Some breed advice on bantam layers

[Helen_Jayne]

Hi chicken lovers,
I just hope to get some advice from your bank of knowledge on bantam breeds.
I'm a new chicken keeper, I had chickens as a kid but not for nearly 30 years! I have 2 silkie hens and a silkie rooster right now, all 18 weeks and I got them at a day old so they are very settled. The free-range in the garden and roost in the shed.
They are great pets and ideal for the garden but I would really like to get a source of eggs and possibly to cross them with a good layer in the future. I know these are likely to go broody a lot. Does anyone have advice on a bantam breed which is a good layer and good to live in the garden like this? We don't want ones that will fly away a lot but just stick with the flock. It must be bantams as we are short on space.
Any ideas gratefully received!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Hi chicken lovers,
I just hope to get some advice from your bank of knowledge on bantam breeds.
I'm a new chicken keeper, I had chickens as a kid but not for nearly 30 years! I have 2 silkie hens and a silkie rooster right now, all 18 weeks and I got them at a day old so they are very settled. The free-range in the garden and roost in the shed.
They are great pets and ideal for the garden but I would really like to get a source of eggs and possibly to cross them with a good layer in the future. I know these are likely to go broody a lot. Does anyone have advice on a bantam breed which is a good layer and good to live in the garden like this? We don't want ones that will fly away a lot but just stick with the flock. It must be bantams as we are short on space.
Any ideas gratefully received!

The best I can think of is a Silkie who are average layers I suppose or Perkins but they don’t lay good eggs as they only lay one every few weeks

 

[PouleChick]

Any ideas gratefully received!

I have been surprisingly pleased with my Silkies laying - up to 5 eggs a week (when they aren't broody )

 

[SueT]

My little Sebright hen lays a lot of tiny eggs when she's laying. This is her record from this year. Like all my other chickens, she had taken a winter break, and began laying in March, ended in Sept. She also went broody 5 times, which is something you likely have to deal with in most bantams. That affected the total, I would put her in the broody buster cage, for 1-3 days, but then it would be at least another week with no laying. So as I said, she lays a lot of eggs when she's laying.
Egg totals per month:
March- 24
April -18 broody
May -20 broody
June- 11 broody
July- 20 broody
Aug -19
Sept- 9 broody
I think that's 121 eggs for the year
I love the tiny eggs!!!!!

 

[Gray Farms]

You might check in to Wyandotte bantams or Rhode Island Red bantams. They are typically fair layers, not flighty, and not typically broody.

 

[Helen_Jayne]

Thanks everyone. Because I've been told silkies go broody a lot I thought it would be worth crossing them with a breed that doesn't. But hopefully, from what you're saying here I might get some eggs from the silkies.
Wow Sue, thanks for posting the picture of those eggs, they are really small! I bet they taste good though. My concern about sebrights here is they could fly away as we live in terraced housing in the city and the back gardens are all next to each other. The silkies stay in this area but I think a sebright might fly off a bit. However I will check them out as they'd also be great at escaping cats I imagine.
Thanks for the advice Gray Farms, I will check those out.

 

[belindaschicks]

I have an Easter egger bantam whose not very broody compared with other bantam breeds and she lays nearly every day including through winter. Currently she is laying better then my standards at the moment. Including my RIR. She lays decent size eggs for her small size. Very pretty blue color too.

 

[SueT]

Some advantages of tiny eggs--you can easily make half recipes. They make adorable deviled eggs...and mine are easy to peel even the day they are laid. I have this idea of some day starting a tiny egg company.
Hearing about the bantam easter egger caught my interest--that is something I'll look into for sure.
As for Sebrights flying, I don't think it's a big issue, but I only have the one. She is going on 2 now, and doesn't fly without a lot of encouragement. Last year, I had taught her to fly to my arm. She could fly up there from the ground. It's very hard to get her to do it now without me squatting down. I let all my birds free range most afternoons, she stays on the ground. Our run is covered with bird netting. All our birds, large and small, were fliers when young.

 

[Helen_Jayne]

Great thanks for this. I'll look into the easter-egger, I like the look of those chickens. Actually the lady I got my silkies off has got easter eggers I think so its worth a thought. Thanks for the flying advice too!

 

[sylviethecochin]

My silkies are more standard than bantam-sized—why not just get some small standards? (Leghorns come to mind.)