Old English Game Bantam

My absolute favorite breed of all time.
I love their personalities, and colors. I like to mix up the different colors and see what the off spring look like.

But I also do a lot more serious breeding with my bb reds. Currently looking to make my own line of show quality bb red's.

Love my OEGBs. Very wild like,

I raised Old English Game Bantams 45+ yrs, after a 6 yr hiatus have started again with a rescued pair. For everything I read people write about them I can think of exceptions because their personalities vary, and they DO have personalities! Constant characteristics are: Hens are good moms, roosters are good with their hens, never had an aggressive rooster towards people or hens.

Some roosters get along, some don't.

The pair we have now are VERY talkative! I find most of them are talktive but some less so. The roosters crow is not as loud or deep as larger breeds.

Only a few chickens over the yrs had serious health problems other than occasional mites.

Their love of flying can be an asset to get away from danger.

If you don't mind small eggs (for most uses the ratio of 2=1 works fine), I find them to be good layers, our current hen lays an egg every other day, occasionally every day, once 2 in one day!

They are an attractive, entertaining, easy breed to raise. I miss the beautiful red/gray/gold/black roosters I had, but the dusty gray "Self-blue" color rooster I have now is a handsome guy.

First picture: our current pair, Hazel and Mr. Sage. Second picture: Little Red Hen, whose eggs were too big to pass but she was very tame, a therapy chicken at times, third picture: Studdly, our last rooster, a knight in shining armor. Fourth picture: showing all the colors hens can be and Studdly's father.

Overall I rate this chicken 7/10. It can be very aggressive and is a big bully. Especially towards the smaller, like chicks. The small eggs may be a problem to some who want good egg layers. They are a beautiful breed and are funny. They can even be sweet.

I love OEGB's. I have a few of them, and each one has a different personality. They're all very funny to watch, and I love how small they are. The eggs are very small, but an OK amount for a bantam.

Great bird for fair showmanship because they are small and easy to handle. They don't need to be worked with much either.

Rooster is forever working against me. No matter how much or well I work with him he still gets in spurts where he will attack me. But apparently this is normal for OEGB roosters, it is in their blood to "protect" the hens.

Sparky is a silver duckwing old English game bantam and by far my favorite roo of all time and absolutely gorgeous!

Old English Game Bantams (or OEGBS) are a delightful breed, very full of personality. They are quite highly strung, and my top hen tends to get quite pecky towards me without regular handling. They will run up to me when I come outside, looking for treats. Here are my reviews of their personalities from my bantam chat thread
Gary! A quirky character is little Gary, he crows in competition to my RIR cockerel (In my main flock) and thinks he is truly the best roo in existence. He actually doesn't crow at the break of dawn like Reggie(my RIR) and instead waits until around 10 am to announce his presence to the world. He gets overly excited about roosting (I have to place a light in my OEGB kennel so they can see in order to get up onto the roost) anyway, when he sees the light in the kennel, he skips dinner and races to roost. I always have to remove him from the roost and make him eat dinner, and then he remembers that he is actually pretty hungry, silly boy.

Raisin Cookie & Milk! An odd name for an odd bird(Gifted to her by my younger brother) RC&M can never decide where she lies in the pecking order, one moment she's on top, and the next she's on the bottom. I'm pretty sure she was from a project line, if so I'm not breeding her(Whops...)

And last but not least...

Freckled! Freckled is the bossy-pants of the group, always putting the other two in their place, and constantly squabbling with RC&M for head of the pecking order. She'll put Gary in his place when he gets over excited, and she's not afraid to stand up too anything... Even my Rhode Island Reds, when they (Inevitably) invade the yard. She is very chatty and always the first to investigate when something in the yard is amiss, and is never afraid of the tame (And stupid) muscovy named Forrest (If anyone gets my reference) when he lumbers into the yard every morning to squeak until he is fed breakfast.


They are very lovely birds, although I have never seen an egg from my hens... All in all they are a good breed, jam packed with personality! They don't do very well with other breeds, and once they have formed a group they WILL fight outsiders.
Here are some pictures of my lovelies-
Gary is the Silver Duckwing(black and white), Raisin Cookie & Milk is the brown and white one, and Freckled is the Ginger-Red(Reddish ginger and brown one)








-Feather

I've had hens that rule the roost literally bossing around the larger hens. I love how vocal they are I feel like I've had deep conversations with several. and who can resist the little fearless roos and the cock-a-doodle-do sounding as though they are on helium.

My hen will literally walk up to me with the intention of being held The same hen had disappeared for about 4 weeks, and then I walked into my horse barn and she had 8 chicks! Sneaky girl. She raised them with gentleness and carefulness. My rooster is also super nice. My OEGB are the nicest chickens I own. Best breed for having a broody hen and a lovable pet. My female is so nice to every chicken in the flock, including every chick she comes by. I never see her peck a chick that's not even hers. AMAZING BREED

We have two pair of these - black and blue. The females are sweet and make good show birds for small children. The lay enormous eggs considering their body size. The males are very agressive as is to be expected, but can be handled because of their small size. Just make sure you wear sleeves. They can also be tamed by frequent handling. These little guys don't know their little and will try to play with the big ones, which doesn't work out well. They really need their own housing and run.
J

I have had several of these and they are definitely one of my favorites! I have had 1 aggressive rooster but the rest have been pretty docile.

I have one little rooster and am seeking him a hen But I love him he is the cutest one we have he is the funniest

i own an old English game rooster and he is the sweetest chicken I've ever seen!!!!!!!! he will even come when called! GET ONE!

I needed to keep my flock small so bantams were a logical choice. On my birthday last year (October)I read an advertisement on craigs list and made arrangement to buy a trio of Red Pyle O.E.G.B.(8 week old) from a local farm. On the way home the 2 pullets were quiet in the cardboard box but the cockerel decided to fly out of the box up on my shoulder, I guess he wanted to see where we were going.
They started laying in January but I had to put golf balls in the nesting boxes to get them to lay in the nests. In march both hens went broody at the same week, And I was totally unprepared ( only 4 eggs on hand ) I managed to slip out the golf balls and put the eggs under red and next day blondie was setting on 2 golf balls. Twenty One days later red hatched out 3 little fuzz balls out of 4 eggs one chick died ( cause unknown ) I wound up getting 1 cockerel and one pullet from the first hatch. Next in early July Red goes broody again this time I'm ready I have 6 eggs available and blondie contributes one to the cause, 21 days later hatch 7 of 7.
Now I have 1 adult rooster 2 adult hens 1 juvenile cockerel 1 juvenile pullet and 7 able to fly short distances fuzzbutts. My little flock of 12 is self sustaining!
These small birds have big personalities I let them out for a couple of hours before sundown to roam the yard ( chicken psychology 101) when the sunsets they are ready to go home on their own.
All in all these are great birds to have IMHO the adults are protective of their babies and not as flighty as I was told, they are prolific breeders, they won't break the feed budget and I think they are compact beautiful chickens. They interact very well with human contact in my experience.
The only real drawback I have is if a recipe calls for 3 large eggs I have to use 6 banty eggs.

We got an assortment of bantam chickens 5 years ago from TSC. We got several OEG girls and boys. The roosters were all gentlemen, guarding the girls and not messing with us. We eventually got rid of the boys to a farmer who needed roosters to guard the flock but didn't want to feed 10 pound guys. The girls are still living in and among a fairly large flock of large fowl birds including roosters. The bantams are pets at our house, the large birds come and go (culled for food for our neighbors or get taken by foxes it seems) but the bantams survive. I believe it is because they are small and quick. I am sure a hawk could get them, but 5 years of free ranging, and they still live and we do have predators. We do not separate the bantams and they coexist well within our mixed flock (have goats, dogs, and guineas and ducks in the past). Plus, they really don't eat much! And we get small white/off white eggs. They don't lay for us November through March. And they can sit on 3-4 large eggs and have hatched many within our flock.

When we have visitors to the mini farm, the OEG are who we seek out to pick up and let visitors pet. They are friendly, talkative, and are favorites in our family. Plus, anything you feed and care for for 5 years seems to hold a place in your heart.

We are now the proud chicken parents of three OEGB. We have a boy who was a rescue from city dwellers who can't have a rooster, his name is Oliver and he is around four months old, his feathering is black breasted red. We have two self blues, Maggie and Henry who are about 10 weeks old.

Oliver is super tame and LOVES to cuddle. He is just a doll and we are so happy we could give him a home. Maggie had curled toes when we brought her home but we made a shoe splint for her with pipe cleaner and Coban so hopefully it will be corrected soon. She gets around great with her little shoe and is in with her brother Henry and eight standard size young ones. Henry is always by Maggie's side and they both sing like little songbirds several times a day.

I also noticed they can hold their own extremely well! They are not picked on by the larger birds and get right in there when we set down their fermented feed. They are very playful at this stage and I hope it continues.

I am now hooked on OEGB and will add more to our feathered family in the future. We also have a Sebright rooster, Stewart, who just turned one and he is my best buddy. He is very dog like and has to be wherever I am. He actually loves car rides so he goes on outings with us. He is extremely intelligent and very well trained. We had to stop at Home Depot yesterday and I really didn't want to leave him in the car cause Infelt it would be a bit to warm, I figured well what the heck, they allow dogs in Home Depot, even untrained ones here... So we took him in. He sat in the kids part of the basket on my purse or perched in between my hands on the cart handle and was a complete angel. He delighted many people and many photos were taken on him as he is quite striking.

Oliver and Stewart are getting along fabulously. They may turn out to be quite the little duo and it is so fun to watch them interact. My main point of mentioning our Sebright rooster is I have yet to see any issues between him and the OEGB. I have not encountered any aggression issues as some people warn of due to Old English being "game" birds. I think if you provide them with enough enrichment and attention, just like some dog breeds that require more attention and exercise, behavioral problems will be prevented.

I never thought I would own bantams as they don't lay large eggs. I found out I have been missing out for many years not having them in my life.

When we ordered hatching eggs from a hatchery one year, we ended up with a pair of old english game bantams by accident. A pullet, we called her Tweetie, and a rooster, called Sirma. Both were Brown-Reds. Tweetie hatched with no bones in any of her toes but had no trouble getting around and could perch fine because of her small size. Tweetie was shy, sweet, and flighty. Sirma is calm and outgoing.

Tweetie laid eggs for 3 weeks straight (1 a day), and then would take 2 weeks off. Then repeat. That was fine with me. We didn't expect so many eggs out of such a small package! One day, she disappeared, and we didn't know what happened to her. We found her body a few months later, wedged into a space between the wall and the floor. She must have gotten stuck in there - she was getting broody, and might have been searching for a quiet place to lay her eggs.

Both of them had made it through that winter, which was bitterly cold (negatives with lots of wind and ice) with no frostbite and no issues at all. Sirma even went outside a few times, but almost got grabbed by a hawk, so he spent the rest of the winter indoors.

Sirma is intelligent and protective, and despite being a bantam, he is the king of our roosters - our two large fowl roosters - and delights in chasing them all over the yard. He tried to 'protect' the hens from a poor hedgehog who had wandered his way into our yard. He is always finding ways of escaping but is also the first to find cover when something big and hungry flies overhead. It's a shame we lost our girl. They made a good, cute pair!

I recommend this breed to anyone. They are cost-friendly as they eat very little food and forage a lot.

They're also small, beautiful, can fly great, and make a really nice addition to the flock. We mixed ours with our full size flock of 40+ birds without any problems. English games can pretty much take care of themselves. But seriously, they can fly: our Sirma would fly 20 feet up onto the roof of our barn to crow in the morning!

These are decent birds, though not my favorite. They tend to fight a lot, they're pretty bad mothers, and some of the roosters seem to like to breed a little too often. One has been destroying my hens (butchering him soon).

Very beautiful, and extremely hardy. So, that's a plus! Not my favorite.