Show off your Old English Game Bantams!!

[WVduckchick]

Bittersweet day for me. Sold all my Lemon Blue breeders, although I can still make Lemon Blues with a sport rooster and a lemon black hen if I choose. Also planning on getting rid of all my blue brassybacks. Hoping this will allow me to focus on my Creles, Whites and my Blacks, all of which are very close to where I need them to be.

I'm only going to hatch whites and Creles this season, and hopefully lots of them.

I just have too many darn birds to keep up with, given my job and call schedule. Plus, although I'm not "old", I'm definitely no spring chicken.

Wish you were closer, I love the blue brassys

 

[bantiesrule]

Ditto, I love the blue brassys!!!

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Hello OEGB folks! I'm pretty sure my fabulous Thomas is an OEGB but I'm wondering if an expert here would be able to confirm it. He is a rescue I took in, he was slated for death for the crime of mating the hens, the inexperienced chicken owners though he was aggressive, he's not.. he was just a horny teen boy, like all teen boys. He's an absolute doll. Anyhow here is my fabulous Mr. Thomas!

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Here is Mr. Thomas today. He's king of the laundry pile and guardian of the sunbeams.

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Here is Mr. Thomas today. He's king of the laundry pile and guardian of the sunbeams.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Here is Mr. Thomas today. He's king of the laundry pile and guardian of the sunbeams.

Mr. Thomas is adorable! But looks like a Sebright/OEGB cross... might have been from a project working on silver laced OEGB's, maybe?

 

[jophus]

Mr. Thomas is adorable! But looks like a Sebright/OEGB cross... might have been from a project working on silver laced OEGB's, maybe?

He's a handsome bird. He does look like a Sebright cross, especially with the blue legs. Hardest thing in making that cross would be to eliminate the hen-feathering, which Mr. Thomas has a good start on.

If it weren't for the hackle, I'd say he was a single combed silver Sebright.

 

[Madison-Jamil]

I have a Silver Sebright, Stewart. We also have 11 Silkie/Sebright crosses that are absolutely adorable from Stewart and his Silkie mate. Thomas does have similar leg coloring to Stewart but he has a red stripe on the outside of each leg like my confirmed OEGB boys. Would hatcheries be welling whoopsie babies on these "Bantam Bins"?

Thomas is also A LOT larger and huskier than Stewart. He's a little power house of muscle too! Several of Stewart's sons are as big as Thomas though. I included a few pics of them also. They are all beautiful. Two of his five sons have inherited the hen feathering gene, all the rest have full on rooster feather traits. Interestingly all have moms five toes, beard, muff and crest. I'm getting a variety of rose, walnut and rose/walnut hybrid combs. I'm trying to find more Sebrights as I want Stewart to breed with a Silver Sebright girl but it's a real challenge.

Do big hatcheries have project birds? That thought also came to me that they were trying to get Silver Laced OEGB. I saw some on feathersite Inthink but didn't know if they were a recognized color.

 

[jophus]

It's possible that a crossed chick could find its way into the bins. Back when I started out, I bought several hatchery Sebrights that wound up single combed. Ideal lists silver and golden laced OEGB on their site, but I've never seen such a bird.

It would be a doable project, if you were willing to devote many years of your life to it, and you'd have to cull 9/10 birds to even get close.

I've have a buddy who is making great progress on his Colombian OEGB, but he's a very experienced breeder.

Even taking a substandard line of pure OEGB and improving it takes a lot of time. I've got 3 years in on my blue brassies, and have finally started seeing the results I've been breeding for. It'll take at least another 3 to get birds that will compete well in shows.

If you had the means to hatch and raise several hundred a year, you could speed up the process.

 

[GingersHuman]

I love my OEGB's!