Show off your Old English Game Bantams!!

[jophus]

He is stunning!!! Can't wait to see the offspring!!

He's a little big, which is surprising given that my Lemon Blues were tiny. Hoping for some smaller ones that have his color. It's amazing in person. Or in chicken, lol.

 

[chickendreams24]

It might not be the opening, but the insides of the boxes... the girls would be in the middle area and the boys would most likely walk around them inside and could be rubbing against the walls... that's what it looks like to me... it's only on the surface of their wings, yes?

Too bad you aren't closer... we're selling out of our Self Blue flock...

Would love love love some of your self blues I have one self blue hen and two black split pullets and would love some hatching eggs. Sadly I highly doubt we could make the drive for the birds right now. Do you ever ship?



Anyway Hi all I'm hoping you can help me. We have some Oegb and I adore them. Much like all of you we don't focus on them due to them not being as popular. Spring 2015 we bought a cockeral from tractor supply. He was rehomed a year later due to not getting on well with the other boys we had. I got a black pair fall of 2015 from show quality hatching eggs from a friend of ours(that has since sold all of their Oegb). Loving them as I do I adopted three more summer of 2016. A silver duckwing pair and what I'm almost sure is a blue brassy back hen.

Sadly a week and a half ago now we lost two OEGB in one day. I'm devastated. I lost my black boy Mickey(who was extremely docile and never started fights and was super gentle with chicks) and my silver duckwing hen Ducky. I believe the culprit is a fox which has plagued our flock since last May taking 28 +/- birds since then.

Minnie(Mickey's mate) has been acting slightly depressed since losing him. More than that I'm just feeling awful. I now have no Oegb breeding groups for this year. If anyone has any Oegb hatching eggs they would be willing to sell please let me know, or if anyone is near me with birds. Npip is preferred but just let me know please. I miss my babies. Minnie and Mickey were my best pair of all of our birds and Mickey was my number one boy. A wonderful gentle roo good to the other cockerals assertive but not overly aggressive. Last summer I watched Mickey as a chick grabbed his bright red wattles and yanked trying to run off with its prize. Lol Mickey calmly stood and watched but never touched the chick but instead began to tidbit and feed it. He was what every roo should be and I miss him a ton.

I also miss Ducky although she was an adult when I got her and she wasn't here long I loved her too. After all how can you not help but love an Oegb. Her mate Draco doesn't seem to know where she went. At first we thought maybe she was just broody somewhere but I don't really believe that's an option anymore.

Below is a photo of Mickey and Minnie spring 2016. I would love to know what you all think of their quality. I would like to find a decent quality line to keep their beautiful line going. While perfection isn't as important to me as temperament. We have a large coop and while we separate the breeds for breeding we do otherwise want them to be able to be housed together. Our Oegb are housed with large fowl and silkies and do amazingly well, we would like this to continue. Also we can't have people aggressive birds.

Have any of you ordered Oegb chicks from cackle hatchery? How is their quality and temperaments?

 

[bantiesrule]

I have tried a hatchery before and was not impressed with any of the birds I received. They were all huge for OEGBs had poor conformation and the colors were not real nice either. They were very friendly, however. I would still try to find a local breeder. The best way to find a good breeder is to go to a show or maybe try a swap?:
http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/Wisconsin_Swap.html

 

[microchick]

Wisconsin should have a NPIP certified breeders book listed though the department of Agriculture.It should be look like this:

http://agriculture.mo.gov/animals/pdf/poultry_yearbook.pdf

You might try inserting WI in place of MO and see what happens. When you find it you should be able to glean through it and find what you are looking for reasonable close to where you are.

Good luck with your search.

 

[jophus]

I have tried a hatchery before and was not impressed with any of the birds I received. They were all huge for OEGBs had poor conformation and the colors were not real nice either. They were very friendly, however. I would still try to find a local breeder. The best way to find a good breeder is to go to a show or maybe try a swap?:
 http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/Wisconsin_Swap.html

Hatchery birds, if you think about it, need to produce eggs. They're bred with that in mind. The smaller, selectively line bred birds just don't produce as well. That's what happens when we breed for color, tails and form.

I've raised some pretty, sweet hatchery hens. They'll lay almost every day, but it's because their bigger birds.

Depends on what your looking for. My hens produce 2-4 eggs a week in the spring, depending on how concentrated the blood is and how well they're feed. But they're bred to the standard. They're gorgeous and look exactly like a OEGB hen should look like. It's a trade off.

 

[jophus]

This is a male line, line bred Crele hen. For tiny little girls, they lay fairly well.

They produce roos like this.

 

[chickendreams24]

Would love love love some of your self blues I have one self blue hen and two black split pullets and would love some hatching eggs. Sadly I highly doubt we could make the drive for the birds right now. Do you ever ship?



Anyway Hi all I'm hoping you can help me. We have some Oegb and I adore them. Much like all of you we don't focus on them due to them not being as popular. Spring 2015 we bought a cockeral from tractor supply. He was rehomed a year later due to not getting on well with the other boys we had. I got a black pair fall of 2015 from show quality hatching eggs from a friend of ours(that has since sold all of their Oegb). Loving them as I do I adopted three more summer of 2016. A silver duckwing pair and what I'm almost sure is a blue brassy back hen.

Sadly a week and a half ago now we lost two OEGB in one day. I'm devastated. I lost my black boy Mickey(who was extremely docile and never started fights and was super gentle with chicks) and my silver duckwing hen Ducky. I believe the culprit is a fox which has plagued our flock since last May taking 28 +/- birds since then.

Minnie(Mickey's mate) has been acting slightly depressed since losing him. More than that I'm just feeling awful. I now have no Oegb breeding groups for this year. If anyone has any Oegb hatching eggs they would be willing to sell please let me know, or if anyone is near me with birds. Npip is preferred but just let me know please. I miss my babies. Minnie and Mickey were my best pair of all of our birds and Mickey was my number one boy. A wonderful gentle roo good to the other cockerals assertive but not overly aggressive. Last summer I watched Mickey as a chick grabbed his bright red wattles and yanked trying to run off with its prize. Lol Mickey calmly stood and watched but never touched the chick but instead began to tidbit and feed it. He was what every roo should be and I miss him a ton.

I also miss Ducky although she was an adult when I got her and she wasn't here long I loved her too. After all how can you not help but love an Oegb. Her mate Draco doesn't seem to know where she went. At first we thought maybe she was just broody somewhere but I don't really believe that's an option anymore.

Below is a photo of Mickey and Minnie spring 2016. I would love to know what you all think of their quality. I would like to find a decent quality line to keep their beautiful line going. While perfection isn't as important to me as temperament. We have a large coop and while we separate the breeds for breeding we do otherwise want them to be able to be housed together. Our Oegb are housed with large fowl and silkies and do amazingly well, we would like this to continue. Also we can't have people aggressive birds.

Have any of you ordered Oegb chicks from cackle hatchery? How is their quality and temperaments?

I have tried a hatchery before and was not impressed with any of the birds I received. They were all huge for OEGBs had poor conformation and the colors were not real nice either. They were very friendly, however. I would still try to find a local breeder. The best way to find a good breeder is to go to a show or maybe try a swap?:
 http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/Wisconsin_Swap.html

Wisconsin should have a NPIP certified breeders book listed though the department of Agriculture.It should be look like this:

 http://agriculture.mo.gov/animals/pdf/poultry_yearbook.pdf

You might try inserting WI in place of MO and see what happens. When you find it you should be able to glean through it and find what you are looking for reasonable close to where you are.

Good luck with your search.

Hatchery birds, if you think about it, need to produce eggs. They're bred with that in mind. The smaller, selectively line bred birds just don't produce as well. That's what happens when we breed for color, tails and form.

I've raised some pretty, sweet hatchery hens. They'll lay almost every day, but it's because their bigger birds.

Depends on what your looking for. My hens produce 2-4 eggs a week in the spring, depending on how concentrated the blood is and how well they're feed. But they're bred to the standard. They're gorgeous and look exactly like a OEGB hen should look like. It's a trade off.

I figured as much about the hatchery birds I will look elsewhere and use them as a fallback only. How have the temperaments been in the cocks for those that have had hatchery birds?

Thank you guys for the responses I will look into those places and hopefully this spring/summer I will be posting pics of our new littles.

I am still curious BC no one mentioned how they thought Minnie and her poor lost mate Mickey look. Man it's amazing how much I miss that little roo!

The second photo is Minnie last spring molting and bug hunting so you'll have to forgive her appearance. I'm hoping you can get an idea of her type from the photo.

There were about three weeks last spring/summer where none of my OEGB or my sebright hen had tails they all looked like araucanas(sp?) Lol and them poor Crocket was under the weather for a couple weeks and looked like a wilted flower. She molted badly and was completely pin feathers and was so miserable.

This last photo is my self blue hen Crocket she's a wonderful girl. She does have a comb that folds which I'm sure is bad. How bad is it and can I breed that out? Sorry about the bad photo lol she's usually on my shoulder so good pics are a bit rare of both her and Minnie BC of that. Lol

She's such a stunning little girl. She did break a toe as a chick which gives her one crooked toe but she hatched with perfect feet. She was an assist due to sticky chick. Her toe healed and it doesn't affect her at all, plus at least broken toes aren't genetic.

The two black split to self blue pullets I have are from her and Mickey.

 

[microchick]

Crocket is just a lovely little girl. I really like her color. As for the comb, you would probably want to mate her with a rooster who had an exemplary straight comb right out of the book,so to speak. Your little roo was gorgeous. I'm hoping to hatch blacks this summer. Found a source in northern Missouri that is about 45 minutes away or less. Day trip!-

I had a Buff O roo with a curled comb. Every chick he sired had that same wave, drat it. Other than that he was a beautiful boy and can be seen on my avatar. Unfortunately I too lost my sweet rooster to an infection last June. His son is now my flock master at the moment.

 

[bantiesrule]

I figured as much about the hatchery birds I will look elsewhere and use them as a fallback only. How have the temperaments been in the cocks for those that have had hatchery birds?

The ones I ended up with were very friendly, both the roos and the hens. The roos didn't seem to be quite as attentive to the hens as the roos I had from a local breeder but that may have changed as they got older. I sold all my hatchery stock before they were a year old and just kept the breeder stock. The only reason I had tried hatchery stock was for different varieties and a lot of the colors didn't run true.

 

[jophus]

The ones I ended up with were very friendly, both the roos and the hens. The roos didn't seem to be quite as attentive to the hens as the roos I had from a local breeder but that may have changed as they got older. I sold all my hatchery stock before they were a year old and just kept the breeder stock. The only reason I had tried hatchery stock was for different varieties and a lot of the colors didn't run true. 

My all time favorite roo was a BBR hatchery bird. He was smart, friendly and followed me all around the yard like a dog, or rode around on my shoulder. He's buried out back among my most beloved pets.