# Bantam buttercups?



## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

Any one else here breed Bantam Buttercups or Bantam La Flèche?


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

Figured there just needs to be more Bantam Buttercups in the world... so here's a few pictures of our birds:















Newest Arrivals from Benjamin Janicki:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Very cute!


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

***Breaking News***

Dawn Star Ranch (that us) are now the proud owners of a RARE Silver Buttercup!

Bantam Buttercups are hard enough to come across, but the fact that we now have a SILVER phase is outstanding! The silver phase was another color variety that the Sicilian Buttercups once came in, but sometime between the late 1800s and 1925 they went extinct, as did the Sicilian Buttercup from their island of origin.. Today the 'Sicilian Buttercup' is primarily bred and kept in the US-- they should actually be renamed the 'American Buttercup' since the breed was 'perfected' here in the US. Since their extinction, only a few Silver phase birds have been recorded in pure bred flocks in the US (with 1 being bred in Canada). We have begun collaboration with the American Buttercup Club to further promote and restore this color phase.


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

Picture 1--A Het. Silver Chick








The Same Chick as an Adult








A Rare German Breed of Chicken that may have had some influential breeding from the original silver buttercups! And what we are breeding our buttercups to look like as a Silver Phase.








Our Silver hen as a chick!


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## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

Very nice! I love pretty chickens! :chick:


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## TeyluFarm (Feb 24, 2016)

So cool that you are working to save a breed of chicken


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

How neat! Love the coloring.


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Your birds are very beautiful. I always wanted to give buttercups a try, one of the only breeds I haven't had, but I haven't had much luck with the smaller flighty breeds..especially bantams. :sigh: 

I have a little of everything now, but am shifting over to just brahmas and orpingtons. I love those big calm birds.


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

Thanks everyone, we are super excited! 

Our little chickies are so much fun. So far with this breed all of our hens are pretty docile. They eat from your hand, and most will let you bend down and pick them up. I think it helps that we are using exhibition strains, and breeding for calm temperments. 

The roosters though, they tend to be more flighty... Our current flock sire reminds me of chicken little running around saying 'the sky is falling!' when we clean the pens lol. And so far, for the last five years we have been working with our butters, we have only had one rooster that was protective; he was a major pill! I would much rather have the chicken-liver roosters any day!

We keep senior hens until they truly stop producing eggs to breed the birds with the highest productivity, and we still have 4-5 year old hens laying an egg a day. Averaging 300 eggs a year, so they are a pretty competitive egg producer. And the eggs are a little bit smaller than the size of a Grade A egg (the smaller sized eggs at the store not jumbo). 

We have been very happy with our little troop so far. And can't wait to have a flock of Silver Birds too!


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

More of our birds...
An Updated picture of our 'Silver' hen:








And a picture of one of our babies this year:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice!


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## Retiredokjusttired (Jun 26, 2016)

Oh wow! DawnStar, I have one of these. I did not know what she was. I thought she was a Bantam but did not know what "type". 
They are pretty. My sons teacher gave her to us a year ago. I have a mixed flock of layer. I have an O Shamo that sits but us getting older and mentioned that while I was talking to the teacher and she offered up another "game bird" that goes broody and this breed is what we got.
We named her Bernadette. Bernie is what we call her. She has hatched 2 babies so far. One was hers, the rooster is a Barred rock. I set a couple of eggs under her this year and she hatched them. Her babies this year are two pure breed barred rocks that are now bigger than her. She is such a good mama though They stick with her no matter what. 
Cute, cute birds these little ones are!


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

One of our roos in the sale pen, these are such wonderful little birds, love their dispositions!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice!


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

Lstein said:


> Your birds are very beautiful. I always wanted to give buttercups a try, one of the only breeds I haven't had, but I haven't had much luck with the smaller flighty breeds..especially bantams. :sigh:
> 
> I have a little of everything now, but am shifting over to just brahmas and orpingtons. I love those big calm birds.


Love Dark Brahmas!!! I have a huge older hen that I just adore....

These little bantams are adorable


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## Lisalisa89 (Oct 18, 2016)

My favorite chickens were a Rooster turken who was so freaking beautiful and one of those mixed hens that they call an easter egger we called angel cakes. The others were flighty and wanted nothing to do with us. One of the roosters like to attack me when my back was turned and the other hen easter eggers were flight except one time when I was outside and it flew and sat on my shoulder. I also had a black hen I can't remember what the name of them but very popular she was super skittish.


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## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

My parents decided to order some 'exotic' breeds after a lot of prompting by their friends. They ordered Jungle Fowl, A few Silver spangled Hamburgs, Silkies, and Buttercups. I adored the silkies, but after a rooster and two hens managed to drown them selves in a small watering bucket..I realized they were cute, but lacking in other more important areas... The jungle fowl and buttercups were my favorite, they had such quirky personalities and beautiful coloration. The butter hen was such a doll, but the rooster was a little skittish. I begged my parents to get more so I could raise them for 4H, but after getting cleaned out by raccoons, owls, and a bobcat.. they decided to stick with the cheap feed store birds. 

So now, when I had the ability and space I decided to get the chickens I had always wanted.. but due to limited space i needed a bantam breed. I was about to order some OEGs, when I stumbled upon someone talking about bantam buttercups in a forum--oh boy was I floored! It took 7 years to find a breeder that was able to ship some of these birds (turns out they are very rare..), but now that we have them I love them more than the big birds!

I have only had one rooster that was aggressive, all the others have been such sweethearts. All our birds like to be hand feed treats, and are calm enough to handle... they just don't like a lot of activity around their pen. So when we clean, I let them out in the poultry yard. That seems to take their mind off of the 'scary red rake' lol!


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