Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hello! I am new here ... I am usually on backyardchicken.com but after trying to find anyone to ship eggs from there, I went on Kijiji and then a post from a member from here landed me here...

Anyways! I am looking for any cold hearty bantam breeds, cochin, RIR, brahma, ...etc.

I moved from Texas to NW Ontario, and so I opted for Standard chickens, and they are not a fit for us...The coop we have is 100 sq ft, fully insulated, 3 heating sources, and the standards ate so much, and ed so much, and they are not friendly, even though we hand raised them from chicks. The closest feed is a 3 hour drive, so them eating way more than I was expecting in the dead of winter was an issue.

My bantams back home will follow you, sit in your lap, and are so sweet. I MISS MY BANTAMS!!! (Parents are enjoying them though!!!)

I am looking for non-hatchery lines if possible, and I can take either hatching eggs or day olds, I am not picky...just finding someone with Bantams and can ship to me is what I am searching for!

Thank you and looking forwards to talking to some of yall!

Hello and welcome! Where are you located? Easier for people to let you know if they live close to you , makes it even easier than shipping.

Gidday:

A few points: 1. the friendliness of birds is a mix of how they were raised and the breed. Buff orpington, buckeye, brown leghorn, etc. are known to be really friendly.

2. Chickens don't need heat. The money spent on heat (hydro) is expensive. They do need airflow. Cold and damp is a recipe for frozen combs and nasty health problems including CRD -chronic resporatory disease - a problem in my "bank barn" - a barn with a stone first story built into a hillside. I have two windows wide open regardless of temp.

3. Bantams will eat about as much per body weight as standards and a coop that small (10x10 equals 100 square feet) will accumulate a lot of in a winter- start shovelling

4. To make birds friendly keep them a bit hungry. They will quickly realize that you are food. A food pot left filled will invite mice and rats. If you feed twice per day - whatever they eat in 5 minutes - thats all they need. Birds have a crop and fill it fast and spend all night digesting. When you show up feed shows up. They'll get friendly fast.

Example: Jim has very valuable birds - Svart Hona - and in this outdoor pen New Breeder Pens

It looks dinky- it is dinky - but it works. I wouldn't use it in winter for really small bantams, it would be a bit too cold, but fine for standards.

I have cornish bantams and RIR bantams with standards in a tin shed - bloody cold, but dry, and the birds all did well. I also had quail in there, they are really small, but no problem.

And I'd be happy to sell you some RIR eggs or chicks later in the season - I am near Ottawa - where are you?

Hmmm well I think the way you raise your birds is dependant on why you have birds in the first place. Sounds like they are your pets and not livestock and you know what you're doing and what you want...You just need to find it! I can tell you that my ladies have never known hunger but still run to me every chance they get. If I remember correctly you are way up north. Sending a pm with a couple ideas for you to try.

Hello and welcome!
Long way to come from Texas to NW Ontario, you must be a hardy lot :smile:
This is a friendly group and I am sure you will find the birds that will suit your need and make them as friendly as you would like them to be.
You may want to opt for rose or pea comb breeds, they tend to do better in cold environment then single comb breeds.
Do let us know where you are, you mention 3 hours away from a feed store, that sounds daunting and we are all pretty curious now.

welcome to the club! We have all your poultry needs and then some!

I keep some bantams but they are more for eye candy than anything else. RIR, barred rock, white chanteclar and soon to get some dark cornish. My kids claim the bantys and my youngest believes all the eggs are his and tries to incubate every egg before eating them.

to the Forum Silverlacedmom

If you want blue eggs my breed choice that is cold hard and lay pretty much all winter, very food conservative, smaller than a standard but a bit bigger than a bantam are Rumpless Araucana's :wink:

Wow! Thank you for all the replies!
Where to begin!

We are up in the RED LAKE region, the closest place to get grain is Dryden. Our winters are a serious 6 months long, with most nights in the -30s.

We had a 900 watt cab heater, and the two 250 watt red lights, set on a thermostat to keep the coop around +1 degrees. But our rooster got frostbite on his waddle from drinking water, and it running down his waddle, freezing and doing damage. I felt bad for him. But he seems to have no permanent damage.

Our breed we have are Orpingtons, one lavendar splash hen "Scout", a blue hen "Raven", and a buff-blue rooster "Buffalo".

baronrenfrew: You are right, we should be feeding them by hand, but when we put them out in the coop it was fall and they were a few months old, so I didnt know how much a standard should eat and then the winter I didnt want to restrain their food. They laid an egg each all winter, so we thought we were doing well.

I had bantams down in Texas for 8+ years, and they were, and still are, the most friendliest birds ever. I miss them. I thought these guys were going to be like my babies back home, but they are skiddish, and the rooster is down right MEAN, flogging and attacking us if you turn your back, infact we have to have a board now between yourself and him just because for your own protection. He already has a potential home to go to...

I should post a picture of my coop set up. It is a lean-to off of our garage.

Thank you again for all the advice and replies!

Happy wrote:Hmmm well I think the way you raise your birds is dependant on why you have birds in the first place. Sounds like they are your pets and not livestock and you know what you're doing and what you want...You just need to find it! I can tell you that my ladies have never known hunger but still run to me every chance they get. If I remember correctly you are way up north. Sending a pm with a couple ideas for you to try.

Hello Happy, and yes you hit the nail on the head. They are defiantly pets, but with a purpose, eggs that are not from chickens that have been abused. I have watched those horror films about the egg-laying birds in factories and if I can keep one hen from going through that by me having my own chickens then thats what I am trying for!

My birds dont care 1 bit for human interaction, even though I bring them treats, cabbage heads, scraps from kitchen, peanuts, you name it, they basically have then "drop it and leave, thanks" attitude. I will start working on feeding them by hand instead of a gravity-fed system I have now.

:)