OEGB - broodiness, personality, egg-laying, maturity?

[TopazMaster91]

A week ago I realized my OEGB started laying and has been hiding her nest from me for 2-3 weeks. Strangly, after I found her nest and took the eggs she started laying in the nesting boxes like a good girl. She knows when a battle is lost! By the way, how good of layers are they?

Haha, nice! Luckily for me my girl always (so far) uses the nesting boxes so I don't have to play find-the-egg-stash, lol~
When mine started laying at about 6mo old, she started off running!
Like seriously, sometimes (often) she lays an egg every day five days in a row before taking a day off, I don't understand how so many eggs can come out of such a tiny body!

 

[PioneerChicks]

Haha, nice! Luckily for me my girl always (so far) uses the nesting boxes so I don't have to play find-the-egg-stash, lol~
When mine started laying at about 6mo old, she started off running!
Like seriously, sometimes (often) she lays an egg every day five days in a row before taking a day off, I don't understand how so many eggs can come out of such a tiny body!

I know, their eggs seem so big for them! It's amazing what their teensy little bodies can do!

 

[Delaneygraces]

I have (among other bantams and LF) a self-blue OEGB girl who is roughly 15 weeks old, and after scouring these forums for information, I've finally given in and created this thread specifically to ask OEGB keepers for some information:

Roughly when do the pullets mature and start laying eggs?

When does the tail fill out, and "adult" feathering come in completely?

How are their personalities, contrasted between before/after maturity?

How well do they interact with other breeds, both bantam and LF?

How "talkative" are the pullets/hens?

How interactive/affectionate are they with their humans?

Where do they tend to stand in the pecking order, complacent or aggressive?

What are some common problems/health issues with this breed?

How can you tell if your Self-Blue OEGB has poor quality feathering (genetics)?

Just HOW broody can OEGBs really be?! Often, on occasion, seldom? Random?

I don't know how the Self-Blue variety may or may not vary from other varieties of OEGB (aside from coloring), but anything anyone can tell me, I am happy to listen! Aside from this, any other information, pictures, stories, are welcome! I'm more than happy to chat about this intriguing breed, and bantams in general!

Thanks,
- David

Hello!
While my main breed of focus is the modern game bantam, I also raise a handful of old English bantams as well!

I’ve found they are very compatible with other breeds. The hens get along with the moderns, and the few large fowl I have just fine and aren’t immediately kicked to the bottom of the pecking order. The roosters, however, in my experience, are usually picked on by my other boys. I only have roosters in my bantams breeds, and the moderns are known to get along, but as soon as I introduced the OEGB Roos, they were suddenly very mean and protective over the hens. They’ve now settled this out, and the two English boys are always together, and just steer clear of the moderns.

In general, my English hens are super talkative, especially when they are hungry or want let outside. They are also incredibly friendly, and affectionate (keep in mind this depends on the bird, but the breed, in general, is very affectionate). Handling of the bird will also affect this, the more you handle them/are around them, the more willing they are to be around you.

I've never let my bantams go sit on their own eggs, I always incubate, or use a broody mom of the cochin or wyandotte bantam breed. I used to have some Large Fowl old English hens, and they were always incredibly broody, and great mothers, but I'm not sure if the bantams have that same broodiness.

The best way to tell about the quality of your bird is to look at the standards. I have both the ABA and APA standard books, and they describe the ideal characteristics of your bird.
According to said standard, she should have a red face/comb/wattle, a dark beak/eyes, and bluish-black legs/toes. The main thing about coloring is that she should be an even shade of slaty blue over her entire feathering.
If you want an extra opinion, it might be a good idea to share a picture of your little gal, I'd sure love to see her! I am in love with the self blue coloring. Plus, the only difference between the self blue and other varieties is feather coloring, leg/beak/face/eye coloring. The type, station, and build of the bird should be the same across the oegb board.
Hope this helps some!

 

[TopazMaster91]

Hello!
While my main breed of focus is the modern game bantam, I also raise a handful of old English bantams as well!

I’ve found they are very compatible with other breeds. The hens get along with the moderns, and the few large fowl I have just fine and aren’t immediately kicked to the bottom of the pecking order. The roosters, however, in my experience, are usually picked on by my other boys. I only have roosters in my bantams breeds, and the moderns are known to get along, but as soon as I introduced the OEGB Roos, they were suddenly very mean and protective over the hens. They’ve now settled this out, and the two English boys are always together, and just steer clear of the moderns.

In general, my English hens are super talkative, especially when they are hungry or want let outside. They are also incredibly friendly, and affectionate (keep in mind this depends on the bird, but the breed, in general, is very affectionate). Handling of the bird will also affect this, the more you handle them/are around them, the more willing they are to be around you.

I've never let my bantams go sit on their own eggs, I always incubate, or use a broody mom of the cochin or wyandotte bantam breed. I used to have some Large Fowl old English hens, and they were always incredibly broody, and great mothers, but I'm not sure if the bantams have that same broodiness.

The best way to tell about the quality of your bird is to look at the standards. I have both the ABA and APA standard books, and they describe the ideal characteristics of your bird.
According to said standard, she should have a red face/comb/wattle, a dark beak/eyes, and bluish-black legs/toes. The main thing about coloring is that she should be an even shade of slaty blue over her entire feathering.
If you want an extra opinion, it might be a good idea to share a picture of your little gal, I'd sure love to see her! I am in love with the self blue coloring. Plus, the only difference between the self blue and other varieties is feather coloring, leg/beak/face/eye coloring. The type, station, and build of the bird should be the same across the oegb board.
Hope this helps some!

Thanks for your perspective and information!
So far, Gracie my one-and-only OEGB has just finished day three of faithfully sitting on her eggs (and screeching at any other hen that comes close ), and seems to be completely dedicated to hatching; I've only seen her off the eggs once since she started sitting, and that was only for 20 minutes while another hen stole her specific nesting box (lol) to lay an egg! (I took the freshly laid egg, four is enough for both me and my girl, haha).
Afterwards, she went right back onto the eggs.
I just can't believe that only after roughly a month since she first started laying eggs, she's already gone broody!

We didn't actually plan on getting/having more chickens anytime soon, we're happy with the number we have [8] , but since Gracie went crazy broody and seems so absolutely committed/dedicated to the eggs she has, we decided we'd just feel too bad about taking the eggs and depriving her of the chance at motherhood to break her broodiness; we have more than enough space to tolerate a few more, especially bantams, so we're just going to let what happens, happens . We ARE limiting her to four eggs though, lol!

My OEGB girl gets along just fine with the flock, even with the much bigger girls, even though we have a large variety of breeds (Orpington, Barred Rock, Cream Legbar, Polish, Frizzled Cochin bantam x2, Japanese bantam [cockerel], Gracie herself the OEGB).

Considering the fact that we had to integrate the younger ones with the older girls (Our first chickens were the Orp, BR, CL), they all get along surprisingly well now, especially since we built a whole new huge coop and run for them all; we also let them free range for an hour or two near the end of the day .

My Self-Blue OEGB conforms to the standard EXCEPT one odd thing I noticed- on one of her feet, the middle toe-nail is white instead of black! How weird, huh?
I think she's absolutely beautiful despite this strange "flaw" though .

I'll try posting pics or video soon of her and all the girls, personally I think my OEGB is the cutest of the bunch, so tiny and pretty and all that; she's definitely the friendliest, she hops onto my lap and arm without any prompting, and isn't skittish in the slightest .
It's seriously hilarious to watch her darting around and under the bigger girls with hyper-speed to get at the treats I throw on the ground .

PS: I think the Modern Game bantams may be on my top 3 list of cutest breeds ever, their legs are just so crazy long! I've seen videos of them pecking around in a yard, I'd die to have a few of them!

 

[TopazMaster91]

Day Five of Gracie sitting, and she is still totally dedicated, screeching at other hens, constantly staying on the eggs; I've only seen her off the eggs twice since she started sitting! I put a little bowl of food and water in front of her, despite the fact that she's brooding inside the common chicken coop and it's kind of in the way of everyone else, but oh well, lol.
So far, everything is good!

 

[TopazMaster91]

Day Seven ended, Day Eight begun:
So apparently I miscounted way back on day two or so, because she has SIX eggs under her, and all of them are marked with an " X ", so I know to leave those under her and take any without the " X " that other chickens try to contribute to the broody cause, lol. I was in a rush when I marked them, and didn't want the rooster walking in and getting pissed off at me, hahaha. So it's six eggs, not four! I doubt ALL will hatch, especially since two are from our Polish, and our little Japanese bantam rooster definitely misses the mark when he tries her, lol.
Either way, we'll see what happens, all in all she has her own (OEGB) eggs, Bantam Cochin eggs, and Polish eggs under her.

 

[Delaneygraces]

Day Seven ended, Day Eight begun:
So apparently I miscounted way back on day two or so, because she has SIX eggs under her, and all of them are marked with an " X ", so I know to leave those under her and take any without the " X " that other chickens try to contribute to the broody cause, lol. I was in a rush when I marked them, and didn't want the rooster walking in and getting pissed off at me, hahaha. So it's six eggs, not four! I doubt ALL will hatch, especially since two are from our Polish, and our little Japanese bantam rooster definitely misses the mark when he tries her, lol.
Either way, we'll see what happens, all in all she has her own (OEGB) eggs, Bantam Cochin eggs, and Polish eggs under her.

Fingers crossed for you and your Gracie! A Japanese bantam and a Polish? I can’t wait to see if any babies hatch, and what they look like!

 

[Chicken Heel]

I have four OEGB Crele hens I got from Cackle Hatchery a couple of years ago and they are lovely birds. I also have a Red Pyle OEGB rooster and I am planning to hatch some chicks from them.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I've had OEGBs for about a year now. I started by accident when someone game me a feral or lost self blue cockerel they found in their back yard. Once I ID'd it I got him some OEGB hens from a breeder about 50 miles from me of mixed colors (not show quality).

Here's a few random observations:

1. They're the wildest, flightiest, birds I own. They freak out whenever I'm close to their coop and if let out and spooked they'll fly 75 yards easy into overgrown fields and woods. They're far more wild acting than my red jungle fowl hybrids. I had to once track one with my hound that made it out into the middle of a 5 acre wire grass field. However, I've since learned that they're good about coming back on their own once I hide and they feel like things have calmed down.

2. They're highly aggressive to me and each other. The hens have no tolerance of each other if a hen gets removed from the flock for a couple of weeks. They're so aggressive to hens that are removed and then reintroduced that so far I've had to re-pen all hens once they've been removed from the group. The rooster is highly aggressive to me. Both hens and roosters will jump on me if they're cornered. Many people often recommend this breed for hand pets. Maybe they can be made that way with extra handling. All of my other chickens are pretty tame thru normal day to day interaction. Not these birds. Perhaps mine come from a history of free-ranging or some other background that makes them wilder.

3. They lay well for bantams. I get an egg a day to every other day per hen. They only quit in the height of winter, but note I'm in north Florida and our deep winters are mild compared to most of the US. Eggs are the same size as my jungelfowl eggs. So identical that I can't tell them apart so I have to collect them separately.

4. Food consumption of adults is low, food consumption of bitties is as high as any other chicken. Very clean birds too. Little dry poops that are more quail like than chicken like. These would be ideal birds for a suburban backyard coop of limited size.

5. They go broody relatively well but the hens small size limits how many small eggs they can take. 7-8 at the most, as where my jungle fowl hybrids can set 17 eggs no problem. I think my jungle fowl are better mothers. My self-blue rooster throws mostly black chicks.

6. They're regal birds and I like their scrappiness. I also love/hate their flightiness. I want to swear them off every time they act stupid and fly everywhere and make chaos happen. But I admire that trait in survivors. I currently have a group of bitties I incubated I would like to take to my woods and throw out (when they're a sufficient age) to see how well they survive. But I don't want them to cross with my jungle fowl hybrids so I keep going back and to on the idea.

 

[TopazMaster91]

Fingers crossed for you and your Gracie! A Japanese bantam and a Polish? I can’t wait to see if any babies hatch, and what they look like!

I candled the eggs today (day 9) just to check on what's happening, and it seems like 3 eggs are in action! One OEGB egg, two Cochin bantam eggs! The two Polish eggs didn't even start, so as I assumed, they must not be fertilized; the Japanese bantam never seemed to get it right when he jumped her