Show off your Old English Game Bantams!!

[WVduckchick]

She's cute! But I sure can't tell what's mixed in there. I think leg feathering can linger for generations though. Her coloring is interesting too!

 

[microchick]

Thank you. Yes, I really like their mixed bag of colors. I was looking at them this morning as I let them out and noticed that one of them looks like its back is dappled with different colors almost like a Mille Fleur while others have more uniform coloring. I imagine the original sire is no longer around as I have just seen birds resembling mine around his farm. I know he said that he really likes them for their independence free ranging and taking care of their babies. Once last year, he told me, he had one go broody and hide under a bush about a hundred feet down the road from his house. He said he was sure predators would have gotten it but no, one day they saw her marching down the road towards his farm with a line of day old chicks running after her.

Amazing how self sufficient they can be as a breed. I doubt if my pampered Buff O and Welsummers could be as tough as these birds seem to be. It makes me want more.

 

[WVduckchick]

Thank you. Yes, I really like their mixed bag of colors. I was looking at them this morning as I let them out and noticed that one of them looks like its back is dappled with different colors almost like a Mille Fleur while others have more uniform coloring. I imagine the original sire is no longer around as I have just seen birds resembling mine around his farm. I know he said that he really likes them for their independence free ranging and taking care of their babies. Once last year, he told me, he had one go broody and hide under a bush about a hundred feet down the road from his house. He said he was sure predators would have gotten it but no, one day they saw her marching down the road towards his farm with a line of day old chicks running after her.

Amazing how self sufficient they can be as a breed. I doubt if my pampered Buff O and Welsummers could be as tough as these birds seem to be. It makes me want more.

My first OEGB's were hatched from eggs that I got along with Golden Sebright eggs. I went to buy the GS, but her chicks were cute, so I took some of them too. Those little chicks quickly became my favorites and I got rid of the GS. I now have 3 pens of about 25 OEGB's! They are definitely the friendliest and most social of all my birds, and so much fun to watch.

A couple recent pics of some of my youngens

 

[microchick]

I love the little silver duckwing rooster that you have. Friends of ours just lost their geriatric SDW rooster a month or so ago. The little guy had been firing blanks for a couple of years but was absolutely high on the adorable list. Enough so that I would really like to have one.

Right now my flock is mainly Buff Os and Welsummers with one Sepckled Sussex and my four OEGB mix chicks. I haven't been too happy with the Buff O roosters that my pure bred roosters and hens have been producing. The hens/pullets are doing well but I have had a high mortality rate in my roosters, loosing one cockerel on average per hatch of 8 eggs. I have the feeling there is a glitch somewhere in the genetic line that I would like to breed out of them. My Buff O Welsummer crosses are beautiful and healthy birds. In fact they are huge boys and at 8 months, are still growing.

So at the moment my plan is to get more eggs from our neighbor and stick under any broodies I might have come spring and see if I can get my hands on some pure blooded OEGB eggs from somewhere to either brood naturally or put in my incubator. Eventually I will not have any Buff O cockerels at all breeding with the girls and hopefully eventually have a flock of crossbred hens that have better laying history than the pure blooded OEGB birds and genetically tougher than the birds I have now.

 

[WVduckchick]

I love the little silver duckwing rooster that you have. Friends of ours just lost their geriatric SDW rooster a month or so ago. The little guy had been firing blanks for a couple of years but was absolutely high on the adorable list. Enough so that I would really like to have one.

Right now my flock is mainly Buff Os and Welsummers with one Sepckled Sussex and my four OEGB mix chicks. I haven't been too happy with the Buff O roosters that my pure bred roosters and hens have been producing. The hens/pullets are doing well but I have had a high mortality rate in my roosters, loosing one cockerel on average per hatch of 8 eggs. I have the feeling there is a glitch somewhere in the genetic line that I would like to breed out of them. My Buff O Welsummer crosses are beautiful and healthy birds. In fact they are huge boys and at 8 months, are still growing.

So at the moment my plan is to get more eggs from our neighbor and stick under any broodies I might have come spring and see if I can get my hands on some pure blooded OEGB eggs from somewhere to either brood naturally or put in my incubator. Eventually I will not have any Buff O cockerels at all breeding with the girls and hopefully eventually have a flock of crossbred hens that have better laying history than the pure blooded OEGB birds and genetically tougher than the birds I have now.

That's odd to lose a few males like that, but I'd also have to wonder if maybe it isn't "one" of the girls instead. If the rooster is fathering some good ones, then maybe its a particular hen?

I have 4 pure SDW boys at the moment. One father, 2 sons, plus an older one that I acquired from a friend. All of them are super sweet boys. The youngest "lives" with a flock of chocolate orpingtons because one of my CO hens hatched him, but they have since dwarfed him in size!! He runs between their legs. I've tried moving him to 2 other pens, but the girls in those pens pick on him and he runs right back to the chocolates. He's a hoot! I've got him listed on CL with several chocolate boys, but can't seem to find homes for them.

 

[microchick]

You have a point about the hens. That has crossed our minds. I lost my original BO cockerel this spring to some yet undisclosed illness so my line of pure BO pullets and cockerels that were bred in my Feb hatch came from him. Of the Feb hatch, I had to put one cockerel down due to some neurological problem that caused him to loose muscle control and have seizures. That hatch had 4 pure blooded BO cockerels of which I have 3 left. Those three are just 8 months old now. My June hatch chicks were sired by my Welsummer roosters and one Lavender O rooster who died last month of what looks like a heart attack. Odd for a 12 month old bird to say the least. Both the LO and the BO came from the same place, so I can only suspect a genetic glitch in both of the birds.

The June hatch chicks are all crosses with the exception of one pure blooded Welsummer pullet but so far they have showed to be healthy birds. Still, I am watching closely for it to pop back up again.

It is a shame we do not live closer. Your boys would have a new home pronto!

 

[BantamTurkey]

Awww sweet! Got any pics?

My seramas just started laying a couple of weeks ago. I'm now getting one egg a day, but I think I have 2 layers alternating

My Saramas. It was my little Sarama hen that was missing the tip of her toe.

my games. And the one idk what it is. Idk if it's even a hen or rooster. I believe maybe an Easter egger. Not sure

 

[Flock Master64]

Tookie?

 

[attimus]

Here's that little fella I was talking about with the long shank feathers. He's a bit jumpy so it took a minute to get these.

And the other little speckled hen I have.

 

[jophus]

Pen full of future breeders. 6 month old black and white pullets with a blue brassy cockerel. They've been together since hatching. Pullets are laying!