Chickens: My bantams!

Nutmeg my Bufflaced Wyandotte Bantam.
Credit: birdbrain99 (Author)

Well you've probably seen my four large fowl hens, but three weeks ago today I got two bantams.  I haven't got many stories about them yet only having had them a few weeks. However, I can give you their main characters :)

My Buff laced Wyandotte Bantam, Meggie (short for Nutmeg).
Credit: birdbrain99 (Author).

Nutmeg is my Buff-laced Wyandotte Bantam, and is a shy little thing but quite jumpy. It took her a while to get used to me (about a week) but will now happily feed out of my hand. She has just gone broody (*Update*: I've written about that here.) In the first photo her wing is held in a strange position; don't worry! She was preening when I took the photo so it's quite normal:)

Pepper, my Barred Wyandotte bantam.
Credit: birdbrain99 (Author)

Pepper is my Barred Wyandotte Bantam and is from show stock. She did bully Nutmeg a bit at first but once the pecking order was established they get on fine. She loves to perch and comes running when you enter their area. Luckily, she has shown no signs of going broody.. fingers crossed!

Pepper scratching around.
Credit: birdbrain99 (Author).

What are bantams?

Bantams are like miniature chickens. You can get true bantams and miniatures of the large fowl breeds. Bantams are just small chickens. They do take up less space but if at all possible give them as much as the large fowl because most are very active. Bantams lay smaller eggs, but eat less and are great with children too. The smallest true bantam is the Dutch Bantam. My hens are both wyandottes, so not true bantams because you get them in large form also. Other true bantams include the Japanese Bantam, Rosecomb, Belgian bantams (Barbu d'anvers, Barbu d'Uccles, Barbu d'watermael and Barbu d'grubbe) Sebright and Pekin.

Dutch Bantam pullet. The smallest true bantam breed.
Credit: Laura Haggarty Permission: CC-BY-SA 3.0
 via Wikimedia Commons