Why Do People Keep Bantams?

I have some bantams, 1 Old English Game Hen and 5 Buff Japanese Bantams. Oh yeah, I also have 6 crosses which are not really bantams size and not really full size. The bantams lay few eggs. Are there bantam egg layers like the full size egg layers, chickens that lay daily for years? Do people raise bantams to eat? I must say, next to the Buckeye, the bantams are the friendliest bunch I have and the prettiest (except the Old English).

F.E., We have Bantams, Betty,the oldest of our chickens, is a partidge something or other, tiny little thing, before her molt she was laying an egg (very cute) almost every day and is my prize broody hen. Arizona, a half silkie, half partridge bantam with turquoise earrings, also has just started to lay everyday after her molt, also a very good broody girl...mother to many ducklings before the incubator, Big bird, who is tiny and has stopped laying eggs because she was almost starved to death by our old rooster and now comes into the house for breakfast, She is half slikie and ?, solid white, tiny body and looks more like a cockatoo. These were gifts from a friend who either didn't want them or couldn't keep them because the mother rejected them. They are great little birds with lots of personality.

I have Bantams because I like them and they are easier for me to work with.
They are like all chickens some lay good and some dont I eat the eggs and some times eat the excess Cockerels not much meat but they make good soup or a small meal with a couple
I know some raise the cornish bantams and they are like the small cornish hens
The OEGB our usually goood layers and when I had Japanese they were great layers.

I have about nine bantam hens and just
love them. I use them to set on eggs
and to brood if needed.
A few years ago I had one Violet that
sat on a goose egg for me but when
it hatched she went a bit nuts when
it quaked instead of churping.
They are very hardy and great little
bug chasers.
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This is Rosebud and Snow that hatched last year.

Ok so I also love my bantams. I use them mostly as show birds and lawn decorations. The mille fleur d'uccles are stunning beautiful little creatures and fairly prolific layers. The odd one goes broody. I like them for the kids and for showing they are much easier to get ready. I much prefere bathing them to an australorp!

If I ever had to move off the farm I would take bantams with me. Even to an apartment!

Plus I like how little they eat and poop

I only have 3 bantams currently. Over the years though, I have had several. We used to keep Seabrights and Silkies. Bantams always reminded me of budgies when I used to keep them and cockatiels. The budgies would literal push the larger tiels around. I remember the first tiels I got. They were not home 5 minutes in their new cage when I heard a comotion going on. I found my budgie on the outside of the tiel cage with a mouth full of tiel crest feathers in her beak Bantam chickens never get pushed around by the Standards. More often I have to rescue the Standards from them.

I found bantams can have just as good egg production as the Standards. When we had mostly bantams we always had lots of eggs, just that they are smaller.

As for eating them, people do. When I shop at Superstore, you can find frozen silkie chickens there for sale I think for $12.95 per bird. People do eat them small too

Interesting.
I like the bantams better than the standars so far. I have not had either for very long though, not even a year. The only chicken I have had longer than a year is a blue Orpington and she is great. I think the idea of a lot of bantams running around the yard is more appealing than the amount of poop that the standards produce even if they do have bigger eggs. My little bantam girls do not lay many eggs. What breed does?

I keep a lot of bantams because I love them. They are big birds in a little birds body. I also love the standard breeds as well. They just seem to take up a little less space. Lou

Oh, I think the better question is why do people keep large fowl?

My bantam Cornish eat less than large fowl, lay large numbers of decent sized eggs, produce a pretty nice carcass, and who doesn't like Cornish game hen? They are tough and personable as well as pretty intelligent. Mine are deadly to mice and keep the coop pretty mouse free. they are great foragers. They are pretty, coming in a large variety of colours and patterns. Their comb is small and doesn't freeze. I can keep more of them in a smaller space. And when I go to a show I can fit 10x the Cornish bantams in the space a large fowl Cochin takes,

Yes, that is the question, why bother with those huge, hungry large fowl!

We've had silkies for several years and like them because they are a)cute b) friendly and c) great setters. We bought 4 buff Japanese bantam chicks this spring and have 2 hens and 2 roos. They are the absolutely cutest little things!!!!

Very true Sue. I would swear that some of my bantams can produce more egg matter for less feed.

In answer to your question..."what breed does"...lay a lot of eggs? My Isa browns lay almost an egg a day, they are my production hens...not that pretty and their beaks are clipped (which I don't agree with and wish they wouldn't do, but they are pretty prolific. They don't get broody....er, except for Mirabel, who hasn't read the hen's union handbook, and only don't produce eggs when they moult. Other than that, winter, spring, summer or fall, they do. They do tend to burn out, I hear, but we have only had them 1 1/2 and they are still going strong. My friend has White Rhode Islands...would that be Rhode Island Whites, instead of Rhode Island Reds? Her girls are pretty close in production of eggs. Not much in the way of personality (don't know why) but they are great layers.

I mean what breed of bantams lays a lot of eggs? I am sorry for not phrasing that correctly.

I am going to go agains the main flow here. I don't like bantams.....at all. I think I am just a big chook girl. I like a big, full bodied bird.

Ooh, Coopslave, I need that fighting emoticon here. My Cornish bantams are very full bodied. They are just vertically challenged! Hee hee!

Sue, my apologies, a big, full bodied bird with LEGS!

It's true, it's true! The best little Cornish have no legs! Or perhaps, all the length has been converted into stubby width! I like stubby birds! Waaaah! Even their eggs are stubby! Almost spherical.

I like the brightly coloured banties, the light weight ones that can free range but still fly up into the trees when danger comes. They lay like crazy and are broody most of the spring/summer. They raise chicks endlessly and the roosters are brave and fierce.

Many standard breeds are going the same way as the heritage breeds. Since becoming involved with shows, I try to speak with the judges whenever I get the chance. Many standards simply are not being exhibited anymore, where as, many of the same breeds are being shown as bantams.

Good example are the Polish. I have had a judge tell me that he was surprised to see Standards when I did CHB because he sees the breed more commoningly now just in the Bantam classes.

I'm a big girl so I love big chickens. I also feel like I am helping to preserve the Standard along with the heritage breeds I already love.

For bantams that produce eggs, my Mille Fleurs seemed to do pretty well and they aren't even 'known' for it. I'm sure some others like bantam leghorns or bantam rocks would be good layers as well.

wouldn't keep them if i couldn't eat them. the only types of bantams i've butchered have been bantam cornish and bantam rhode island reds. from larger bantams like these i've noticed that the size in eggs is not quite so pronounced between them and eggs from a large fowl breed.

I am 100% with Coopslave. I am a large fowl girl. had a few bantams over the years and just don't like them, period. I think their voices are annoying, their size is annoying and well, just like big birds. Not to way that one day, if I found one that really tickled my fancy, I might get some. I really do think the mille fleurs are very pretty birds, very, very pretty. We had a banty rooster, of some breeding, no clue what, his name was Creakity Creak. He was pretty, with a rose comb, but he had the most annoying voice I have ever heard. I think it is the high pitched sound. Give me the deep, low drone voice of a large fowl cochin or the medium deep voice of the orpington any day. Haven't heard the mottled java cockerel crow yet. Hoping to my lucky stars that he does not screech. He is one doozy of a dorky lookin' fellow right now, so long and lanky and downright fugly. His girls look great, hope he is not an ugly dude physically or with voice . Have that incredible day, CynthiaM.

I am Picking up some Rose Comb White Leghorns and some Single Comb White Leghorn Bantams this week

Gotta love them Bantams
Now where do I put them
Only kidding have places already built for them