Of course, chickens can be cute too!

Those are lovely! What breed are they?

The chicks are Blue Ameraucanas and the adults are Cream Brabanters.

Cream Brabanters... I've never heard of them. Are they bantams?

No, they are about leghorn sized. Lay large white eggs. The only bantams I ever had were Silkies, and sadly, birds that don't fly don't fare well with the hungry wildlife around here.

Silkies are of the french poodle of the poultry world. Interesting and cute but kind of useless. If you want bantams, what about bantam faverolles? Dual purpose breed...supposed to be pretty friendly too.

I see the black silkies in the asian food store; kinda neat as their skin is black. They're popular in a traditional Chinese medicinal soup.

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I saw black chickens too last time I was at the Chinese market, but they looked bigger than bantams. Silkies aren't the only ones with black skin, are they?

Silkies are little chickens with black skin.

Silkies aren't the only black skinned, but they are the only ones in this country that also have black bones and dark flesh....all part of the desired product for medicinal use (female issues!) The original Asian Silkie was not a bantam, and it may well be that there are breeders for the chinese market that are raising larger birds just for that.

I haven't dropped in on this board for a while, but I wanted to weigh in on the chicken post-DH and I have had chickens for 5 years now, we only had to get new pullets due to decreased laying this year (they were steady for almost 4 years, with a month or so off for molt every year-now they're a lot more sporadic but the eggs are still good) We have acreage, so we just let them out in the morning and they go back to the coop in the evening, at which point we lock them up from the racoons and coyotes. We have lost 2/3 of our original 15 from 5 years ago to this and that, so that problem kind of takes care of itself. I do feed a layer mix, but in the summers they don't eat much of it as they free range over 1 acre of grass pasture. I've never supplemented with calcium in the summer because they get plenty of dark green leafies and bugs. I also feed them meat and veggies and sometimes fruits whenever I have leftovers, they're quite carnivorous-they fall all over themselves for the cat food, and as I buy good quality cat food I'll sometimes supplement with a little of that in the winter for increased protein. I've also curdled out raw milk for them, which they LOVE and is a good source of calcium and good gut bugs. We have two cherry trees and they eat all of the dropped cherries and keep the area cleaned up, as well as some elderberry bushes in their coop. I don't change their litter in the summer because it stays dry, but in the winter I have to change it once a month because it gets wet in there. We also have a heat lamp and water heater in our coop in the winter. (don't know if you live in a temperate environment or not) All in all, it is completely worth it for the fresh eggs!! And in the spring and early summer, you get these vibrantly orange egg yolks that are just out of this world.....mmmmmmmm. As for flight, mine can easily get 6-7 feet up into a tree if they really want to, but they don't really do it all that often. They'd much rather be on the ground under some nice leafy cover scratching away.

My Welsh Harlequin Bebe worked herself up for a big flight. She got about 3 feet in the air and only got 1 foot forward...LOL



That's one good thing about high qty egg laying ducks. None of them can fly worth a darn. The only time they ever got out of the yard, someone left the gate open. They wondered over to the neighbors and ate all his dandelions for him.