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A bantam is any small variety of fowl, usually of chicken or duck. Most large chicken breeds and several breeds of duck have a bantam counterpart, which is much smaller than the standard-sized fowl, but otherwise similar in most or all respects. A true bantam chicken is naturally small and has no large counterpart.
The word bantam derives from the name of the seaport city of Bantam [1] in western Java, Indonesia. European sailors restocking on live fowl for sea journeys found the small native breeds of chicken in Southeast Asia to be useful, and any such small poultry came to be known as a bantam.[ citation needed ]
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes. The term also includes birds that are killed for their meat, such as the young of pigeons but does not include similar wild birds hunted for sport or food and known as game. The word "poultry" comes from the French/Norman word poule, itself derived from the Latin word pullus, which means small animal.
The American Game is an American breed of game fowl, chickens bred specifically for cockfighting. It has many color varieties, and may also be kept for ornament.
The Silkie is a breed of chicken named for its atypically fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like silk and satin. The breed has several other unusual qualities, such as black skin and bones, blue earlobes, and five toes on each foot, whereas most chickens only have four. They are often exhibited in poultry shows, and also appear in various colors. In addition to their distinctive physical characteristics, Silkies are well known for their calm, friendly temperament. It is among the most docile of poultry. Hens are also exceptionally broody, and care for young well. Although they are fair layers themselves, laying only about three eggs a week, they are commonly used to hatch eggs from other breeds and bird species due to their broody nature.
The Orpington is a British breed of chicken. It was bred in the late nineteenth century by William Cook of Orpington, Kent, in south-east England. It was intended to be a dual-purpose breed, to be reared both for eggs and for meat, but soon became exclusively a show bird.
The Cochin is a breed of large domestic chicken. It derives from large feather-legged chickens brought from China to Europe and North America in the 1840s and 1850s. It is reared principally for exhibition. It was formerly known as Cochin-China.
The Pekin Bantam is a British breed of bantam chicken. It derives from birds brought to Europe from China in the nineteenth century, and is named for the city of Peking where it was believed to have originated. It is a true bantam, with no corresponding large fowl. It is recognised only in the United Kingdom, where the Cochin has no recognised bantam version; like the Cochin, it has heavy feathering to the legs and feet. The Entente Européenne treats the Pekin Bantam as equivalent to the bantam Cochin.
The Japanese Bantam or Chabo is a Japanese breed of ornamental chicken. It is a true bantam breed, meaning that it has no large fowl counterpart. It characterised by very short legs and a large upright tail that reaches much higher than the head of the bird.
The Rosecomb is a breed of chicken named for its distinctive comb. Rosecombs are bantam chickens, and are among those known as true bantams, meaning they are not a miniaturised version of a large fowl. Rosecombs are one of the oldest and most popular bantam breeds in showing, and thus have numerous variations within the breed. An ornamental chicken, they are poor egg layers and not suited for meat production.
The call duck is a breed of domesticated duck raised primarily for decoration or as pets. Call ducks look similar to some other duck breeds, but are smaller in size. Call ducks were initially used in hunting, where their own calls and quacks—which are characteristically high in pitch as a result of their small size, and especially loud—would attract wild ducks towards the hunter. This practice has almost entirely been replaced with artificial duck calls, with call ducks now being kept primarily as pets.
Gamebird hybrids are the result of crossing species of game birds, including ducks, with each other and with domestic poultry. These hybrid species may sometimes occur naturally in the wild or more commonly through the deliberate or inadvertent intervention of humans.
The Barbu d'Uccle or Belgian d'Uccle, Dutch: Ukkelse Baardkriel, is a Belgian breed of bearded bantam chicken. It was first bred in the town of Uccle on the outskirts of Brussels, in central Belgium, in the early years of the twentieth century. It is a true bantam, with no standard-sized large fowl counterpart, and is one of eleven Belgian true bantam breeds.
The Sebright is a British breed of bantam chicken. It is a true bantam – a miniature bird with no corresponding large version – and is one of the oldest recorded British bantam breeds. It is named after Sir John Saunders Sebright, who created it as an ornamental breed by selective breeding in the early nineteenth century.
The American Standard of Perfection is the official breed standard for the poultry fancy in North America. First published in 1874 by the American Poultry Association, the Standard of Perfection classifies and describes the standard physical appearance, coloring and temperament for all recognized breeds of poultry, including chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese. The current edition was published in 2015.
The Dutch Bantam is a breed of bantam chicken originating in the Netherlands. It is a true bantam, a naturally small bird with no related large fowl from which it was miniaturized. It is kept mainly for exhibition, and has been bred in many color varieties; it is a good layer of small eggs.
The Sultan is a Turkish breed of crested chicken. The name derives from the original Turkish language name of Serai-Tavuk, which translates as "fowls of the Sultan". They have always been primarily ornamental, having been kept in the gardens of Ottoman sultanate. In the West they are bred for competitive showing as part of poultry fancy, and are generally a rare sight.
The Vorwerk is a breed of chicken originating in Germany. Though it is unrelated to the German company which produces the Vorwerk vacuum cleaner, it is the only chicken to share its name with a brand of household appliance. A rare fowl, it has distinctive black-and-gold plumage.
Solid black plumage color refers to a plumage pattern in chickens characterized by a uniform, black color across all feathers. There are chicken breeds where the typical plumage color is black, such as Australorp, Sumatra, White-Faced Black Spanish, Jersey Giant and others. And there are many other breeds having different color varieties, which also have an extended black variety, such as Leghorn, Minorca, Wyandotte, Orpington, Langshan and others.
In poultry standards, solid white is coloration of plumage in chickens characterized by a uniform pure white color across all feathers, which is not generally associated with depigmentation in any other part of the body.
The Pyncheon is a rare American breed of true bantam chicken. It is an old breed, developed in the Northeastern United States. The Pyncheon's ancestors are thought to have been brought there from the Netherlands or from Belgium. The breed is mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. It is recognized by the American Bantam Association, but not by the American Poultry Association.
Media related to Bantam chicken breeds at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of bantam at Wiktionary