Having a fair amount of experience with Pekins (arguably the best chicken breed ever, IMHO), I thought I'd share that in the hopes that some new backyard chicken-keepers might give these cuties a chance!
Pekins are a true bantam breed - this means there's no large fowl counterpart. There are several stories about their origins but my personal favourite - and the most dramatic - is that they were looted from the private collection of the Emperor of China, in Peking! Just a little fact for you - Peking, I believe, is now Beijing. Anyway, it's not certain just how true this is, but still.
Pekins are the shortest bantam breed. They can reach about 20-30 cm according to other sites, but ours are typically less than that. They also have gorgeous feathered legs and feet (so a muddy run might not be the best housing, because it will clump and stick to the feathers - we have to bathe ours occasionally in warm water, which they seem to thoroughly enjoy. Only do this when it's not cold outside!). They are very docile, inquisitive birds - most of the time! The broody hens can be a little sassy at times, but that's just one part of a multi-faceted personality.
If handled well when young, Pekins can become very affectionate. We had eight Pekin day olds back in '17 - this was our first experience with them - and unfortunately six turned out to be cockerels, but that's another story. Anyway, they were cuddled and talked to for hours each day and when they were older they were gorgeously tame birds - including the cockerel. We've had issues with cockerels of other breeds, but never with Pekin cockerels. You do have to watch them if they get defensive of their hens, though, but in my experience they're typically almost as friendly as the hens.
They're highly intelligent birds and will keep you entertained for hours with their antics. Honestly, you'll never be bored if you have Pekins. It's a total pleasure to watch them just, y'know, chickening about.
The hens tend to regularly go broody, and they will hatch other breeds very well. We had one of ours, one of the original two hens (from that eight mentioned above) called Trista who hatched two Barnevelders and two Light Sussexs, which we still have! Note that if you try this, don't give them too many eggs as they're really tiny birds. The other original hen, Tillie - an extremely mischievous, characterful hen - hatched three clutches in one season. A very determined broody, and there's nothing more adorable than watching her run about with a train of chicks trundling along behind! Her daughter Ava also proved herself a brilliant mother. See, we had a hybrid (a Copper Black) called Tansy, who was the most adamant broody I've ever seen. Eventually, we gave up and gave her some of our own fertile Pekin eggs, which she diligently sat on for the whole length of time. However, when the chicks began hatching, she began killing them. The first, we think, was accidental - but the second and third definitely weren't. I guess we should've known that hybrids pretty much have the mothering instincts bred out of them.
However, not having an incubator or brooder ready at that point, we weren't sure what to do. Except for the fact... that we did have a broody Ava. So, rather tentatively, we put her on the eggs and removed Tansy. She was a total dream. When she first got over her fright at the first chick coming out of the egg she had been patiently sat on (it was hilarious, I'll be honest), she acted like a veteran. Pekins are brilliant mothers!
They can, in most cases, be broken of their broodiness fairly easily if you like the eggs. You can expect 100, more or less, for the first two years, dropping after that. The eggs are fairly small, and creamy-white in colour. We have young neighbours who love the kid-sized eggs, but some people prefer to keep a couple of bigger hens as well for standard sized eggs. If you don't have space, though, Pekins are one of the better-laying bantams. They're also brilliant with children, and we've found that kids who might be scared of a big, flapping chicken are generally less timid of these cute little fluff-balls.
We've found that Pekins tend to get on reasonably well with most other breeds and are perfectly capable of standing up for themselves. In fact, at one point when (rather unwisely, in hindsight) we had two cockerels (one Barnevelder, one Pekin) the Pekin was quite definitely the alpha male! The hens were also fine with being a little fiesty in sticking up for them or their brood.
We've also found that they're great in the garden. They're more than happy to root through dead leaves, et cetera, but we've never had them getting into anything they shouldn't dig up. I think this is probably partially due to the feathered feet. They don't tend to dig too much - except when we do it for them! We have a garden fork and shovel that we use to regularly turn over the dirt in the run, and it was the Pekins who first figured out that if they stood right by (sometimes on the earth we were turning over!
) they would be the ones to get the worms that invariably appeared.
As for more practical things - feeding, etc. - we've generally fed them on normal Layers' pellets and got on fine. They don't seem to have issues eating the pellets although I know some people feed Pekins crumbles rather than pellets. They also manage just fine with normal roost height. Whilst with bigger hens, the recommended space is 3 square feet per bird, with Pekins you can easily get away with two. Moulting typically happens from mid/late summer, through to autumn. By winter they ought to have their feathers back again.
We've noticed that foraging on grass has kept them far healthier (before we let them do this, we were concerned because they were beginning to look pale and anaemic, but now they're much better). Normally they're a robust and long-lived bird who loves company - human or chicken.
Just another note on broodiness - we've not found it necessary to separate the cockerel from the broody hen, most of the time. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The first time Tillie went broody, our cockerel Sterling went quite frantic searching for her. We took him out of his coop and put him in her broody coop for a while, after which he went to bed satisfied. But he wouldn't go to bed before seeing her, and when she would get off the eggs he would often sit on them for her - or defend them from other inquisitive hens. He even helped raising them and she never minded in the least. Note that that's Sterling. With our second Pekin cock (we kept one after Sterling died in '19), he is actually a little nervous around the chicks. But in speaking to other Pekin owners, there seems to be a bit of a trend with very fatherly cockerels!
We've raised several colours - black, cuckoo, mille fleur, blue, lavender, black mottled and - my personal favourite so far - partridge. Our current population of pekins is as follows:
Trista - hen - Cuckoo [Tillie and Ava were sold with their broods to a lovely farmer we know, and they reared all 13 of their chicks together!]
Rusty - cock - Mille Fleur
Snowy - also cock - Black mottled (we think) - Trista's chick
Maple - hen - Partridge - Trista's chick
Ebony - hen - Black - Trista's chick
Come spring we're hoping either Ebony or Maple will kindly go broody. We also have a new incubator and are collecting eggs to set in there too.
Well, I'm sorry there aren't any pictures yet! I'm going to see if I can find some and post them here. If you have any questions about Pekins, feel free to drop a line!
Pekins are a true bantam breed - this means there's no large fowl counterpart. There are several stories about their origins but my personal favourite - and the most dramatic - is that they were looted from the private collection of the Emperor of China, in Peking! Just a little fact for you - Peking, I believe, is now Beijing. Anyway, it's not certain just how true this is, but still.
Pekins are the shortest bantam breed. They can reach about 20-30 cm according to other sites, but ours are typically less than that. They also have gorgeous feathered legs and feet (so a muddy run might not be the best housing, because it will clump and stick to the feathers - we have to bathe ours occasionally in warm water, which they seem to thoroughly enjoy. Only do this when it's not cold outside!). They are very docile, inquisitive birds - most of the time! The broody hens can be a little sassy at times, but that's just one part of a multi-faceted personality.
If handled well when young, Pekins can become very affectionate. We had eight Pekin day olds back in '17 - this was our first experience with them - and unfortunately six turned out to be cockerels, but that's another story. Anyway, they were cuddled and talked to for hours each day and when they were older they were gorgeously tame birds - including the cockerel. We've had issues with cockerels of other breeds, but never with Pekin cockerels. You do have to watch them if they get defensive of their hens, though, but in my experience they're typically almost as friendly as the hens.
They're highly intelligent birds and will keep you entertained for hours with their antics. Honestly, you'll never be bored if you have Pekins. It's a total pleasure to watch them just, y'know, chickening about.
The hens tend to regularly go broody, and they will hatch other breeds very well. We had one of ours, one of the original two hens (from that eight mentioned above) called Trista who hatched two Barnevelders and two Light Sussexs, which we still have! Note that if you try this, don't give them too many eggs as they're really tiny birds. The other original hen, Tillie - an extremely mischievous, characterful hen - hatched three clutches in one season. A very determined broody, and there's nothing more adorable than watching her run about with a train of chicks trundling along behind! Her daughter Ava also proved herself a brilliant mother. See, we had a hybrid (a Copper Black) called Tansy, who was the most adamant broody I've ever seen. Eventually, we gave up and gave her some of our own fertile Pekin eggs, which she diligently sat on for the whole length of time. However, when the chicks began hatching, she began killing them. The first, we think, was accidental - but the second and third definitely weren't. I guess we should've known that hybrids pretty much have the mothering instincts bred out of them.
However, not having an incubator or brooder ready at that point, we weren't sure what to do. Except for the fact... that we did have a broody Ava. So, rather tentatively, we put her on the eggs and removed Tansy. She was a total dream. When she first got over her fright at the first chick coming out of the egg she had been patiently sat on (it was hilarious, I'll be honest), she acted like a veteran. Pekins are brilliant mothers!
They can, in most cases, be broken of their broodiness fairly easily if you like the eggs. You can expect 100, more or less, for the first two years, dropping after that. The eggs are fairly small, and creamy-white in colour. We have young neighbours who love the kid-sized eggs, but some people prefer to keep a couple of bigger hens as well for standard sized eggs. If you don't have space, though, Pekins are one of the better-laying bantams. They're also brilliant with children, and we've found that kids who might be scared of a big, flapping chicken are generally less timid of these cute little fluff-balls.
We've found that Pekins tend to get on reasonably well with most other breeds and are perfectly capable of standing up for themselves. In fact, at one point when (rather unwisely, in hindsight) we had two cockerels (one Barnevelder, one Pekin) the Pekin was quite definitely the alpha male! The hens were also fine with being a little fiesty in sticking up for them or their brood.
We've also found that they're great in the garden. They're more than happy to root through dead leaves, et cetera, but we've never had them getting into anything they shouldn't dig up. I think this is probably partially due to the feathered feet. They don't tend to dig too much - except when we do it for them! We have a garden fork and shovel that we use to regularly turn over the dirt in the run, and it was the Pekins who first figured out that if they stood right by (sometimes on the earth we were turning over!
) they would be the ones to get the worms that invariably appeared.As for more practical things - feeding, etc. - we've generally fed them on normal Layers' pellets and got on fine. They don't seem to have issues eating the pellets although I know some people feed Pekins crumbles rather than pellets. They also manage just fine with normal roost height. Whilst with bigger hens, the recommended space is 3 square feet per bird, with Pekins you can easily get away with two. Moulting typically happens from mid/late summer, through to autumn. By winter they ought to have their feathers back again.
We've noticed that foraging on grass has kept them far healthier (before we let them do this, we were concerned because they were beginning to look pale and anaemic, but now they're much better). Normally they're a robust and long-lived bird who loves company - human or chicken.
Just another note on broodiness - we've not found it necessary to separate the cockerel from the broody hen, most of the time. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The first time Tillie went broody, our cockerel Sterling went quite frantic searching for her. We took him out of his coop and put him in her broody coop for a while, after which he went to bed satisfied. But he wouldn't go to bed before seeing her, and when she would get off the eggs he would often sit on them for her - or defend them from other inquisitive hens. He even helped raising them and she never minded in the least. Note that that's Sterling. With our second Pekin cock (we kept one after Sterling died in '19), he is actually a little nervous around the chicks. But in speaking to other Pekin owners, there seems to be a bit of a trend with very fatherly cockerels!
We've raised several colours - black, cuckoo, mille fleur, blue, lavender, black mottled and - my personal favourite so far - partridge. Our current population of pekins is as follows:
Trista - hen - Cuckoo [Tillie and Ava were sold with their broods to a lovely farmer we know, and they reared all 13 of their chicks together!]
Rusty - cock - Mille Fleur
Snowy - also cock - Black mottled (we think) - Trista's chick
Maple - hen - Partridge - Trista's chick
Ebony - hen - Black - Trista's chick
Come spring we're hoping either Ebony or Maple will kindly go broody. We also have a new incubator and are collecting eggs to set in there too.
Well, I'm sorry there aren't any pictures yet! I'm going to see if I can find some and post them here. If you have any questions about Pekins, feel free to drop a line!
