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Real bantam chickens are those that have no large analogues. These are small chickens with a proportional body structure. Dwarf varieties of large chicken breeds tend to have short legs. But the division today is very arbitrary. Bentham chickens are called not only real miniature chickens, but also dwarf varieties bred from large breeds. Because of this confusion of the concepts of “dwarf chickens” and “bantams”, today the number of mini-chickens is almost equal to the number of large breeds. And all miniature chickens are called bantam chickens.
In reality, it is believed that the real bantam chicken comes from Southeast Asia, but even the exact country of origin of the breed is unknown. China, Indonesia and Japan claim to be the “homeland” of little chickens. Considering that the size of the wild Bankivka chicken, the ancestor of domestic chickens, is the same as that of bantam chickens, the likelihood of the origin of these ornamental birds from Asia is very high.
But this only applies to real bantams and not all of them. The remaining breeds of dwarf “bantams” were bred already on the American and European continents from large productive chickens.
In foreign classification, there is a third option when dividing these birds into groups. In addition to true and dwarf ones, there are also “developed” ones.These are miniature chickens that have never had a large counterpart, but were bred not in Asia, but in Europe and America. The “true” and “advanced” groups often overlap, creating confusion.
Real bantam chickens are valued not only for their beautiful appearance, but also for their well-developed brooding instinct. Other people's eggs are often placed under them and these hens conscientiously hatch them. Dwarf forms of large breeds usually have a much worse brooding instinct and are kept due to the fact that they require significantly less food and space than their large counterparts.
Breeds of bantam chickens are divided into varieties:
- fighting;
- Nanjing;
- Beijing;
- Japanese;
- black;
- white;
- calico;
- nut;
- Seabright.
Some of them: nut and calico, are bred in Russia by private amateurs and in the Gene Pool of the Institute of Poultry Farming in Sergiev Posad.
True
In fact, there are very few such chickens. These are basically mini chickens called bantams and bred from large breeds. Such “bantams” attach great importance not only to appearance, but also to productive characteristics. Bantams require neither eggs nor meat from decorative true bantam chickens.
Seabright
A breed of miniature chickens bred in England at the beginning of the 19th century by Sir John Saunders Seabright. This is a real breed of bantam chicken, which has never had a large analogue. Seabrights are famous for their beautiful two-color plumage. Each solid color feather is outlined with a distinct black stripe.
The main color can be any, so Seabright has a wide variety of colors. There is also a “negative” color with a complete absence of black. In this case, the border at the edge of the feather is white, and the bird looks faded.
Another distinctive feature of Seabright is the absence of braids in the tail feathers of Seabright bantam roosters. They also lack the characteristic “stilettos” on the neck and lower back of roosters. The Seabright rooster differs from the hen only in its larger rose-shaped comb. This is clearly visible below in the photo of bantam chickens of the Seabright breed.
Seabright's beaks and metatarsals are dark gray. A purple comb, lobes and earrings are highly desirable, but today very often these parts of the Seabright's body are red or pink.
The weight of Seabright roosters is slightly more than 0.6 kg. Chickens weigh 0.55 kg. In describing these bantam chickens, the English standard pays great attention to the color of the birds, but does not pay any attention to the productivity of these chickens. This is not surprising, since Seabright was originally bred as a decorative chicken to decorate the yard.
Due to the fact that the main attention was paid to the beauty of plumage, Seabrights are not resistant to diseases and produce a small number of offspring. Because of this, the breed is dying out today.
Japanese
The main breed of mini bantam chickens bred all over the world. Their second name is calico, based on the main color of the birds of this breed. But the original name that came from the homeland is Shabo. In Russia, the name Calico bantam was assigned to this breed of chicken. This breed is very popular because of its very elegant coloring. At the same time, all sexual differences in Shabot are preserved. In the photo of Calico bantams, you can easily distinguish a rooster from a hen by their combs and tails.
The weight of hens is 0.5 kg, for roosters 0.9. This breed is good at incubating eggs. Often, bantam chickens breed chickens of other breeds, which they hatched from laid eggs. The disadvantage of Calico bantams as brood hens is that their body area is too small.They will not be able to hatch a large number of large eggs.
Bantams hatch their own chickens in the same quantities as large chickens. Usually no more than 15 eggs are left under them, from which 10-12 chickens will hatch in natural conditions.
Nut
This branch was bred from Calico bantams. From a decorative point of view, the chickens are rather inconspicuous. For the most part, they are used as brood hens for eggs from other birds. Apart from the color, the description of this bantam breed completely coincides with the description of Sitseva.
Malaysian Serama
Created by crossing Japanese chickens with Malaysian wild chickens, this pigeon-sized bird has a very unusual appearance. The body of the serama is set almost vertically. The goiter protrudes in an exaggerated manner, the neck is curved like a swan. In this case, the tail is directed upward, and the wings are vertically downward.
Dwarf chickens
They differ from the large version only in smaller sizes. Indicators of egg production and meat yield are also important for them. But today, dwarf breeds are also increasingly being started as ornamental breeds.
Brahma
The photo shows that Brahma’s “bantam” dwarf chickens look like the usual large version of this bird. Dwarf Brahmas have all the same colors as the large varieties. The description of this breed of bantam chickens especially notes their high egg production: 180-200 eggs in the first year of life. Dwarf Brahmas are calm and docile chickens that can become not only an egg producer, but also a garden decoration.
Yokohama
The Yokohama bantam chicken breed comes from Japan, where it has a large counterpart. Dwarf chickens were exported to Europe and “brought to breed” already in Germany. The photo shows that Yokohama bantam cockerels have very long tail braids and lanceolate feathers on the lower back. The weight of roosters of this breed does not even reach 1 kg.
Beijing
The description and photo of the Beijing breed of bantam chickens completely coincides with the Chinese breed of large meat chickens, Cochin. Peking bantams are a miniature version of the Cochin. Like Cochins, the color of bantams can be black, white or motley.
Dutch
Black bantams with a white crest on the head. In the photo, Dutch bantam chickens look attractive, but the description brings the amateur down to earth. These are athletic, fit birds with fairly good health.
These hens have problems because of their crest. A feather that is too long covers the birds' eyes. And in bad weather it gets wet and sticks together. If dirt gets on the feathers, they will stick together into a homogeneous solid mass. The same effect occurs when food residue sticks to the tuft.
In winter, when wet, the feathers of the crest freeze together. And to top off all the misfortunes with the crest, even in summer in good weather it can cause problems: in fights, chickens tear out the feathers on each other’s heads.
Fighting
Complete analogues of large fighting breeds, but significantly lighter in weight. The weight of roosters does not exceed 1 kg. Just like large roosters, they were bred for fighting. The color of the plumage does not matter. There are as many varieties of dwarf fighting roosters as there are large analogues.
Old English
The true origin is unknown.It is believed that this is a miniature copy of the large English Fighting Chicken. When breeding, no special attention was paid to the color of the plumage and these mini-fighters can have any color. There is no consensus among breeders about which color is better.
Also, different sources indicate different weights of these birds. For some it is no more than 1 kg, for others up to 1.5 kg.
Russian breeds
In Russia in the last century, breeders kept up with their foreign colleagues and also developed breeds of miniature chickens. One of these breeds is the Altai bantam. It is unknown what breeds it was bred from, and the population is still very heterogeneous. But some of these chickens resemble the Pavlovian breed, like this Altai bantam in the photo.
Others are similar to Japanese calico bantams.
It is possible that these breeds participated in the development of the Altai breed. Pavlovsk chickens, as a native Russian breed, are quite frost-resistant and do not require insulated chicken coops. One of the goals of developing the Russian version of mini-chickens was to create a decorative chicken that does not require special conditions from the owner. The Altai bantam chicken breed is resistant to cold and easily adapts to various climatic conditions.
Altai bantam cockerels are very similar in appearance to chickens. Like Seabright, they lack braids on the tail and lancets on the neck and lower back. The most common colors in this breed are calico and mottled. There are also Altai bantams of fawn and walnut colors. The plumage is very thick and lush. The feathers grow in tufts on the head and completely cover the metatarsus.
A chicken of this breed weighs only 0.5 kg. Roosters are almost 2 times larger and weigh 0.9 kg. Altai lay up to 140 eggs weighing 44 g each.
Chickens
Whether a laying hen will become a good hen depends on the breed to which a particular representative of mini-chickens belongs. But in any case, the “assortment” of these birds in Russia is very scarce and fanciers are often forced to buy hatching eggs abroad.
Incubation is carried out in the same way as for eggs of large chickens. But the hatched chicks will be much smaller than their ordinary counterparts. For the initial feeding of chicks, it is better to use starter feed for quails, since the sizes of these chicks do not differ much.
You can also feed them in the traditional way using boiled millet and eggs, but you must remember that such food turns sour very quickly.
Content
There are no fundamental differences in content. But you need to take into account the breed characteristics of the bird. For good flyers, and these are the majority, for walking you need an aviary with a height of at least 2.5 m, closed at the top. As they grow older, fighting cocks and Chabots will have to be separated from other birds in a separate room. Despite their small size, these cockerels have a cocky disposition.
When keeping shaggy-legged chickens, you need to ensure the cleanliness of the litter so that the feathers on the legs do not get dirty or stick together. Crested animals must be equipped with a shelter from rain and snow and regularly check the condition of the feathers in the crest.
Conclusion
The number of miniature chickens in Russia is very small. In most cases, only the Japanese version of Calico bantams can be found in yards, since these are the ones that can be purchased from the Gene Pool of the Poultry Institute. There are no reviews of bantams from Russian owners for the same reason. And it is difficult to separate information from foreign owners, since in the West there are a lot of different ornamental chickens with very different characters.While mini Cochins are calm and peaceful, fighting mini chickens are always happy to start a fight.
