My Hand Reared Polish Bantam Chicken

When it came to using an incubator to hatch out chickens it was literally only because one of our existing hens went broody and we had no idea what to do. In nature the hens would have been with a cockerel and sat and hatched their eggs - we didn't have any cockerels and instead turned to eBay for our eggs.

It would be fair to think that we got the eggs that would match the hens that we already had - but that would be too simple! Whilst we already had two white sussex hens and a blue orpington (large breed hens) it was whilst searching the eggs on eBay that we first encountered the Polish Bantams - it was love at first sight for me, my husband took a little longer to come round to the idea.

By the time we had ordered the eggs (Polish Bantams) the hen had decided that she was no longer broody and it was panic stations. Why had I jumped straight into this without thinking it through? Luckily we had a friend who had an incubator and brooder that we could borrow and the six Polish eggs went straight into the incubator.

We had to learn fast!

Once your eggs arrive you should .....

• Let them rest for at least 24 hours BEFORE placing them in the incubator


• Store them in a cool place but not refridgerated


• Keep the eggs 'large end' up (this is the wider end)


• Get your incubator ready

When you put them in the incubator (which is a forced air one) .....

• The eggs will require little in the way of help from you


• You do need to keep the temperature correct and keep humidity right


• Keep track of the days


• Get your booder ready

With our Polish Bantams we had a forced air incubator which turned the eggs automatically, other incubators require more help from you with turning etc. The temperature of our incubator was kept at a steady 100'f and the humidity was at 58% for the first 18 days. At 18 days we stopped the automatic turning - turning your eggs after this day can result in damage to the chicks. From day 18 we increased the humidity to 65% which is vital to the well being of your chicks.

These rules cannot be broken and you need to keep a diary so that you can make sure that you tend to your eggs at the correct stages - nature does this all for you when you have a broody hen.

The whole family had been there to see the arrival of Davina and Custard and even though we had told the children all about possible dangers that were associated with hatching our own eggs it was awful waking up to a devastating mistake on our part. Custard (who looked very weak when she hatched) was found dead in the morning - we had made a costly mistake.

We left the chicks that night with chicken crumb and water on hand in the brooder, what we had not done was so obvious and basic it made me sick to my stomach was to ensure that the chicks could not fall into the shallow lid of water. It really is important to get the right products and think of what kind of poultry drinkers you will need.

Custard had drowned in a few mm's of water and Davina was now all alone!

Anyone who has kept chickens will know that they are social animals, they don't do as well on their own. My heart went out to the poor little chick that I had all alone in a brooder.

Fearing that she would not do well by herself, we gave her a soft toy to keep her company and one of us always seemed to be nearby ready to talk to her through the glass of her chicken brooder! Serious chicken breeders will be rolling around on the floor at this point laughing, but for us it was too much to think of her all alone :)

Never let anyone tell you that chickens are silly, Davina had us right where she wanted us and quickly found out that if she made a lot of noise, one of us would come running to check that she was ok. Within a short space of time, she was moved into our living room so that she could see us - that was the ONLY way to keep her quiet!!

By the time she was a week old she seemed to have everyone holding her, sleeping in your hands and generally being cared for like a newborn baby! Come to think of it, I'm certain that I didn't carry my children around as much as I did Davina.

As the days went on, we found that Davina generally went where she wanted to go and ended up with a 'cage of sorts' in our living room and although she had the right kind of drinkers and feeders. At night she would come out and sit with us and make herself at home on my lap to watch the TV - I kid you not!

This is her at 20 days, she really is growing fast now and has developed a personality all of her own.

Keeping a chicken (even a bantam) inside does have its draw backs - you MUST keep on top of their cage, twice a day at least for me was spent cleaning it out as I was convinced that everyone would smell chicken when they came in. As lovely as she was, my husband was already telling me that soon she would need to meet her other chicken friends and prepare to go outside!

It was a day that I kept putting off, the thought of her going outside and not being with us filled me with dread - would she be okay? It's not like a chicken can tell you that shes not happy is it!

As you can see, Davina was growing fast and at two months old, she was starting to take her place in the pecking order - unfortunatley, she felt that she was above my youngest daughter who had to sit on her own with her. If my daughter came to sit with me, Davina would have plenty to say about it.

It was getting near the time that I had been dreading, Davina, our hand reared Polish Bantam would need to start meeting other chickens and socialising with them.

Each day we would take her outside and if we were nearby she was fine but when we walked away, Davina would chase us making as much noise as possible. Things were not looking good and I was sure that she would have to stay with us inside for ever! (Perhaps that was my maternal 'wishful thinking')

At four months old Davina finally let us know that she was ready to join her fellow hens in our rather large coup! Every morning though, I go up to our coup and feed them, Davina is the one who jumps straight out and follows me around the garden with the dogs. She spends most days following us around and then goes outside to join her fellow hens each night.

As much as I realise that we did a lot wrong with our Polish Bantams, we have ended up with a loving hen who we wouldn't swap for anything! Davina is nearly a year old and is really doing well, she lays eggs and still spends much of her time with us. At night though, our hens all group into their own breads and settle down - we have one white silkie bantam who we adoped though and she cuddles up with our trio of Polish Bantam hens - which Davina rules :-)

If you are thinking of keeping chickens its vital that you have the right kind of equipment but also that you are on the look out for red mite because if you get it in your coup, the chances are that you wont realise until its too late! Keep your eyes peeled and check regularly to avoid them.

The Polish bantam breed is one that is to this day clouded - no one is completely sure about its history. Known to have been in the UK from as far back as Roman times, the Polish Bantam was called The Poland.

Although the Polish bantam is one of the most well known of the crested variety, these birds have been described and documented all over europe so where they actually originated from is anyones guess. They have even found the skulls very similar to the Polish at a Roman dig in Gloucester, so when and where these birds have come from is probably going to stay a mystery for a long time to come.

It seems that one common belief is that these birds 'probably' originated from south of Russia - another one says that they have strong Dutch ties. So after a few months of researching it has become clear that you could ask 100 different breeders and get 100 completely different replies. If you mention what someone else has said you'll get some pretty passionate views on why the other breeder is wrong too!

Some people have said to me that their own experience of Polish Bantams is one where they spend ages trying to catch a hen only to have her fight to get away - they end up just staying out of their way. From my own experience, this is probably because of their large crests - they simply cannot see very well which is why its advised to keep them seperate from other breeds. Chickens can be quite agressive towards each other and once you get a hen-pecked bird, its quite hard to stop and a Polish hen stands little chance of getting out the way when they have no idea its coming!

It's generally considered that these birds are not sitters - this means that they don't tend to go broody (sitting on eggs to hatch them out) and successful breeding usually takes place with the help of an incubator. There is a plus side to this as we found out with Davina - you tend to handle the chicks a lot more when there is no 'mother hen' around. The more you handle the chicks the more they like it, this makes it much easier to handle your hens when they get older.

Our brood of Polish Bantams is growing and each and every one of them has their own personality which ranges from totally mad to 'just another member of the family'. In general though they are friendly and when used to being handled they make ideal pets which children will love.