Bantams are the Rodney Dangerfield of the chicken world. They get no respect. People see them as fancy little creatures, not as an animal that has a place on the farm. Trust me, I know from firsthand experience. I used to see them the same way.
From the first moment that we began discussing adding chickens to the landscape at 1840 Farm, my daughter had bantams in her sights. She began making her case that a few bantams should come to call our farm home. She loved their beautiful plumage, their intriguing names, and their interesting histories.
She made a convincing argument, but I was selecting birds based on their egg laying ability. Of course I saw beauty in each breed that I studied, but my main concern was their ability to produce eggs for our family table. Therefore, our first order did not include any bantam chicks.
My daughter is incredibly persistent. She continued to talk about bringing bantams to our farm. She kept reading and investigating the breeds and telling me what she learned. Last spring her persistence paid off.
When the time came for us to expand our flock, she finally got her wish. Now that we would have enough standard sized heritage breed hens to produce eggs for our family table, we could make a little space for a few bantams. It didn’t take long for her to spring into action.
After carefully perusing the options from our supplier My Pet Chicken, she made her selections. It was no surprise when she requested Silkies, a breed that had long captivated her attention. Weeks later, the chicks arrived and we began raising our first bantams.
That was a year ago. Over the last twelve months, the standard sized and bantam chickens, have matured from fluffy day old chicks to full grown, egg laying hens. Each of them has found their place in the order here at 1840 Farm. As most animals do, they have also taught me a few lessons along the way.
The biggest lesson? Bantams are more than just a pretty face and fancy feathers. They’re every bit as hardy as our standard hens and required no special care during our harsh winter. They happily spend their days in our garden coop and provide us with beautiful small to medium sized eggs.
My daughter reminds me often that she was right. Her beloved bantams are beautiful and have lovely personalities to match. Bantams were a great addition to our small family farm. Just don’t tell my daughter that I said so. I’m afraid that she would be hard at work on her proposal to add horses to our backyard.
Do you keep bantams in your flock? I’d love to hear about your bantam experience. In the coming months, I’ll be sharing more posts about the bantams at 1840 Farm. Stay tuned!
Congratulations to Cyndi who was randomly selected as the winner of The 1840 Farm Heirloom Tomato Seed Collection. I can’t wait to hear how much she enjoys planting a few of our favorite heirloom varieties in her garden.
You’re always welcome at 1840 Farm.
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2 Comments
as a Kid in 2nd grade on a farm in Iowa. we got our first bantam. a little red hen. We new better to put her with the 200 laying hens. she live in an old shed that was once a small hen house. She was named Ruth. after a while she had a couple of hen friends that excepted the big hen house and moved in with her. Ruth was an egg machine. after a few months some one gave us a bantam rooster. he name was Cassel. He also live with Ruth and her 3 Leghorn friends.
after a few years we had bantams and cross breeds running all over the farm. When my folks sold out in the 1960s. they were sold or given away. Talk about free range chicken. I might take more than to make a meal but we ate them and their eggs.
I have 2 silkies that I had purchased along with 5 regular sized hens from an acquaintance. They were all raised together and had no problem integrting with my other 3 regular sized hens. They are what I call my living incubators as they go broody about every 2 months it seems. I am even considering just staying with Bantams since they are unable to fly over my 6′ tall fence as a few others tend to do.