Contents
Real bantam chickens are those that do not have large analogues. These are small chickens with a proportional body structure. Dwarf varieties of large chicken breeds usually have short legs. But the division today is very conditional. Benthams are called not only real miniature chickens, but also dwarf varieties bred from large breeds. Because of this confusion between the concepts of “dwarf chickens” and “bantams”, today the number of mini-hens is almost equal to the number of large breeds. And all miniature chickens are called Bentham.
In reality, it is believed that the real Bentham chicken comes from Southeast Asia, but the exact country of origin of the breed is not even known. China, Indonesia and Japan claim to be the “homeland” of little chickens. Considering that the size of the wild Banking hen, the ancestor of domestic ones, is the same as that of the Bentham hens, the probability of the origin of these ornamental birds from Asia is very high.
But this applies only to real bantams, and then not all. The remaining breeds of dwarf “bantams” were already bred 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 never had a large analogue, but bred not in Asia, but in Europe and America. The “true” and “evolved” groups often overlap, creating confusion.
Real Bentham chickens are valued not only for their beautiful appearance, but also for their well-developed incubation instinct. Other people’s eggs are often laid under them, and these hens conscientiously hatch them. In dwarf forms of large breeds with a brooding instinct, they are usually much worse and are kept due to the fact that they require much less food and space than their large counterparts.
Bantam chicken breeds are divided into varieties:
- fighting;
- Nanjing;
- Beijing;
- Japanese;
- black;
- white;
- chintz;
- nut;
- Seabright.
Some of them: walnut and chintz, are bred in Our Country by private amateurs and in the Gene Pool of the Poultry Institute in Sergiev Posad.
True
In fact, there are very few such chickens. Basically, these are mini-hens, called bantams and bred from large breeds. In such “bantams”, great importance is attached not only to appearance, but also to productive characteristics. From decorative true chickens, bantams do not require either eggs or meat.
Seabright
A breed of miniature chickens bred in England in the early XNUMXth century by Sir John Saunders Seabright. This is a real breed of bentham chickens, which has never had a large analogue. Seabrights are famous for their beautiful two-tone 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 on the edge of the feather is white, and the bird looks faded.
Another distinguishing feature of Seabright is the absence of braids in the tail plumage of the Sibright bantam roosters. They also lack the “stilettos” characteristic of roosters on the neck and lower back. The Seabright rooster differs from the chicken only in a larger pink crest. This is clearly seen below in the photo of the Seabright bantam chickens.
The beaks and metatarsus of the Seabright are dark grey. The crest, lobes, and wattles are purple in color, but very often these parts of the body are red or pink in the Seabright today.
The weight of Seabright roosters is slightly more than 0,6 kg. Chickens weigh 0,55 kg. In the description of these bentham hens, the English standard pays great attention to the color of the birds, but does not pay any attention to the productivity of these hens. This is not surprising, since the Seabright was originally bred as an ornamental hen 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 give a small amount of offspring. Because of this, the breed is now dying out.
Japanese
The main breed of Bentham mini-hens, bred around the world. Their second name is calico according to the main color of the birds of this breed. But the original name that came from the homeland is Shabo. In Our Country, this breed of chickens was given the name Calico bantam. This breed is very popular because of its very elegant coloring. At the same time, all sexual differences in Shabo are preserved. In the photo of Calico bantams, you can easily distinguish a rooster from a chicken by combs and tails.
The weight of hens is 0,5 kg, for roosters 0,9. This breed is good at incubating eggs. Often, bantam hens lead chickens of other breeds, which they have hatched from planted eggs. Lack of Calico bantams as brood hens in too small body area. They will not be able to hatch a large number of large eggs.
Benthams 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 under natural conditions.
Walnut
This branch is bred from Calico bantams. From the point of view of decorativeness, the chickens are rather nondescript. For the most part, they are used as hens for eggs from other birds. In addition to color, the description of this breed of bentamok completely coincides with the description of Sitzeva.
malaysian serama
Bred by crossing Japanese hens with Malaysian wild hens, this pigeon-sized bird has a very unusual appearance. The body of the serama is placed almost vertically. The goiter protrudes exaggeratedly, the neck is bent like a swan. In this case, the tail is directed upwards, and the wings are vertically downwards.
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 beginning to start as decorative ones.
Brama
The photo shows that the “bantam” dwarf chickens of Brama look like a regular large version of this bird. Dwarf Brahmas have all the same colors as the large varieties. In the description of this breed of “bantam” chickens, their high egg production is especially noted: 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 breed of chickens “bantamka” Yokohama comes from Japan, where she has a large analogue. Dwarf chickens were taken to Europe and “brought to breed” already in Germany. The photo shows that Yokohama betta bettas have very long tail braids and lanceolate feathers on the lower back. By weight, the roosters of this breed do not even reach 1 kg.
Beijing
The description and photo of the Beijing breed of chickens bentamok completely coincides with the Chinese breed of large meat chickens Cochin. The Beijing bantams are a miniature version of the Cochinchins. Like the Cochinchins, the color of the bantams can be black, white or variegated.
Dutch
Black bantams with a white tuft on the head. In the photo, Dutch bantam chickens look attractive, but the description lowers the lover from heaven to earth. These are athletic fit birds with fairly good health.
These chickens have problems because of the tuft. A feather that is too long closes the birds’ eyes. And in bad weather it gets wet and sticks together in a lump. If at the same time dirt gets on the feathers, they will stick together into a homogeneous solid mass. The same effect occurs when food residues stick to the tuft.
In winter, when wet, the tuft feathers freeze. And on top of all the misfortunes with the tuft, even in summer in good weather, he can cause problems: in fights, chickens tear out feathers on each other’s heads.
Fighting
Complete analogues of large fighting breeds, but much less weight. The weight of roosters does not exceed 1 kg. As well as large roosters, they were bred for fighting. The color of the plumage does not matter. There are as many varieties of fighting dwarf roosters as there are large analogues.
Old English
The true origin is unknown. It is believed that this is a miniature copy of large English Fighting chickens. When breeding, the color of the plumage was not given much attention and these mini-fighters can be of any color. Among breeders there is no consensus on which color is better.
Also, different sources indicate different weights of these birds. According to some, it is no more than 1 kg, according to others, up to 1,5 kg.
breeds
In Our Country in the last century, breeders did not lag behind foreign colleagues and also bred breeds of miniature chickens. One of these breeds is the Altai bantam. From what breeds it was bred is unknown, 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 cotton bantams.
It is possible that these breeds participated in the breeding of the Altai breed. Pavlovian chickens, as a native breed, are quite frost-resistant and do not require insulated chicken coops. One of the goals of breeding the version of mini-hens 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.
Cockerels of the Altai bantam are outwardly very similar to chickens. Like the Seabright, they lack plaits on the tail and lancets on the neck and loin. The most common colors in this breed are calico and variegated. There are also Altai bantams of fawn and hazel colors. The plumage is very dense and lush. 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 bear 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-hens belongs. But in any case, the “range” of these birds in Our Country is very scarce and amateurs 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 normal counterparts. For the initial feeding of chickens, it is better to use starter feed for quails, since the sizes of these chicks do not differ much.
You can also feed in the traditional way with boiled millet and eggs, but we must remember that such food sours very quickly.
Content
There are no fundamental differences in content. But you need to take into account the breed characteristics of the bird. For those who fly well, and most of them, for walking, an aviary closed from above with a height of at least 2,5 m is required. Fighting cocks and Shabo, as they grow older, will have to be resettled from another bird in a separate room. These bettas with small sizes are distinguished by a cocky disposition.
When keeping feather-legged hens, it is necessary to monitor the cleanliness of the litter so that the feathers on the legs do not get dirty and stick together. Crested ones need to be sure to equip a shelter from rain and snow and regularly check the condition of the feathers in the tuft.
Conclusion
The number of miniature chickens in Our Country is very small. In most cases, only the Japanese version of Calico bantams can be found in the yards, since they can be bought from the Poultry Institute’s Gene Pool. There are no reviews about bantams from owners for the same reason. And it is difficult to share information from foreign owners, since in the West there are a lot of different decorative chickens with very different characters. If the mini-cochinchins are calm and peaceful, then the fighting mini-hens are always happy to put up a fight.