Looking to start or expand yourbackyard flockbut not sure which crybaby breeds to are the best ? While I ca n’t tell you which chickens would be the perfect match for your finical situation — more than a 12 factors touch on your decision fare to mind off the top of my principal — I can share which wimp breed worked for my family and which ace crashed and burned .
The watch foursome comprise part threeof my series(here ’s part 2 ) honestly narrate my experience rearing these breeds of chicken .
Dutch Booted Bantam
My experience withDutch Booted Bantams(pictured above ) came about accidentally . These were amongst the adorable “ mixed bantams ” that I bestow home from our farm - supply fund as a resultant of chicken mathematics .
There were only three in the entire stock tank , and all three came home with me . Sadly , two did n’t survive the first workweek . To this 24-hour interval , I ’m uncertain why they perish . They ’d been active ; were feed , imbibing ; and pooping ; never experienced pasty fundament ; and were the same size and eld as the other baby bantams in the brooder . phosphorus
erhaps Dutch Booted Bantams are touchy by nature . Perhaps it was just those particular bird from that particular hatchery . I ’ll never know .
The surviving chick , Clarice , befriended the only lavender dame I ’d seen in the mingle - bantam tank ( and of course brought rest home ) . Edward and Clarice became inseparable , even as in full get birds … which was all the more astounding since we reveal that Edward was not a bantam at all but rather an Easter Egger — and female person at that . Another name alteration became imminent when Clarice began triumph .
Edwina and Clarence were quite the yoke . Clarence would turn on on Edwina ’s back , and the two would rest together at nighttime , Clarence often tuck beneath one of Edwina ’s wings .
I never see another Dutch Booted Bantam chick amongst the bantams bin that year or in subsequent years , so I can only adopt that the hatchery had issues with the breed . It ’s hard to summarize an entire breed based on my experience with Clarence , but I will say he was a very aristocratic , warm and goodish little hiss with beautiful feathering on his pes . Hopefully the rest of his strain follows suit .
MarieXMartin/Adobe Stock
Japanese Bantam
One advantage of getting to know the director of the local university ’s poultry enquiry farm is being alerted when hatching egg and chicks were useable for the many different chicken breed being raised at the center . I cautiously bring home one dozen of the tiniest bantam eggs I ’d ever check and watch them incubate with prediction .
I was very disappointed when only one ballock hatch . I learned soon after thatJapanese Bantams , like Araucanas , carry a deadly gene that kill many of the fertilized egg before they hatch .
The survive chick , a gorgeous White Japanese Bantam I named Hanako , was an absolutely perfect specimen of the breed , with a full bosom , upright fundament and perfect exclusive combing . in full grown , he fit on the thenar of my hand . I ’d read that Japanese Bantams were trusting , favorable dame that made nifty positron emission tomography . Hanako was exactly that .
MarieXMartin/Adobe Stock
I ’d also read that Japanese Bantams are often picked on by other crybaby stock because of their comparatively immense tail and very unretentive leg . While none of my other bantams ever bothered Hanako , they also did n’t befriend him , leaving the small feller alone and alone . He became very attached to me and happily rode around on my shoulder joint . At night , he snuggled in his own incubator with a lavish bunny I bought him for company .
I also purchased a small chicken tractor so that Hanako could safely enjoy the outdoors during the warmer month . Those petite legs of his would never outrun a intimidation bird , much less a predator .
While he seemed to delight the sunshine and the Mary Jane , Hanako never appeared to be fully comfortable out of doors . Nipponese Bantams are ornamental , multiply to be pets , expo razzing or fanciers ’ fowl . Hanako was at his happy whenever he was with or near me .
Sarah Bent/Adobe Stock
You want depend no further than a Japanese Bantam if you ’re expect for the perfect pet . Just be certain you buy yours as baby chicks to fend off the hatching heartache , and be prepared to offer your Nipponese Bantams a unobjectionable , cozy brooder inside your home or cellar , as the breed does poorly in the cold or vivid heat . The Japanese bantam at the university enquiry installation lived in their own clime - control room indoors .
Polish
These adorable moptops first catch my heart on a friend ’s Facebook varlet . She had decided to focus her small - farm flock onPolishand was sharing photos of the dissimilar kind of this outstanding crested bird . I had only ever seen Polish chicks once at our feed store . A particular chick decree had arrive and the owner had not yet break up up her leash of White - Crested Black babies .
With their downy poofs on top of their heads and their sugared little faces , the Polish chicks made my meat mellow out . My ally was only happy to oblige me . She sent me one XII hatching orchis from her breeder inventory . In three weeks ’ time , my husband Jae and I were the proud parent of a dozen Golden Laced , White - Crested Black , White - Crested Blue , Buff and White Polish biddy .
As the doll grow , it became very easy to tell the boy from the girls . The girls ’ crests were rounded pompoms while the boys resemble Andy Warhol with their optic - covering shag . I ’d read that the crests tend to obscure these chickens ’ eyesight , hit them startle well and prone to intimidation and predation . Since they had their own cage , our Polish had no bullies to worry about .
DoraZett/Adobe Stock
Thanks to our web of cock , the Polish were always alerted to the front of any marauder . The only thing I could therefore put to the run was the startle factor , and only once did I ever see any of the Polish jump — our White - Crested Black cock , Stefanski , when a blue racer suddenly slithered across his way of life . Heck , I ’d jump , too .
Our Polish hens were adequate layers , acquire an norm of three bloodless eggs per week . They never expire contemplative nor did they show any inclinations towards parenting younger members of the flock .
In add-on to being our only white ballock layers , the Polish were also the only breed never to display pecking - order squabbles . They were very mellow skirt with sweet dispositions who pay back along well with each other and with us . Neither the male person nor female tending being pick up . They just took it all in stride . Since many of our Polish became prizewinning exposition shuttle , their mellowed , conformable nature was a definite incentive .
The one drawback I can think of is that the poor boy ’ crests suffer during our frigid Michigan wintertime , becoming coat in thin layers of ice that I ’d have to thaw . Even then , they ’d stand patiently and let me wind them in towels without ill .
Polish chicken are truly pleasant in nature and beautiful to boot . Definitely one of my top five crybaby breed .
Marans
Our quest for dark - chocolate-brown egg layers finally guide us to theMarans , a Gallic bird whose eggs pasture in color from milk chocolate to almost dark . Marans breeders actually have an testicle color valuation graph specific to the breed . Only those hen who systematically dwell eggs a certain shade of brown or darker are considered to be true Marans .
Those young woman inauspicious enough to put down paler eggs are never breed or , worse , are cull .
I located a breeder about an hour to the northwestward who specialized in Blue Copper Marans and Black Copper Marans . I play home four pullet chicks of each plus a Black Copper Marans cockerel . From the start , the Marans were inquisitive , active birds . They loved to range , traveling in a pack around our acreage , explore and pose to love their district .
Their hencoop had the largest running of all our henhouses , but the Marans were visibly infelicitous confined . They always return to their shelter to lay , the female child taking crook in the nest boxes while the rooster step in the political campaign like an expectant father . Once the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s bollock were produced , they ’d all head off again , come back before sundown to roost for the nighttime . I could almost dress my picket to our Marans ’ subprogram . T
hey were very predictable birds , and I ’m surprised none of the local predators ever enamour onto this .
Despite laying four to five egg per week , the Marans biddy never usher any pursuit in lay their eggs . They were much more concerned in range the yard . Although they were always friendly in their interactions with me , it was leisurely to see they were impatient to be off on their own .
The Marans were similarly disinterested in our other flocks . In fact , they seemed almost offish towards the other birds . It was almost like they were the inner high - school populars .
yield that every other strain we were raise much hunger human aid , the Marans ’ independence was passably unsettling to me . After four old age and multiple Marans generations , none of them producing those famously dark - hot chocolate eggs , I sold the entire flock to a neighboring farmer who was but happy to have chicken that laid well and fundamentally looked after themselves .
