Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden

Raising backyard Bantams

Welcome to our Vegetable Garden backyard Bantam page. This page will detail the sitting and hatching of some Bantam chicks that we are adding to our brood. Although this site is primarily about growing your own vegetables, fruit and berries, our chickens (known as "Chooks" in Australia) are an invaluable part of our vegetable gardens, providing manure, weed and pest control, fun pets and of course, fresh eggs!

Every few years, we hatch another clutch of chicks to ensure we have young hens, and it just happens to be fun too.

This is Cilla, we raised her about a year ago. She is a cross of Pecan, Rhode Island Red and a dash of Old English Game.
This is Junior, the father to be...
This is "Junior". Junior was raised from last years hatching, and was the best looking, and more importantly, best tempered of the three roosters we hatched. He's very tame and can be easily picked up and held.

7th September 2009
Cilla is sitting on eggs that have been laid by herself and the Rhode Island Red cross hens she lives with, all fertilised by Junior, so we are expecting some lovely coloured offspring.

The incubation period is approximately 21 days. We have separated Cilla and the eggs from the main coop to ensure she isn't disturbed and the eventual chicks remain safe. After 10 days of sitting, we'll "candle" the eggs to ensure they are fertile and chicks are developing. So come back soon for the update in a few days time to see how we candle the eggs and the results.

Over the three week period, Cilla will only leave the nest for a short time and only to relieve herself and have a quick feed and drink. Hatching chicks takes qite a bit of condition out of the hen, so it is important to ensure they are healthy when they start. We always "dust" our hens to ensure they are mite/lice/parasite free. This ensures that the mother, chicks and nest are as clean as possible when the hatching begins.

17th September 2009

Ten days later, the eggs were due for a fertility test. But things went pear shaped. The night before the eggs were to be tested, Cilla got off the nest and let the eggs go cold. This meant certain death for all the developing chicks, so we never bothered to check.

Cilla was obviously not feeling well and we weren't certain she was going to survive as she was weak and unstable on her legs, but after two days, she perked up and returned to the main brood.

20th September 2009
By now we had another hen that was definately broody and one that was heading the same way.

The first, is a young hen we raised last year. She's not a very big bird, so we were concerned about the number of eggs she could manage. She is the fawn hen, just visible in this photo.
The second hen, a grey Pecan, was a bit iffy, she would sit on the eggs and then get off again, fortunately not too frequently to pose a problem, so, undisturbed, three days later, she settled.

"Candling" the eggs

30th September 2009

Around ten days after the hen settles on a clutch of eggs, a fertility test can be performed. This is referred to as "Candling" the eggs. Basically, you get a thick piece of cardboard, cut a hole in the centre, for Bantam eggs, about the size of a 10 to 20 cent coin and place the cardboard over a strong light.

This should be done as quickly as carefully as possible, returning the eggs to the hen as soon as possible so they don't cool too much and she isn't disturbed for too long. Normally the hen will take the opportunity to "vent" herself (toilet stop)and have a quick feed.

Carefully, one, by one, place an egg over the hole with the light on. This photo has been included to show you what an unfertile egg looks like, an even glow with no obvious shadows.

A clearly fertile egg, with no little light showing

When you find a fertile egg, a large shadow will be visible, often with only then ends of the eggs allowing light through. These are the air sacks where the embryo isn't developing. How clear this is depends on the strength of the light you use and also from egg to egg. The grey lines show the shadow.

In this instance, we're uncertain. This egg was from under the grey hen. She has definitely got 3 fertile eggs, this one, we think, was layed buy another her, after she sat and may not be as far along in developing as the others. You can see (grey lines again) how the shadow has not developed as much.
Depending on your hen, if you have a number of eggs in the nest, it is best to remove any unfertile eggs. If there are a few, then don't take them all at once as this may upset the hen and she may abandon the nest. If in doubt with an egg. Leave it. You can remove it later if it doesn't hatch.

What Next?

We have 5 out of 6 eggs fertile under the fawn hen and 3, possibly 4 out of 6 under the Pecan.

We will leave the hens alone now (other than feeding) for another week. They have around 11 days to go. We will then move them into a more appropriate nesting box than will enable the hens and new chicks to readily move in and out of the nest as she teaches them to feed etc, we'll change the nesting straw and "dust" it for mites to ensure they chicks are risk free.

After a succesful hatching of 5 chicks from one hen and 3 from another, we have raised 8 chicks in total. In the second photo, you can see the 5 brothers and sisters at around 3 days old.

With Chick crumbles in a very shallow dish, the hen makes higher pitched short cackles to tell the chicks what is food. After a day of copying their mum, the Chicks are adept and feeding and drinking for themselves. They still however rely heavily on mum for warmth and remain under her for another 2 weeks, coming out more and more as they learn.

Once permitted out in the open, it takes a couple of visits to get used to a big sky, they often look up and around discovering their new world. Mum begins to teach them to scratch and look for food as well as dust bath.

Chicks at 3 weeks old

Chicks at 2 months old

At just a few days short of 2 months old, the Chicks have gained their independance from their mothers and have been living together without parental supervision for about 3 weeks. After a while you get to know how to spot the young roosters in the group and our suspicions of about 3 weeks ago and well and truly confirmed. This spot has become a favorite resting place as the afternoon comes to an end. They wait, preening themselves, for us to come and put their food out before they are locked in for the night.

As the eldest male has just started to make the odd call in answer to his father nearby, then boys have been separated from their sisters and are now housed away from the house.

With another 2 chicks a few weeks behind these, we have 8 roosters in all, 5 from the group above, 1 of the two that are a bit younger, as well as their fathers. That'll be getting a bit much when they are all "of age".

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