I assume Saffron is a he?

[NatJ]

I had heard they could be feisty due to game birds being used for fighting, etc, but she's not at all.

The "game" part seems to have been bred out of Old English Game Bantams pretty thoroughly, at least as regards the ones sold by hatcheries. I've noticed some hatcheries are now calling them "Old English Bantam" and leaving out the word "game," although I can't tell if that is because they care what it means, or just an effort to make it shorter.

I haven't seen them being any worse than other breeds in a flock.

I think in the bantam bin, it's safe to assume any chick with chipmunk stripes is an OEGB.... I think bantam EEs can have it too, and Hoover's has those. So maybe that's not actually a safe assumption, lol.

I have had a number of bantam Easter Eggers with chipmunk stripes, although they were ordered from various hatcheries instead of picked from the bantam bin at a store. I think Ideal and Dunlap were the ones I ordered from. Some in each batch of EE chicks had chipmunk stripes and some did not.

 

[ella2025]

Haha that's awesome! One batch of bantams I got were in a bin full of New Hampshires. They were so much bigger I could barely see the bantams to try to guess what they were.

OEGBs do seem to be very common. I've only got one. Shirley was a part of my original 4. She's a BB Red and is so amazingly sweet. She loves to pancake down in my hand (she is no bigger than a yard dove at 12 weeks old now) and she makes the most adorable little trilling sounds, almost like purring. I had heard they could be feisty due to game birds being used for fighting, etc, but she's not at all. I only know one other person (in person) who has had one. She got him on accident from a TSC mix up, and he was the same way. He rode around on her shoulder all the time. He was also a BB Red.

I think in the bantam bin, it's safe to assume any chick with chipmunk stripes is an OEGB. I know lots of breeds have that pattern, but at least where I am, all the ones in the bantams bin with it are OEGBs. But I think bantam EEs can have it too, and Hoover's has those. So maybe that's not actually a safe assumption, lol. My EE from RK though (which is Hoover's chicks) was almost solid white when I got him.

Maybe I shouldn't be afraid of getting oegb after all!

 

[ella2025]

I just told pepper that I can't bring her outside today because the weather is bad.

PEPPER!!!!

 

[ChickenChick46]

Maybe I shouldn't be afraid of getting oegb after all!

I wouldn't trade Shirley for anything
She's so tiny, lol.

 

[ella2025]

I wouldn't trade Shirley for anything
She's so tiny, lol.

SO CUTE!!!!

 

[ella2025]

I wouldn't trade Shirley for anything
She's so tiny, lol.

Looks like I'll be snooping around TSC looking at the bantam bin next spring

 

[ChickenChick46]

SO CUTE!!!!

Thank you!

 

[ChickenChick46]

Looks like I'll be snooping around TSC looking at the bantam bin next spring

Lol you definitely should! Here she is as a baby.

 

[NatJ]

Maybe I shouldn't be afraid of getting oegb after all!

Just be aware that they can FLY! I mean fly almost like a bird, not just like a heavy-breed chicken.

Free ranging would be fine, as long as you don't expect them to stay inside a fence. If you do need to keep them contained, I would recommend a covered run. I've seen them go right over a 7 foot fence if something scared them, and I saw one fly about 100 feet across a yard and land on the roof of a house.

Some of them are also prone to broodiness, which is good or bad depending on what you want. I've had ones that never went broody and others that did frequently, so it's not a guaranteed thing.

 

[NatJ]

Looks like I'll be snooping around TSC looking at the bantam bin next spring

Black Breasted Red has different coloring for males and females. If you find any chicks that are old enough to have their breast feathers, males have a black breast and females have a salmon color.

That might be handy if you find one of those great marked-down deals on chicks that didn't sell right away

And of course you can look at combs as the chicks get older, too.