Hi Anna...I have bantams...alot of them! We must have had over 50 chicks hatched this summer from something like a dozen hens. Ours are free range, meaning we don't pen ours up. Most of them will go back into their coop at nite, but every summer we have some of the young ones that will roost up in a tree. Usually when we get our first snow they will then move into the coop as they don't really care for walking around in the snow. lol Well last year we had one batch of young ones that roosted in the beech tree outside the kitchen door ALL winter! In the morning when I opened the door on the coop they would fly from the tree down to in front of the coop door and then spend the day inside eating and lounging around, but every afternoon they would head back down here to the house and fly back up into their tree to spend the night. Right now we have something like eight of this years young ones that have taken to roosting in the beech tree.
Where bantams are more on the "wild" side they will hide their eggs in a nest outside until they have layed enough to suit them and then sit on them and hatch them out. This year we probably had around 8-9 of the dozen hens that hid eggs and we now have probably more then 50 new youngsters. We have noticed that the chicks hatched late spring/early summer, the majority are roosters (early winter they go into the freezer as you really don't need any more then one rooster, but we keep 2-3 just in case a fox,coon or hawk gets one of them) And then we noticed that the chicks that hatched out mid/late summer the majority are hens. The temp would seem to be a determining factor on what the sex will be???? Hens start laying at six months. They will lay really well for the first couple of years and every year after they lay less. Ours will molt (get new feathers) twice a year and do not lay during that time. Also they live in an unheated coop and do just fine, but laying dwindles during the winter due to less light, so if you put a light in the coop and keep it on 10-12 hrs it might help them to lay more during winter? The only thing that we have noticed to bother from the cold in the winter is the roosters combs on top of their heads, the points freeze and fall off the first winter. But it doesn't bother them.
And last but not least, you can entice them into the coop with bread, ours love it! Break off pieces and drop them on the ground and lead them into the coop then close them up!
Good luck, we really enjoy the fresh eggs and watching the baby chicks running around the yard!

Cathy

Hi Ilive in central Texas and raise chickens, turkeys, guineas, pheasents, peacocks, quail, and chuckers (I hatch the eggs in incubators. Chickens are both smart and dumb some breeds worse than others. but they are a lot of fun to mess with, I raise them for both the meat and eggs. When you want them to do something they usually do the opposite but boy they can and do reconize certain thing like the feed bucket, when I'm going to give them a treat from the garden really i can talk about them all night because they are really a uniqe and fasinating animal just watch there behavior and enjoy them. mine live outside in an unheated house (except the little ones until they feather out) have fun jim

Chickens are great, the more you mess with them the tammer they will be.
Chick-- chick-- chik------ in a stuttery voice is the call for chickens , can you hear me calling?
I bang my feed scoope on the food bin and call them Chick---- and all my chicken, ducks, geese come running, they are free rage for the most part. The geese will be no where in site then they hear my voice or the feed scoop and will start honking and running to the feed.
Bantams are hardy chickens and great mothers, the bantam rooster is a little cocky and strutting around in his pride.
Lindag

I keep mine in a unheated coop.I do have to shovel snow out of their fenced in area.They will not come out if they see the ground white.After I shovel it out,I spread our sawdust on the ground and they come 2-3 at a time.It's funny to watch them do this,because the door is only a foot square. I feed mine outside all the time because the area outside is bigger than inside.I built a small roof over their food to keep the rain out.Yes,mine might be spoiled,but we do enjoy them.I do put the food inside when it is snowing.But out it goes when it's all shoveled out.

This my first year with chickens - I have Araucanas (not bantams) and a mixed bag of ornamentals. The pullets started laying at about 5 months old. Ours free range by day, and have a small coop to roost in at night.

While all of the older hens are dedicated to roosting in the coop, I am finding that many of the younger pullets don't always roost there. I think the situation is that there are not enough roosts and the younger birds are afraid of roosting near the older hens - so I'm putting more roosts in soon. Also, the pullets only learned to roost recently (they used to just huddle together in a corner).

Every evening around dusk, I go on a chicken hunt: I usually find the buttercups and the creveceour in the apple tree; the dark brahmas and the silver leghorn huddled on the ground amongst the garden perennials; and a couple of others in the big pine tree. One by one, I pick them up and carry them to the coop ... but I'm about to just let the 3 apple-tree-roosters do their thing. They seem to like it and I find them there every single evening.

I also have 3 araucanas that roost in the barn, and I leave them alone - they roost over the llama stall and are well-guarded. Finally, we have a Great Pyrenees to guard against predators so we generally don't lose many (two all summer, and both during the day).

To the others from Maine, thanks for the info about winter/snow - I've been wondering how they will behave in winter.

Well, I know zero about chickens, but as far as coming when they're called... My grandma tells a story about how when she was a little girl her dad brought home a chicken one day. She named it "skillet." She tied a string around it's foot and trained it to come when she called it's name. I guess it would come running when she called for it. But the poor thing lived up to it's name in the end. She was very sad.

lol Claire K, I like that story about your grandma. I had a baby chick that the mother hen abandoned and she became my baby. And yes she knows who I am. She drops whenever I lean down to pick her up and I make a click click noise that she comes running to whenever she hears it. She seems to be quite well trained I must say :) As for the bantams there just adorable very very affectionate and motherly. I had one that was like a little puppy. Whenever I was outside she would come following me around and when I would sit down to take a break she would come and hop on my lap just nesting herself there. It is quite amazing, if you are around them enough they will think you are just the hen leader. And they seem to get a bit jealous too, I have noticed that when you give one chick or chicken more attention than another the 'lucky' one will get pecked on..lol.

My father used to keep chickens when I was little. In the spring if he had a broody hen he would have her sit. One time the eggs were hatching & one chick couldn't get out of the egg, and the hen left the nest with the rest. My mother finished opening the egg, and we always said that was the chick Mom hatched! That chick was smaller, and never seemed as strong as the rest. She died as a young pullet.

I'd love to get some chickens, but my Hubby doesn't really want me too. After we had to take one of my geese to the vet's, and having to give him pills twice a day for weeks, replace banages on his foot every day he's poutry-shy! Guess I can't blame him - You haven't lived until you're taken a goose to the vets. Sticking the pills doun his throut wasn't a picnic either. LOL!

Hi Anna,
your chickens can be trained to return to the coop. Make sure you lock them up at night and it helps to put some chicken scratch in too to get them used to going in & out by themselves. Your chickens in particular can be a bit wild but picking them up and petting them lightly and on their wattles helps --plus the scratch & other goodies you give them. Pullets usually take at least 20 wks to start laying and you need to make sure they have laying feed or you need to make sure you supplement their diet with something like oyster shell grit. Once they start laying you should have some pretty little eggs-anywhere from green to blue/even pink. Good luck and your welcome to email us with any questions. We have birds of all feathers here!
-babanna

When we get new chicks, we keep them cooped 24/7 until a month or two after they start laying (yep, about six months or so). That seems to "cement" the deal in their heads and they always come back to roost in it. Except, of course, for some of the banties and game varieties ~ a couple of them tend to wander off more often and start roosting in the barn or the trees. But more often or not, they all come back to the coop. We just got some from a neighbor and Kenny forgot to close up the door, so they all got out too soon and are roosting all over the place!

To get them to come, get some scratch grain and throw it out while calling them. Do this, calling in the same way, every day and they'll come up. We usually do this in the evenings right before dark and throw the grain out by the door to the coop ~ then it's not a stretch for them to go on in. Good luck! You're gonna' love watching your chickens run all over the place all day, then knowing they're cooped safe and sound at night! :)

My husband & I work as distributors for a bread company so there are lots of times when he comes home with "extras". He started bringing home loaves of bread just to feed our chickens (bantee/game mix). Our dogs eat it too - I think they're afraid the chickens are getting a special treat! Now, when my husband drives up in the bread truck, the chickens, dogs, & cats all run up to it!

A question from someone who doesn't have chickens and lives in the city. Will chickens eat fruit that has dropped off the tree, like overripe, maybe rotten? I've read here that chickens are sometimes fed special treats, in addition to the standard grain food. Are fruit or veggies that are "overdone" and I wouldn't eat good for the chickens (qualify as "chicken treats"). How about overripe peaches, figs, oranges, avocados, apples? Thanks.

aI have so enjoyed reading about everyone's chickens, lots of laughs. I too just love my 2 girls (they make me smile), who have stopped laying since the weather has turned cold and the days are shorter. They went through their molt, any suggestions other then the light in the coop to get them laying again.
To answer tcjotm's question about over ripe fruits, etc. They can have all that stuff, just don't give them anything that is spoiled or moldy. They love fruit (mine can eat half a watermelon-remember I only have 2), tomato's are a favorite, as well as tomato hornworms. Overdone veggies are fine too, again just not anything rottin.
glo

We got our "girls" from some kids who raised them from chicks. These chickens were used to being picked up and carried around as well as being hand fed, so they are extremely tame chickens.

They are three rhode island reds and four araucana hens. They come around to see what we are doing when we are outside. They want to see if you have food in your hands. They are always around your feet when you are trying to carry something somewhere. They sneak inside when the wind blows the screen open. They peck on the dog's tail when he's trying to sleep. They are more of a "pet" (or is it "pest"?) than a farm animal and they are fun to watch, too.

Their diet is pretty much the bugs and things in the yard, although one cleans out the catfood dish on the front porch every morning. Most mornings when Grace gets on the porch (she was named that because she occasionally misses what she tries to fly somewhere), we pick her up, carry her to the back window and toss her into the back yard again. The rest of the chickens are usually there waiting since we then toss a bit of scratch feed out as well. Sometimes they try to fly in when the window is opened to see if they can get to the food first.

When we first got them, we kept them in their coop for a couple of weeks. Now the coop door is always open. They lay their eggs in the coop, wander around the yard during the day and then go back to their coop at night all by themselves.

They are very fond of bananas, papayas and avocados. They will eat just about any table scraps, too. As well as dog food and cat food. We just feed them the scratch so they will come when called, they much prefer fruits and table scraps.