
![]() The Polish/Ameraucana bantams came to the farm in a round about way. I had ordered some Beltsville White turkey poults and the seller also had 7 random chicks. They had little stick ups on their head, and were small. The seller said they came from blue eggs, but that is about all she knew. I bought all seven hatchlings for seven dollars each. A raven got one of the chicks. As it turned out, there were 5 hens and two roosters and the second rooster also disappeared. Then another hen disappeared and the three hens and rooster left were amazing. They fly very well and were hard to train to roost in a coop, but they do so now. They forage all over the place, even in the bush and some how always escape the fox and coyotes there. One hen had a nest in the tall grass just before the bush outside the fence and hatched a brood of 13 and is raising 11 of them. The second hen has nine babies as of yesterday, small little fluff balls and the third hen is setting somewhere unknown to me, but she will likely also have her brood out soon. I will keep all the females and mate them back to their father and hope to increase the numbers of these spectacular birds. They also lay an egg a day, better than the heritage layers. Thanks little bantams! You are awesome!
2 Comments
Moab
8/24/2013 04:28:28 am
The economics of this farming business leaves me cold. How can you pay $49.00 for 7 chicks and not know exactly what you have except something out of a blue egg and then loose half of them to the elements and the predators and ultimately make a profit. I can buy a whole barbequed chicken at Costco for $7.99.
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Ah, Moab, but those chicks, now hens and a rooster, have given me currently 20 babies with another 10 in a nest ready to hatch, so ultimately 30 babies. Plus, they are raised naturally on grass, worms and bugs and not fed any GMO products as those in COSTCO are. That is comparing apples to kumquats!
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AuthorFluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. Archives
October 2020
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