Got the new Ideal price list and was amazed to see all of the different color variations of Old English Bantams (but alas, no pictures in the pamphlet. I'd love to see pictures of the actual birds, and will post some of my Crele later on. What is your favorite color? What is a color you don't find often?
feathersite has some pics of a lot of the varieties, two whole pages. The OEGBCA has good pictures too but mostly recognized varieties. My favorite would have to be silver birds, like Silver Duckwings and Silver quills.. Though i have to say the Opals are interesting as well.
in terms of the old english bantams my favorite colors include fawn reds and mille fluers. in largefowl old english spangled and gold duckwings are my favorites.
If you go to Ideals website they have drawings of their birds, I think they sell something like 80 color varieties of OEGB. My personal favorites are the creles and I would love it if someone made lavender crele and dun crele.
Quote:As someone that has bred and shown Old English for 25 years I find it hard to imagine 80 varieties of OE that breed true. It makes me think of the saying I heard a couple of years ago- There are no Old English culls, only new varieties. For the record my favorite variety of Old English is Spangle, which we raise. We have added Blue Wheatens this year. Bob
i had a thread asking what colors mine were, here is the thread with pictures, the spangled is mine too, but i only have the old roo no hens, cant find any in new england area https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=263341
I have heard that saying too but it seems true, when they cross varieties and get something crazy they stick a name on it, kinda like the call people. Which, not to bash or anything but it seems like when I go to any show there are hundreds of OEGB, it seems like many breed for quantity, not quality. But without OEGB, the shows would be empty and a good one is amazing.
For OEGB's I like and raise BB Reds for show, mine are from the Andy Barnes bloodline. That said, I like American Game Bantams better and I think that they are going to be showing up more often at the various shows around the nation. AGB's are a little larger than OEGB's and retain the traits of their American Gamefowl roots. Here's a few photos of my BB Red (Hatch) AGB pair. The cock is 1 pound 15.8 ozs, the hen is 1 pound 5.8 ozs. They are not in full feather in these photos.
