Old English Game Bantam

I'm so mad i thought my chicken was a phoenix bantam

They are such a joy to have. I have a female and a male and they both are extremely freindly. They hop on my hand and crawl up to my shoulder Very wonderful chickens to have ! Plus they are pocket size .

We decided after three years of having our standard hens to try bantams. Our birds are free range and we have a lot of hawks, falcons, coyotes, foxes, etc, so we wanted birds that would be very alert and good at avoiding danger. After some research, we settled on ordering in some Old English Game chicks. Honestly I expected the birds to be flighty and hard to tame, but they certainly proved me wrong! We ended up with 10 bantams, 9/10 being OEG bantams. Now, we love our older hens are golden comets and it took them about two years for each to learn her name. All of our OEGs already know their names, come when called, and they all love sitting around us. Just yesterday I ended up with one of our roosters and one of our hens falling asleep in my lap. They are very sweet, making very odd little noises, are very personable, goofy, alert, and intelligent.

However, our little game bantams do have some problems controlling their curiosity, and now we've had chickens roosting on the shelves on our back porch, up in trees, on the roof, and all the places the little monsters aren't supposed to be! While this can be kind of, ah, annoying when we end up with chicken poos in some odd places. Other than that they are intelligent, friendly little birds that are a joy to have around.

OEGB are great birds for in the city or to take to shows. Also good for learning genetics as their are so many color varieties. They are very tame and good for kids.

My rooster is sweet to me unless i get near his hens. my hen is top in the coop and wont back down. they can be agressive to other birds and humans but not to their main owner

I've had three Old English hens, but never a rooster. All three were our family favorites. They are just fun to watch and have more personality than you would anticipate given their size. The one I have now, "Teeny" is energetic and sweet. She won't come when called yet, but she will let me scoop her up easily.

I have had OEGB for years now. They really are some of the best little chickens I have had so far! I usually bought mixed ones but I'm now getting into the purebred ones. My little boy has a young Speckled pair right now and I have a Blue Brassy Back Rooster, a Blue Hen and a Lemon Blue Hen. My hens are young and not laying yet but I cant wait till they do!

This is My Blue Brassy Back, My Favorite LiL Roo Yet!!


My Lemon Blue Hen


And My Blue Hen

I've got 5 of these guys that are not at all near perfection of the standard, but I didn't buy for show. If you are looking for a chicken that can roam and hold his own, this is the breed. They are alert, don't eat much, great at foraging, and require less care than my EEs. They like to roam and I took 1/2 of a flock out of a confined situation. The other half was very depressed and they succumbed to feather picking and aggression at a population density of 10sq. ft per bird. If you are going to keep them in a run, have plenty of space. I know they can be aggressive but my Rooster is very gentle and bit lazy. He isn't very friendly though, not a lap rooster, nor are any of the hens, but they were raised with little contact with people. I can get them to eat out of my hand, but thats about it. Early intervention is helpful. Their size is great as well, not huge but not too tiny.

Egg laying is what I would consider okay. 2-3 per week, small to medium eggs. The yolk ratio in mine is huge and they are my favorite egg to eat!

In short, alert, quick, comical, full of personality, pretty, very hardy, healthy, heat tolerant and economic but require space and probably a bit of a coin toss as to aggression. Handle early and if you don't mind less egg production than laying breeds, you got a great bird.

Along with the Speckled Sussex, our OEG bantam is our favorite of seven breeds. She is such a sweet little thing with a lovely voice. She is the only bantam in the flock and often forages alone or apart from the others, but is not picked on. We just love this little bird! She's a good layer and her eggs are surprisingly large (given her tiny body size). There are only two drawbacks for us though. Before we clipped her wings, she'd fly up onto the neighbor's garage. We were nervous about this for a number of reasons (the neighbor has dogs being one). She is also very broody. Lately she's been escaping from the chicken run and making a nest in the front yard under the bushes. At first I thought she'd been carried away by a hawk or cat, but found her sitting on her little nest. She had covered four eggs with leaves and was sitting on them. We don't have a rooster and it breaks my heart to see how badly she wants to parent! I put the eggs in the coop nest for a day, then substituted plastic Easter eggs for them. Am hoping she won't try to escape again! I HIGHLY recommend this breed.

I love my OEGBs. They are absolutely beautiful, and very friendly too! My OEG hens are surprisingly great layers of white eggs, but they are small. Also they can fly very well. That can be positive for people in rural areas that need a bird that can withstand predators, but a negative for people in the suburbs or urban areas (which wing trimming can easily fix). I give these birds five stars, since I don't care about how large the eggs are and need a bird that can withstand predators.

Wonderful little birds. They make me smile every time I see them. They are beautiful, and are surprisingly good layers for their size.

I would recommend this breed to anyone who wants a cute, cuddly, small backyard chicken. They are just that great.

I have one OEGH that magically arrived in my yard some how. She is not very tame and it was very hard to catch her to put her in a pen when I first found her in my yard. She is very aggressive. She killed eight of my young Delewares, and one of my Buff Orpingtons. It is very hard to introduce new hens into the pen because she immediately shows her dominance and is ruthless unless the chicken stands up for itself and fights back. The only reason I still even have her is because I can depend on babies every spring. She is a great mom, teaches her babies to look up at the sky to check for hawks, how to take dust bathes, and roost up high at night to avoid predators. Thankfully the tree she picks to roost in is only eight ft off the ground so I can always catch her and put her back in her pen at night. Her babies are very sweet and friendly, thankfully not exhibiting their moms aggression. When sitting I have to use a stick to remove eggs or she will draw blood if you try and take her eggs from her by hand, and don't even think about trying to pick up one of her babies she will attack anything that she thinks is a threat to her babies. Ok egg layer of light brown eggs.

The Old English Game Bantam is a breed of chicken. Pure Old English Game Bantams are highly prized by poultry breeders and fanciers, and therefore, they can sell for quite a lot of money, if the breeder/seller knows what s/he's doing.

The Old English Game Bantam is one of the oldest strains of poultry breeds that have been used for cockfighting. Through the Middle Ages, the breed was developed and bred by the English Nobility, into many varying colors, traits desirable for cockfighting were chosen by breeders. Cockfighting became illegal in Britain and Australia in the 1850s and English game fowl are usually kept just by poultry enthusiasts. Today the breeds are used at poultry exhibitions and breeders try to develop stock that will win prizes.
(That part was taken from Wikipedia. I don't own it.)

There are many varieties of the Old English Game Bantam, making it even more appealing. The following varieties are all recognized.


Old English Game Black - 1938 Game Bantam

Old English Game Black - Breasted Red 1925 Game Bantam

Old English Game Black Tailed Buff - 2004 Game Bantam

Old English Game Blue - 1976 Game Bantam

Old English Game Blue - Brassy Back 1996 Game Bantam

Old English Game Blue - Breasted Red 1965 Game Bantam

Old English Game Blue - Golden Duckwing 1965 Game Bantam

Old English Game Blue Silver Duckwing - 1965 Game Bantam

Old English Game Brassy Back - 1990 Game Bantam

Old English Game Brown Red - 1960 Game Bantam

Old English Game Columbian - 1996 Game Bantam

Old English Game Crele 1976 - Game Bantam

Old English Game Cuckoo 1977 - Game Bantam

Old English Game Fawn Silver Duckwing - 1998 Game Bantam

Old English Game Ginger Red - 1982 Game Bantam

Old English Game Golden Duckwing - 1938 Game Bantam

Old English Game Lemon Blue - 1965 Game Bantam

Old English Game Mille Fleur - 1998 Game Bantam

Old English Game Quail - 1988 Game Bantam

Old English Game Red Pyle - 1946 Game Bantam

Old English Game Self Blue - 1965 Game Bantam

Old English Game Silver Blue - 1996 Game Bantam

Old English Game Silver Duckwing - 1938 Game Bantam

Old English Game Spangled - 1925 Game Bantam

Old English Game Wheaten (female) - 1943 Game Bantam

Old English Game Wheaten (male) - 1949 Game Bantam

Old English Game White - 1938 Game Bantam

Thanks for reading! Please comment, and let me know if any of the information is invalid!

I have three Old english game bantams that i have had for a year. They are very smart and only come to me when i have treats but mine are scared off easily. My rooster has great instincts and takes care of his girls very well, and the hens make great babies, though they fly over a fence as if is was a two inch step. Can make great pets and good mothers.

The sweetest rooster I have ever had.

I have 1 OEGB that I got from TSC. When we were there, the entire brood of assorted bantams had just arrived. Aparently, the truck driver stopped at a hotel for the night (atleast, I think that's what the person said) and forgot them in the truck overnight with no food, water, and heat. Keep in mind, this was early April, and it was super cold. Two chicks of an unknown breed were already dead, and several others looked nearly there. then.... We heard splashing. Of course, only my dopey little girl would be running through the water, half drowning herself (thankfully, she has become considerably smarter over these past 9 months) she looked like a (wet) chipmunk! She was running around, eating and drinking, and was totally hyper. We just couldn't leave without the adorable little girl.

Soon, Chipmunk went out into the coop, and was flying out of the pen! And the fence has to be around six feet tall! So, my dad put chicken wire over the top. Now we don't have any more escaping problems.

Whenever I enter the pen, she rushes to me and jumps on my shoulder. (Or head, or back, or arm, she's not picky) And I end up doing the chicken chores with her sitting on me. She loves being cuddled, and is always sweet to everyone.
I don't have a big problem with how small the eggs are. (I think of chickens as 'pets with benefits') But my flock leader, Sky, can't stand her it seems. Chipmunk kept getting pecked on the face, (Or in her eyes, or beak... Sky isn't very picky either.) But, at the end of the night, they make amends.
I sometimes see her snuggled up under my large Buff Orpington, Q's, wing at night.

Here's some pictures of her:
Snuggling with her BFF (Best Feathered Friend) Hershey. (Chipmunk is on the left)


Chipmunk in the snow.

Chipmunk eating. (The white chicken is Sky, the BO closest to Hershey is Q)

Chipmunk giving Q her queen-like glare.

Chipmunk standing on a hay bale.

And flying off.

I think it is good because its a chickens and not another bird

I think I might have to say that this is my favorite breed of chicken. They are so amazingly beautiful! They make wonderful pets and are great for children. My OEGB boys are the sweetest little things and love to be held. I love having little OEGB roosters but big standard/medium sized hens. Theses chickens are the best.
I LOVE this breed.

I don't have any fullblooded game birds but the ones I have are half OE's & half Nankins, they're incredibly sweet & goreous!