We moved here to enjoy the bird life in the garden and adjoining wood. This has happened and we have had 45 different species of wild birds visiting the garden and feeding at the feeding stations since January 2006. On 1st January 2008 four bantams flew into the garden which started our interest in keeping bantams. These four slept in the trees in the wood and came to us for food. This was okay until they decided to sit on their clutches of eggs in the wood and the fox caught two of them. After purchasing a coop and building a run we were ready to keep bantams as a hobby.
We looked at different breeds and decided to keep some Gold Dutch bantams. After an auspicious start with a total of 9 hens and a splendid cockerel, our first year of 18 eggs under three broodies produced 16 chicks 8 of each gender, all of which survived. This was a success rate of 88.8%. Not bad for a first year. Consequently we had 3 pairs of beautiful 08 chicks for sale during our first year.
