What is the temperament for OEGB?

[Cuban Longtails]

Near freezing is fine, as long as they are properly acclimated, and they can hold their own with bigger chickens. I would not advise putting an oegb cock in the same pen/coop with your silkie cock.

 

[Cara]

I'm not much of a bantam person, they're not especially 'useful', but I do like OEGBs. They have a bit of a Napoleon complex with big birds, but i've never had one that would try to attack me. They are quite friendly and inquisitive, and come in many different colours. You might also look at Modern Game Bantams, although they're one of those animals that you either love or hate the look of.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

I love OEGBs! They're definitely one of my favorite breeds. They're energetic, vivacious, and often have funny personalities. They also don't mind being handled at all, even if they evade capture. One of my OEGB hens has been to wildlife rehab classes with me to show off how to do wing wraps, and the veterinarian that assists my group always specially requests that I bring her because she sits entirely still and doesn't mind at all when he's wrapping her wing! They're fun little birds.

I'd say they're pretty hardy, too, and mix just fine with larger birds. We got down to 15 degrees a few weeks ago with snow and winds, and my four didn't even seem to mind the cold. Granted, it doesn't really get colder than that here, but I've never lost one to weather and doubt I will. I keep my four OEGB hens in with my whole flock, which has Rouen ducks (are at least seven pounds each), fiesty guinea fowl, and a few larger chickens like Buff Orpingtons. They do just fine in that environment and hold their own pretty well. In fact, I used to have an OEGB hen who would fight our largest rooster--and win!

I think they're really a pleasant breed to deal with, and I don't think there will ever be a time when I won't have a few OEGB pecking around.

 

[CHICKENBOY 1]

heres a little advise from experiance: bad points: fast sometimes agresive but only some times very high flyers.good points: very sweet if traind well very good free rangers strong willed won't die as easy than other bantams. game chickens have very good endurance.

 

[Akane]

I went with other breeds because compared to other bantams oegb can be a bit high energy and agressive. Being bolder does make them easier to tame even if you have to be more careful keeping roos together and introducing new chickens. I've found it's a bit of a fine line between bold chickens that become friendly and bold chickens that become dangerous. So far I get both together in the same line of chicken or less of both in other lines/breeds. They do make good free rangers because of both the qualities I mentioned. My japanese bantams have had some issues free ranging and I lose lots of them to predators just due to their small size and easy going attitudes. My little roo did his best to get his hens to the coop but he really didn't have the personality to attack the little miniature pinscher that got him. All he could do was tell his hens where to run and then get killed first to buy them time. Bolder roos will put up a good show that might even deter a small predator like that. OEGB are also more durable to cold than the other very small bantam breeds. With a solid coop though all the bantams should be fine down to 0F and so far even my seramas handled -5F. Japanese bantams, dutch, and seramas are the other extremely small breeds and then there are several that are close to that small you can look in to. The henderson chicken chart has average weights for all standards and bantams. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html You can mix them all with bigger chickens but I did have injuries when I put very small hens with a very large rooster. My standard mutts are a bit bigger than your average sized standard chickens and the hens that got injured weren't any taller than the rooster's legs. Other than that they all get along and 3 of my standard EE that were raised with some japanese bantams much prefer to hang out with the bantams. They refuse to follow the rest of the standards.

 

[meriruka]

OEGB's are like tiny children. They are feisty, curious, demand attention & get crabby when bored. They are pretty fearless & will take on
huge roos and cats. They will steal the food out of your hands and off your plate and they barge around everywhere like they are the center of the universe.

 

[Tanichca]

But would a OEGB roo fight with my almost-a-foot-high easygoing roo, bubbles? Bubbles gets along with other males well, according to the lady I bought him from, but would the OEGB fight regardless of that?

 

[meriruka]

Almost certainly they would fight.

 

[Tanichca]

dang!
Any other ideas for a bird that i could easily show, is small, smooth-feathered and good tempered?

 

[meriruka]

Japanese Bantams or Seramas. If you put your new roo in w/ your old one when it is still fairly young, it may cut down on the fighting. But if your going to show or breed, you'll want to keep the breeds separate anyway.