Chickens
Some bantam hens are kept at the farm for their delicious eggs.
The bantams were our first farm animals here at Burrells Farm. A bantam is a small breed of chicken. They are very good at going broody and hatching eggs. They earn their keep by laying delicious eggs for us to eat. These eggs are about two thirds the size of a normal hen's egg.
Often the chickens are allowed to free-range around the farmyard, gardens and fields. They also have a secure, fox-proof run and henhouse where they are shut up safely at night. They love to forage for worms and insects, and enjoy eating the grass, too.
They are very good at coming home to roost at dusk, although occasionally one will go broody and hide on a secret nest in a barn. Jo usually manages to find them, but twice we have been surprised by the appearance of a hen with a family of chicks.
The mother hen lays an egg in her nest every day, until she thinks she has enough, then she starts to sit on the eggs all the time, only coming off her nest once a day for a few minutes to eat and drink. She is very patient and sits for 21 days. Then the chicks all hatch on the same day, and she sits with them for the first day until they are dry. Then the next day she takes them all out to find food and water. She shows them what to eat and how to have a dust bath. Most of the bantams are very good mothers and are very protective of their chicks. They will sit on any eggs they are given. We have even hatched tiny quail eggs under our bantams.
These are some Buff Orpington chicks we hatched. Buff Orpingtons are a traditional breed of full sized chicken. We have also bought eggs from other rare breed chickens and hatched them under our bantams. These include Ixworth, Silver Grey Dorking, White Booted Bantam, Marsh Daisy, Derbyshire Redcap, Crested Cream Legbar and Sicilian Buttercup. The Crested Cream Legbars lay eggs with blue shells.