Bantum Chickens...?

Lippyx

Lippyx

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Wasn't sure where to post this, so apologies if its in the wrong place!

My dad has been thinking about get a few Bantum chickens, and was wondering if someone could help me?
He is away on holiday for the next two weeks, and thought it would be a nice surprise if I could get this organised for him, for his return.

Anyway, how many is a good number? 2 or 3 chickens? They will need a pen and somewhere to be locked away so again, how big roughly?

Any help would be grand!
 
Bantam*

Where are you based I own chickens and no some nice breeders.. We started with 2 (19 and chicks now!) You can get chicken runs and houses from eBay cheaper than in big shops. Try omlet.com or co.uk for more info they're loverly and will help :-)
 
I'm in Essex and I breed and sell bantams. Pm me and you are welcome to come and have a look round. I can talk chickens for hours!
 
oh contagious creatures Bantams and Chickens

I would start with 3 as if one dies at least you dont end up with 1 left etc

Also it creates more of a pecking order etc. Also I increased by staggering the flock to keep the egg supply on going and to cover any that have died.

Chickens are a lot more calmer and obviously the eggs are bigger. I got 3 bantams from a friend a few months ago and they are hilarious scatty things. They remind me of gremlins!

They lay delicious smaller eggs(more small chicken size not miniscule). I have just got use to them and the are all broody at the moment(I understand they can make good mothers as well). They are hogging the nest box as i have them sitting on duck eggs and as they are all black I looked at them yesterday and thought 3 witches! They do sort of screech as well.

They are the easiest pet to have and provide you with lovely eggs(depending on which breed too), a bit like keeping guinea pig or rabbit. Take up the offer on here to speak and visit someone with them. Good luck.
 
Don't do it. I think if people realised how addictive bantams (& chickens are) they would be class A!

I started with 3 and a house and run from ebay.....I then saw 2 more girls I liked advertised locally on a chicken forum so I got those too - only trouble was I ended up with 3 as I got a BOGOF. So I had to buy another run - another from ebay. Then I saw a 'nice' house on ebay that would fit all 6 so I bought that.....but the girls didn't like it so I freecycled it.....it was kn****ckered. Then one went broodie so I got 6 eggs from ebay...they didn't hatch so I got 4 day-old chicks after a chicken forum plea.

Chicks - even more addictive!!! Now all my other girls bar one have gone broodie and I now have 19 eggs to go under them all (told OH I've got 6 eggs ;).) - If they all hatch I shall have to tell him we have twins as all the eggs were double-yolkers!!!! Yes, he'll believe it :D.

Don't do it!!!!

Far more addictive than horses!!! :D:D:D:D
 
Op - hope you don't mind me joining in, I want some chickens too.

Can anyone tell me if they're not in a run, do they totally trash the garden? I have a large secure garden mostly grass and orchard, but it has a large pond, and I am fond of my veggie patch and patio pots. Can they be free range or is a coop & run recommended?
 
My hens spend a lot of time free-range in my (admittedly fairly large) garden and there is little difficulty about garden-trashing. I am careful with very little plants, as the hens treat those as snacks. The plants get a mesh protection fo ra couple of weeks until established. I have a dustbath for the hens in a corner of the greenhouse which they absolutely love. They are in there now, two hens sharing a bath. They do steal raspberries from the canes, but so do the blackbirds.

The biggest problem is the chicken-poo on the lawn. I go around with a bucket and trowel before having the family around at weekends.

Does anybody have advice on stopping my hen being broody - I don't need any more birds just now.
 
Have a look at the Omlet website or look on ebay for an Omlet/eglu house perhaps?? they are brilliant.

Fox will always be a problem, so a run is ideal if you are out for the day(remember a fox will dig etc mine are on a concrete pad some people use slabs), I usually only let mine out if someone is around(I know it wont stop foxy completely)! Mine free range and yes they do have a little scratch to dust bath and do scoot all the dead leaves etc. If you want immaculate garden then dont get chickens but if you dont mind a bit of bird poo.The only person that does complain is my husband!(well they do go on our patio furniture too)!

You can use horse bedding ie aubiose etc in the nest box or straw??

They do need to perch.
They do put themselves in at dusk so no herding required!
You can get chicken electric fencing too if you did want to contain them.
Re broody chickens etc as their body temp goes up they can go into broody mode, some people say make the nest area uncomfortable ie put an upside down plant pot in or dip their bottoms in cold water. I found neither of these worked and I just lift the chicken off the nest box and put them out in the garden more to make sure they have a drink and feed. If I know all the eggs are laid for the day I will shut them out the house!!

Re pond I have a pond and so far they havent fallen in it. Hope that helps
 
Another one who can confirm the addictivness of chickens....we wanted 6 and now have 31 and are building an extension to the already large run! (they can only freerange when im not there as my dog would kill em if he got chance).

They're kept on our smallholding and are allowed into the garden area, but all our veg beds are raised and covered by cages (more to deter rabbits but having seen the chooks in action they can raze a grassed area like a plague of locusts :p ) so i would say it's wise to fence off any plants etc you don't want destroyed

A great book for beginners is the Haynes Chicken Manual

Re broody hens...one of ours went broody on Saturday. During the day I put her in a seperate run (a dog crate works just as well) with no access to a nest box (the idea is to make them uncomfortable i.e no cosy bedding to settle down on) She joined the others at night. Sunday and Monday mornings she was on the nest when i opened up so into the seperate pen she went. Today she was able to rejoin the others and has no sign of broodiness.

Chicks are sooo cute but unless you have a breed that you can sex on the day of hatching (eg Cream Legbar) you have the costs involved in feeding the babies & housing seperately from main flock until such time as their sex becomes clear. You then have the decision as to what to do with the males. We raised 6 chicks of which 5 were male. 2 got stolen and the other 3 we had put to sleep at the vets. Even with autosexing you still have to 'dispose' of the males on day 1 if you don't want to keep them. Unless you really want one, a cockerel isn't a necessary addition to a flock. They automatically place themselves at the top of the pecking order but tbh we have very little in-fighting with our girls anyway.

ooh and don't be startled by the vey different looking poos they deposit. They have different 'types' of poo that they do at various times and it was hard to know what was normal. This link http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 has pics of the full range of normal poos (gross i know, but helpful :p )

My final advice is if at all possible find a good poultry vet in your area, or at least someone who is experienced in culling sick or injured birds. Most small animal practices have little or no experience with chooks and if you regard your birds as pets then prompt veterinary treatment is, imo, as necessary as it would be for any other pet.

Feel free to pm me if you want. We are still on a learning curve with chooks, as they seemed determined to challenge us with every illness and/or injury going.

They're well worth the effort tho. Hours of entertainment watching them go about their business and the eggs are out of this world taste-wise
 
Bantams should carry a health warning as they are mega addictive! And blimmin expensive too! You can pick up ex-battery hens and start off with them, BUT bantams are pricey to buy, around £15'ish down this way.

But hey, there's a lot of fun to be had and there's nothing like rearing your own eggs, then go on to hatch out a brood of your own. Fab!

The only downside is having to cull unwanted stock e.g. cockerells (if you hatch your own brood you'll have to face the fact of culling coz they'll start to fight) or if a bird is sick or injured. Not nice, but has to be done.
 
Lippyx said:
Wasn't sure where to post this, so apologies if its in the wrong place!

My dad has been thinking about get a few Bantum chickens, and was wondering if someone could help me?
He is away on holiday for the next two weeks, and thought it would be a nice surprise if I could get this organised for him, for his return.

Anyway, how many is a good number? 2 or 3 chickens? They will need a pen and somewhere to be locked away so again, how big roughly?

Any help would be grand!
Click to expand...

To answer your questions, I'd say a minimum of 3 as if one dies you don't want one left on it's own. We have 3 bantams and they all get on well. We have a hen house with small integral run which was invaluable when they were tiny, we now let them out into a bigger run every day which is made from poultry net which you can easily move around to make new areas for them to use. We don't have them totally free range as we have 2 dogs, one who I would not trust with them 100%. It also saves them pooing on the patio!!! Pets at Home do a really nice hen house that seems quite a reasonable price and well built. The trouble with EBay ones is you can't see how robust they are - we have had problems with the one we purchased from there.

There is a wonderful lady in Bures near Colchester who has loads of different breeds of bantam and chicken. She is very knowledgeable and helpful. PM me if you want her tel no. She charges £12 each.

Finally I'd just add that our bantams bring us so much pleasure I would not be without them and that's quite a statement as I used to have a dreadful phobia of birds.
 
Thanks for all the advice!
Re the battery hens, they are as rare as hens teeth (pardon the pun) as friend have been waiting for some for ages!
Dad would prefer Bantum, due to size. He is already addicted to "collecting" canaries, so my mum is already used to him disappearing for hours at a time at the bottom of the garden.
There is a patch of grass opposite his canary avarey (sp), and keeps talking about building a chicken coop there.
 
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