortment of cute looking bantam chicks. This was over 4 years ago, so in that time, they all have pretty much become barnyard mixes. We have a few Silkie hens that have hatched out a few nice roosters that are slightly larger than our normal bantams since the Silkie breed isn't a true bantam, but also isn't a full sized bird either. We have been trying to add in more of the Silkie gene to our flock so the future generations will grow a little bit larger, essentially becoming a better dual purpose bantam flock. Bantams are known for going broody often, so they are great at flock regeneration.
In terms of when the best time to get started is, I'd just say once your ready and you can get chicks locally, that's when I would do it. For the first few weeks, any chick will really need to be kept indoors and under a heat plate. We only use heat plates since the heat lamps can be dangerous and use more electricity to run.
Since moving to a new homestead, our chickens sleep in the barn with our goats. We use a deep litter bedding method which actually helps generate a little bit of additional heat as everything is breaking down. Since you are in such a cold climate, I'd recommend reading about the deep litter method. As a general rule, chickens that have smaller combs and wattles are better suited for cold climates since their comb helps displace excess heat. The smaller the combs and wattles, the less likely they are to get frost bite.
I hope this helps :)
@@storybrookefamilyfarm Thank you so much for sharing! Northeastern Maine is a little funky with weather, where Winters get really cold with coldest nights can go down well below 0 and is still somewhat humid cold, then at the height of summer you can get a string of days in the 90's with very humid heat that swing between upper 80's with a few that can tough near 100 sometimes at the hottest part of the day.
Definitely a lot of learning to do well before starting with chickens or any critter (I only have experience with meat rabbits down when I lived in PA).
The aim is to be as regenerative as possible with smaller animals on the little 2.1 acre area we just got here. Half of it is "woodland" and the other half is basic yard so I guess "pasture" type land in it's current state. The local groundhogs seem to love it in the evenings haha.
@Zanuvar that sounds like our land, too! We have 2 acres, half of it is wooded, and the other half is open. The wooded half is on a very steep, North facing slope, so that presents a lot of challenges with attempting to grow most crops in the woods. There is a ton that can be grown on a 2 acre parcel of land, especially if you are creative :)
@@storybrookefamilyfarm Oh definitely! Our wooded section is flat, but there is a steep drop off from the flat Yard with House portion to get to it. The land we moved onto has A LOT of junk dumped on it at the slope and down into the woods. Much like was done back in the 70s with tossed bottles and cans, old appliances, old tires, etc are all down on the slope. It then slowly has a down hill grading towards the river a couple of miles in that direction beyond our property line.
A lot to clean, but hey, it was cheap/affordable in this economy, and it's ours. So what's a little physical labor to turn a squandered bit of land into a beautiful productive and self sustaining homestead. Can't wait to get to the part of planting native species on that slope though. The "fun" part haha.
Do you have any thoughts/video or opinion on Permeable Paver stones for driveways/home parking? Land came with a trailer that's liveable but definitely needs work, and part of what we are thinking about is a better "pad" and thought about something like Turfstone pavers. We found a local farm equipment(local meaning in the same state) website sells recycled plastic version of that kind of grid paver that can hold 60 tons per paver block. I like the idea that it allows for better drainage of water, can be filled with gravel or can have grass grown in the little grid holes. It feels like it's a more environmentally friendly way to keep and maintain a solid and flat driveway/parking area and to keep a trailer on without laying concrete or asphalt, or having to maintain a loose gravel driveway or even just dirt which is a pain point for erosion.
@Zanuvar your homestead sounds almost exactly the same as ours! Ours had a long forgotten about, but structurally sound small old farmhouse on it that we've been working on fixing up while living in it.
I do not have any experience with pavers like that. Our house already had a gravel driveway that was well established, so we don't plan on changing it. We do as much as possible to reclaim materials and do things as frugal as possible. I'd say if those pavers aren't too terribly expensive and you like how they'd work out, then definitely look into them. Just be mindful that saving stuff from a landfill is also taking a step towards helping out the environment. You may be able to find someone wanting to get rid of old pavers or something similar for very cheap or even free. If you haven't already subscribed, I'd love for you to join along on our journey, especially since we are both doing something similar :)
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Am i able to have a bantam rooster in with standard sized hens? Or must i have 2 separate flocks: bantams and standard?
As long as the full sized hens are nice to him, it should be perfectly fine. I've known of several people who have had mixed flocks without any problems. Any chicks that come from a mixed flock will have a chance of being smaller than a standard size chicken due to the bantam genetics getting mixed in.
Hi! Thanks for your video. Which breeds lay consistently and don’t go too broody, please? I only have a small back garden on an estate and can’t have a rooster. We all eat a lot of eggs. Thank you 😊
Hi there, thanks for your comment! I would suggest looking into getting the Black Australorp breed. They actually are considered a dual purpose breed, but they also hold the world record for most eggs laid in a year. Our first rooster was part Black Australorp and he passed down some amazing egg laying genetics. Good luck on beginning your chicken journey!
I have a snow Easter egger with my silkie chickens 🇺🇸👍♥️❤️ she's the size of a dove
That's neat! We love the size of our bantam chickens!
I also have Bantams and love them. I have been looking for other bantams, or bantam eggs to hatch. What state are you located in? I’m in Illinois.
Hi! I'm located in NE Ohio
@@storybrookefamilyfarm I live around Effingham, Illinois. I was hoping it was a lot closer, I really enjoyed your UTube post.
@@sandracarter2765 thank you!
What they eat goes into their eggs
Absolutely!
How do they do in the winter
We haven't had any issues with ours. Last winter we had a few days with -20F as the windchill. As long as the coop seals out the water and the wind, they can be quite hardy. If you are looking for breeds that can withstand long, cold winters, look for one's that have smaller combs and waddles. They tend to fare better in frigid temps.
Is that a white silky
Yes it is :)
hello do you sale bantam hens? and do you ship here in PEI Canada
Hi, unfortunately, I am only able to sell birds locally. Your best bet would be to order from a hatchery that is within a few hours of you. The shorter the shipping distance, the less stressful it is for the chicks. Best of luck to you!
Ooh come on Jen why worry about an attack rooster , we had an attack tom turkey.
An attack turkey would be so much worse!
The only thing I have disagreement with is that Bantam Roosters are not intimidating. I raised both bantams and full sized as a child and can tell you about the time that I watched three bantams' gang up on a full rooster like a pack of velociraptors on a t-rex. and don't dismiss the "small dog" correlation, Banty Roosters are as aggressive as chihuahuas.
Around here, aggressive roosters end up going to freezer camp pretty quickly
Me and my wife
*my wife and I is the correct way
thanks bill
I eat the same as reg size eggs!!!
Thanks for commenting! A few of our girls lay some good-sized eggs! We have a few girls that lay very small eggs, so we have to adjust our consumption based on who laid the egg lol
Hmm I can't watch this I want one
My grandfather had regular chickens. When I was 4 the rooster chased me to the house. You are right about regular chickens not being good with kids.
Some breeds are more docile and kid friendly than others are. We'd much rather have a tiny, 2 pound rooster chasing us than a large, 12 pound rooster chasing us lol
Me and my wife? I can understand girls being besties for life, but why would you marry a woman? Just curious, thx!
A same sex couple gets married because they love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives in an intimate relationship with one another, just as a non same sex couple. Would you be content spending the rest of your life with your spouse, but pretending they were simply your "bestie"?