IMG_1962How big indeed. They are so small! It’s amazing that you are seeing a mature chicken. You all know that Maeve is our smallest chicken; she’s some type of mottled cochin – or a crossbreed there of, we’re not exactly sure as she just came from a straight run of chicks I purchased at Tractor Supply one Spring. Sue ordered the teenagers we have now from a hatchery on-line, specifically looking for some chicks that were about like Maeve. Those chicks are now 8 weeks old and many of them are as big as her! It was difficult to get a photo of them together as they are still getting used to one another, but here’s the best I could do. Maeve is in the background and the teenagers are in the foreground, so the size comparison is difficult to see.  Take it from me, they are quite close in size. They are Bantams, so are naturally small chickens. Let me try to give you some other visual comparisons.

cochin vs standardBantams – or Bantys – aren’t a breed unto themselves, the term refers to small poultry in general. Almost all standard chickens have a Bantam counter part.  This is the best photo on-line that I could find showing the differences in Standard vs. Bantam. Supposedly, Bantams are 1/5 to 1/4 size of the standard breed. Banty hens can lay up to 150 eggs a year, which is considered quite productive, but the eggs are a great deal smaller than egg comparisonstandard so it can take up to three eggs to equal one large egg. So, in cooking, 1 large egg is about the equivalent of 1/4 cup. It can take up to 3 Banty eggs to equal that 1/4 cup. Here’s an egg size comparison photo for you. We generally get a banty egg or two every other day. We don’t sell them to anyone – except upon special request – and mostly use them for our own egg eating needs.  As you can see from the photo, the yolks are almost the same size as a regular chicken egg, but the whites do not quite measure up. We like our banty hens, they are plucky and hard working. They chase the grasshoppers and turn the soil and eat up the weed seeds whenever they can find them.  Even our teenagers have started foraging around in the run. Maeve has been a good companion to other chickens who were sick or injured and she has a great constitution. Bantys are known for having good mothering instincts and often go broody.  When I was growing up, my mom used to use the bantys to hatch duck eggs. A bit hard on the mom the first time her “chicks” go into the water, but otherwise it works out great! Perhaps the next time Maeve or Imen get a bit broody we’ll see if they can hatch some eggs for us. That would be great fun! Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

Today’s Weather: A bit odd. Have I already said that recently? Well, it’s holding true. It is a great deal warmer today than yesterday with some cloud cover, no wind in the afternoon, but it started out quite breezy today. High was forecast at 77°, but I don’t know if that held true.  Currently, at 6:12 p.m., the temperature is 67°.

Egg Report: Yesterday we had 14 chicken eggs and 2 duck eggs – I remembered to leave the fake egg! Today we had 17 chicken eggs and 2 duck eggs, I did pick up the fake egg, but remembered before I brought them all into the house. 🙂  The broody hen has gone past her broodiness and, for the past couple of days, we haven’t had any instances of egg eating. We may be beyond that for now. Yipppeee! We’ll see if it holds true.