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Old English Game Bantam

The Old English Game bantam is a delightful breed of chicken. It is a small, pugnacious, and...
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General Information

Breed Purpose
Ornamental
Comb
Single
Broodiness
Frequent
Climate Tolerance
All Climates
Egg Productivity
Medium
Egg Size
Small
Egg Color
White
Breed Temperament
Friendly, Easily handled, Calm, Bears confinement well, Docile
Breed Size
Bantam
APA/ABA Class
Single Comb Clean Leg
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The Old English Game bantam is a delightful breed of chicken. It is a small, pugnacious, and charming little chicken that embodies the idea of pride and “chickenhood.” Their larger counterparts are the direct descendants of the jungle fowl, but the bantams are the end result of careful selective breeding of various backyard bantams.

The first variety accepted to the American Standard of Perfection was Black Breasted Red (BBR), gaining recognition in 1925. Since their acceptance, they have become the most popular breed of exhibition chicken, easily reaching class sizes of over 300 birds in medium sized shows. Males are required to be dubbed in order to be shown, but unlike the Modern Game bantam part of the comb should be left, leaving a rounded nub. Old English have two distinct types, “American” and “English,” with the American type having a fanned tail and the English type having a “whip” tail. This breed is known for living a long and fruitful life; it is not uncommon for hens to reach 15 years of age.

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Old English Game Bantam eggs hatching

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Old English Game rooster

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Old English Game hen
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Reactions: Yard Farmer, Henny Penney, bantamsrmyfav and 8 others

Latest reviews

Yard Farmer
My favorite breed.
Pros: They're so pretty, and unique.
Cons: Since they are a type of fighting breed, the males can be quite aggressive towards each other.
My absolute favorite breed of all time.
I love their personalities, and colors. I like to mix up the different colors and see what the off spring look like.

But I also do a lot more serious breeding with my bb reds. Currently looking to make my own line of show quality bb red's.
Purchase Price
$50
Bigtom Turkey
Great little birds
Pros: Sweet, smart, great fliers, lots of attitude.
Cons: Very small.
Love my OEGBs. Very wild like,
Purchase Price
50$
Henny Penney
Pros: Easy to care for, hardy, friendly, can be tamed, good in all weather, fun for children and elderly.
Cons: For some, small eggs and their love of flying are cons
I raised Old English Game Bantams 45+ yrs, after a 6 yr hiatus have started again with a rescued pair. For everything I read people write about them I can think of exceptions because their personalities vary, and they DO have personalities! Constant characteristics are: Hens are good moms, roosters are good with their hens, never had an aggressive rooster towards people or hens.

Some roosters get along, some don't.

The pair we have now are VERY talkative! I find most of them are talktive but some less so. The roosters crow is not as loud or deep as larger breeds.

Only a few chickens over the yrs had serious health problems other than occasional mites.

Their love of flying can be an asset to get away from danger.

If you don't mind small eggs (for most uses the ratio of 2=1 works fine), I find them to be good layers, our current hen lays an egg every other day, occasionally every day, once 2 in one day!

They are an attractive, entertaining, easy breed to raise. I miss the beautiful red/gray/gold/black roosters I had, but the dusty gray "Self-blue" color rooster I have now is a handsome guy.

First picture: our current pair, Hazel and Mr. Sage. Second picture: Little Red Hen, whose eggs were too big to pass but she was very tame, a therapy chicken at times, third picture: Studdly, our last rooster, a knight in shining armor. Fourth picture: showing all the colors hens can be and Studdly's father.
Purchase Price
I don't remember what I paid for the first ones
Purchase Date
first ones 1976

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Last edited:
Henny Penney
Henny Penney
PS The exception to my comments.....the little rescue rooster we got became aggressive toward me after 3 months, he went to live elsewhere and was replaced by a friendlier rooster.
Mo_fawaazzz
Mo_fawaazzz
are your hens loud? do they sing the egg song?
Read more…

Comments

billgarb
I have an Old English Game Hen and she is very docile. She will squat and allow you to pick her up and pet her. Her and a Rosecomb hen will jump onto my daughters my daughter's legs when she is sitting.
 
arrowti
Our OEG bantaom rooster is also very friendly with people. However, he is mean to the standard roosters who are afraid of him!
 
microchick
Completely agree! I have two pair also, one pullet a Wheaten and another a partridge mix. My two cockerels are black breast mixed with an unknown color. They are big birds in a small package. Mine are just 4 months old but the cockerels have already began to show an interest in the big girls much to the standard sized rooster's chagrin. The little guys have learned to hit and run so to speak. The girls are sweet and friendly. One likes to fly over and sit on my head while I'm doing my coop chores every morning. The boys will let me handle them without putting up too much of a fuss.

I want more!
 
mjett5578
Well i have an extremely mixed flock of over 32 chickens, and she does fine with all of them. My one hen is kind of a loner, and prefers to be by herself, but when around the others, she does very well. She had previously hatched out chicks that were half Old english and half japanese bantam. There are 5 roosters, that tend to fight a little bit with eachother, but they are mixed
 
microchick
I have to agree with you mjett5578. These are amazing birds. I have 2 7 month old cockerels and 2 7 month old pullets and just hatched 11 in my incubator while a broody Welsummer hen hatched out 8 more for me. The hens are sweet natured, and friendly and the cockerels are big roosters in small packages. My boys boss around the flock master who is an 8 pound Welsummer Buff Orpington cross and he doesn't argue back with them. The hens get along well with my standard sized hens also. I also highly recommend these little feather covered dynamos.
 
Ms Clucky
I love these breeds. Cackle hatchery had 17 color varieties in 2018. I didn't get the Ginger Red, Wheaten, Spangled or the Brassy Back. It's not like I didn't want those, the hatchery just didn't put those kind in there. What a bummer.
 
Ms Clucky
Use to be scared of chickens when I was a kid. Did not realized how they actually behaved. Bantams are so sweet, to me at least. Anyone else comes up there and they run
 
C
I have a Rooster I hatched. He was very skittish and still is to a point, but now that the hormones kicked in he is really trying to become top guy. Poor little guy. He doesn't stand a chance. I have a full RIR rooster that is older. Not going to happen in his life. He does attack though. But the RIR takes care of that. Comes in and saves me. lol.
 
Checota
Just love my three OEGB both hens and rooster are sweet as pie fly up on my shoulder just to be pet. That tiny rooster takes good care of his hens. Often alerting to hawks, they can’t get in the coop...but he calls them to hide while he faces off with the hawks.
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Ms Clucky
where did you get this rooster? I had to give mine away that looked just like that. I named him Rusty.
 
Checota
Got them from hatchery chickens for back yards all three were supposed to be crele OEGB pullets but this boy is an obvious cockerel of mixed BBRed and crele lineage. All are amazing sweet this boy you can carry in your arms like a baby upside down feet up in the air in the crook of your arm.
 
Checota
Checota said:
Got them from hatchery chickens for back yards all three were supposed to be crele OEGB pullets but this boy is an obvious cockerel of mixed BBRed and crele lineage. All are amazing sweet this boy you can carry in your arms like a baby upside down feet up in the air in the crook of your arm.
Click to expand...

I am sorry the bantams came from cackle Hatchery. Note from chickens for back yards as previously stated .sorry.
 

Item information

Category
Chicken Breeds
Added by
Super Admin
Views
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Watchers
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Comments
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Reviews
86
Last update
Rating
4.42 star(s) 90 ratings

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