Bantam Chickens Size – A Chicken Mini Me

The Same Even Though Bantam Chickens Size Isn’t

bantam chickens size

One of my favorites – A beautiful silver laced sebright bantam chicken.

What is the bantam chickens size? The answer to that is simple, they are the mini me of the poultry world. Most of the time bantam chickens are an exact replica of the same large version of chicken, though there are some bantams that have no large version. Their size makes them not as useful for meat and eggs, so these days, due to their beauty, they are mostly for show.

A few hundred years ago they were found to be very useful by seafaring European men when they stumbled upon the variety of chicken in the city Bantam located in Southeast Asia. They found their size ideal for keeping on a ship and their meat and eggs adequate for eating.

After their “discovery”, the name bantam started to be used for small fowl so much so that now all small fowl is known as bantam, regardless of the origin.


A Dwarf Chicken Or Just a Chicken?

The Bantam chicken is also known as the “Banty” also spelled “Bantie”which is sometimes used too loosely to describe any undersized chicken. While bantams are undersized they are not dwarfs or midgets, they are fully breeding miniature chickens whereas a dwarf or midget is unproductive and is not a bantam in any sense.

In fact the standard for the bantam is so high that the American bantam Association has issued a book of standards for bantams and only persons licensed by the association are qualified to judge these beautiful birds.

The requirements are held are no different for shape, color and physical features that their larger counterparts are held even though the bantam chickens size is quite different. Their weight should be approximately one-fifth of the weight of the larger version of their breed.

When referring to a Bantam they ought to be referred to by the name of their breed such as Rhode Island Red followed by the word Bantam.

What is referred to as a true bantam are bantam chickens with no large counterpart, of which there are twenty-four breeds of true bantam chickens, listed below:

  1. Barbu d’Anvers (Antwerpse Baardkriel)
  2. Barbu d’Everberg (Everbergse Baardkriel)
  3. Barbu d’Uccle (Ukkelse Baardkriel)
  4. Barbu de Boitsfort (Bosvoordse Baardkriel)
  5. Barbu de Grubbe (Grubbe Baardkriel)
  6. Barbu de Watermael (Watermaalse Baardkriel)
  7. Bassette Liégeoise
  8. Belgian Bantam (Belgisch Kriel, Naine Belge)
  9. Bleue de Lasnes Booted Bantam
  10. Dutch Bantam
  11. Japanese Bantam
  12. Mericanel della Brianza
  13. Mugellese
  14. Naine du Tournaisis
  15. Nankin
  16. Ohiki
  17. Pekin
  18. Pépoi
  19. Pyncheon
  20. Rosecomb
  21. Sebright
  22. Serama
  23. Tuzo
  24. Waasse kriel (Naine de Waes)

Bantam Chickens Size Also Means Really Small Eggs

When I was a small boy, my older brother David had a Silver Duckwing Old English Game Bantam Rooster and 2 hens. I loved going to collect their eggs every day because they were so small, they just fascinated me. I remember him cooking the eggs and how surprised I was that they tasted exactly the same as regular eggs. I was only about 8 or 9 years old at the time so my expectations were a little different in those days.

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