I guess this is what I get for complaining about all the eggs under the two black bantams!
Bantam Mamas
I went out to check eggs and what did I find? Two more bantams have decided to bless us with more baby chicks!
We have friends whose son is dating a girl going to school to be a vet. I asked her if she had learned how to neuter a rooster and she laughed. I think she thought I was joking . . I was not!
The little tan bantam is sweet and if I reach in to pet them, she just puts her head down and pretends I’m not there. The white one . . oh, my . . she has an attitude! The moment I open the door, she starts “growling”, puffs up her feathers and does her best to scare me away.
For those wondering how many chickens we have . . I truly do not know and I truly do not want to know! We have way, way too many and obviously, we’re fixing to get way too many more.
Erin says
Awe 🙂 they are so precious! Your posts on the possibility of new chicks soon and what kind they will be are too funny! You have your hands full! Should have named the ranch Roosters Rule at Yellow Jacket ????
Joan says
As far as too many chickens……think of it this way……..You’re just building food inventory in case some catastrophic event should occur. It pays to be prepared!
JudyL says
Except the silkies have black (very black) meat and we wouldn’t eat them and some of them are so tiny, it wouldn’t be worth the effort to clean them. The full size chickens are a different story!
patty says
Neuter at rooster and you then have a capon. I don’t know at what age this is normally done, but a capon does taste different than a chicken. When a capon is slow roasted with olive oil, garlic, and potatoes we are talking some good eating here!
JudyL says
For the most part, I think caponizing roosters was done when folks wanted to grow them for eating but now that they’ve bred meat chickens to grow so quickly, I didn’t know anyone still neutered the roosters. I was joking about doing it. I’m certainly not doing it myself and not paying a vet to do it. I was just wanting to cut back on the reproduction but it’s a whole lot easier to get rid of the roosters completely since I don’t need them for protecting the hens. The only chickens I have that seem to want to go broody are the bantams which are the only ones I won’t eat. Crazy!
Mary in VA says
They are cute! With as many as you have, I’m thinking they are the size of the game hens you get at the store… Perfect for one person.
Sally H says
There are still those caponizing roosters. It involves a small incision along their back bone, just below the ribs, through which you scoop out their testes. You do this when they are about 6 weeks old. And no one pays a vet to do it.
If you don’t want more bantams, just get them to set on bigger chicken eggs. They can’ t handle as many, of course, but they won’t care about the substitution. Pull out all the little eggs, put in 1/2 to 3/4 that many big eggs, and keep pulling little ones as they are laid.
JudyL says
Oh, yes . . some folks pay a vet to do it. I have a friend who paid a vet $35 to do it. I’m still trying to figure that one out. We were joking with our vet about it and he’s the one who told us that it’s rarely done because in the “old” days, folks did it to get good meat from all their chickens but since the hybrids grow so fast, people, and I guess he should have said “most” people . . just don’t mess with it any more.