The Black-Breasted Red Old English Game Bantam Thread

[EM Squared Farms]

I did not find a Black-Breasted Red Old English Game Bantam thread so I thought one should be initiated.

My 12 yr. old son is raising BB Red OEG bantams as one of his 5 breeds of chickens he is working on to improve the breed.

What's interesting about this breed is that the male and female chickens have very different and distinctive coloring.

Because of this color variation in the sexes, you often times will hear breeders talk about a chicken referring to it as having a good hen or rooster line.
This is somewhat confusing at first because you see a hen and hear it comes from more of a rooster line or vice versa.

These chickens seem to be one of the smaller bantam breeds. But do not let their size fool you ! What they lack in size, they seem to make up in attitude, at least for the roosters. The hens have an intricate pattern and are very sweet in nature.

It is so comical to see a little tiny BB Red OEG bantam try and flare out it's tiny mane of neck feathers (hackle feathers) against a rooster more than twice his size. They look like little lions bobbing up and down, almost in mirror images with the fence between them.

The roosters need to be dubbed (combs and wattles trimmed down to barely there or nothing) to be eligible to show.

Thank goodness we have an expert chicken judge friend that can show him how to do this, when the time comes.

We look forward to seeing more pics of other BB Red OEG bantams on here !

You can view all of our pics on our website.

 

[sjarvis00]

There is an Old Engish thread, you willl find there is nothing left to improve on the BB Red that has not been done, there are very good specimens to be had from amny resources all over the country.
Due the nature of this color you will need to determie if you want to raise a male line or female line, speak extensively with a breeder who you plan to aquire your birds from and learn everything possible about his / her line. Each one is a bit different. Try not to cross lines as thi soften has horrible results.
I wish you teh best of luck in your endevours.

 

[EM Squared Farms]

Thanks !

I know the one breeder he got a show quality pair of BB Red OEG from was talking a lot about the rooster line and hen lines.

He was explaining it to my son.

I think our chicken judge friend was also trying to explain it to me.

I personally can't tell by looking at one BB Red OEG chicken if it has a better rooster line or hen line.

Can you summarize really quickly for me ? (or maybe I should just ask my son and see if he knows)

We started with 3. And I thought the breeder said that the show quality hen we purchased had a good rooster line. I was wondering what he meant. She will produce better looking roosters than hens ? Not talking about her appearance ?

Well, we're hoping to run into those very nice breeders/chicken judges also so my son can talk to them some more. They have a lot of other chicken breeds and even got a new color of a breed into the standard.

It's always a delight to talk to nice chicken people.

Thanks !

 

[sjarvis00]

You will find the females of male line birds are often shafted, a bit larger, longer in the back and darker in the hackle. You will also notice additional stippling in the tail feathers of male line hens, this aids in getting good black tail feather with black shaft.
Female line males will often have some black stripping in the hackle and saddle feathers, sometimes have colored or patterned feathers appear in thier back. Red lacing, shafting or even red feathers in the breast. the Males of Hen lines are often smaller with very heavy breast development and shorter tails as well.

These are some basics and by far not the end of teh differences, however you should note that due to long term selection of closed lines they do not all behave quite the same so the final answer will need to come from the breeder you aquire them from, they are the only one who can tell how to properly select and mate that line of birds.

 

[EM Squared Farms]

Quote:
Ah, very interesting.

All I noticed on that hen with a good rooster line is that her tail was so spread out like a nice fan, where the other hen seemed to have a closed up tail.

I'm going to have my son read your post.

I think all those details mean so much more to him.

I don't think I've ever seen that red lacing or red feathers in the breast. Maybe a little bit darker coloring like you were talking about.

But thanks for your expertise.
It is well appreciated.

 

[EM Squared Farms]

Quote:
My son did end up talking quite a bit with that breeder he bought the BB Red OEG pair from. I was playing with his kids and my younger son at the time, not really listening to all the chicken talk going on.

My son said "that the hen he bought from that breeder has a hen line, and the rooster is a rooster line rooster." Most of his roosters he said are rooster line rooster and most of the hens are rooster line hens too."

It's all a little confusing to me. But I guess I got the info wrong on the hen (I thought for sure he said it came from a rooster line and that's just why I assumed it had such a spread out tail). But I wasn't really paying much attention.

I think my chicken judge friend tried to explain those lines to me also and it wasn't to illluminating for me. I'm not the chicken expert, my son it. But I try and pick up some of the info going around.

Whatever makes him happy with his chickens.

Do you raise any BB Red OEG ?

 

[Michellep224]

Hello! I just found out what my birds are!
They are not show quality or anything, but they sure are beautiful!

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

You have some very pretty birds.

 

[Michellep224]

Yes, I adore them. They're pretty easy to handle, and I'm very fond of them. That coop and run you see is new. I had them in an old rabbit hutch until I got the new setup. They happy now ^_^

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

Rabbit hutch is better then nothing. I built my coop from scrapes. So it's not even close to as nice as yours. You should be proud of what you have. I still need to build a new one for my 14 Speckled Sussex.