I plan to add a couple of chicks to the flock this spring but finding another Modern Game Bantam is unlikely. This variety doesn't show up in the feed stores and, so far, I haven't found any local breeders. I'll just have to keep searching.
Showing posts with label Modern Game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modern Game. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Announcing--
--the first egg of the season, courtesy of Muffin.
I didn't install extra light this winter so that the hens could rest up for spring and summer laying. Now that they're in their second or third--I can't keep track--season of laying, there won't be as many eggs. With the two Polish chickens off cavorting with a rooster at a new home, my only layers are Muffin and Brangelina. Little Edna might lay an egg or two, if she feels like it. Modern Game chickens are mostly decorative, as you can see below.
This magazine cover is pictured on the website of the Modern Game Bantam Club of America. Since it's dated 1932, I assume it's out of copyright.
I plan to add a couple of chicks to the flock this spring but finding another Modern Game Bantam is unlikely. This variety doesn't show up in the feed stores and, so far, I haven't found any local breeders. I'll just have to keep searching.
I plan to add a couple of chicks to the flock this spring but finding another Modern Game Bantam is unlikely. This variety doesn't show up in the feed stores and, so far, I haven't found any local breeders. I'll just have to keep searching.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
More exotic chickens
Bringing in two new pullets caused more excitement than the Polish girls have experienced since their first jumbo meal worms. They ran back and forth, caterwauling and bok-bok-boking. The new girls are an Americauna and a Modern Game fowl (photos below). For those who don’t know, an Americauna is an Araucana crossed with a good laying breed to produce a hen that will lay green eggs on a more consistent basis than the purebred Araucana. The Modern is the mini version of the English Game Fowl that was used for fighting and is now strictly ornamental—or should be. With their long legs and necks and sleek heads, the banties hardly look like chickens.
Naturally I had set out to buy just one hen but couldn’t resist the Modern, who looks smaller than an Amazon parrot. Both birds are four months old and come with a no rooster guarantee. If a pullet turns out to be a rooster, Bruce the chicken guy will exchange it as long as it’s OK with you that the rooster ends up on somebody’s dinner table. I really REALLY wanted to get one of the banty roosters but this isn’t the time.
And on this farm he had some piglets, grown-up pigs, and turkeys. The turkey cocks strutted around, displaying their wings and tails and puffing out their chests for the turkey hens. Best of all, Bruce had two Airedales--one adult male getting shoulder-deep in mud and one female puppy who hovered at the edge of the mud field. The puppy was three or four months old and absolutely friendly as most puppies are. She had excellent coloring, very black coat and deep rust-colored markings. As she followed me a few feet up the driveway, I wanted to scoop her up and take her home, too, because she was chicken-proofed like the adult dog with no interest in chasing chickens.
On the way home I stopped at the feed store for supplies, looking like one of the guys in my muddy boots and dried mud up my jeans to the hem of my parka (Airedales love to jump up on people). Then I went to the grocery store where I looked a bit out of place among all the well-washed people. At least I checked my boots before going in to make sure I wouldn’t be tracking chicken poo around.
Naturally I had set out to buy just one hen but couldn’t resist the Modern, who looks smaller than an Amazon parrot. Both birds are four months old and come with a no rooster guarantee. If a pullet turns out to be a rooster, Bruce the chicken guy will exchange it as long as it’s OK with you that the rooster ends up on somebody’s dinner table. I really REALLY wanted to get one of the banty roosters but this isn’t the time.
And on this farm he had some piglets, grown-up pigs, and turkeys. The turkey cocks strutted around, displaying their wings and tails and puffing out their chests for the turkey hens. Best of all, Bruce had two Airedales--one adult male getting shoulder-deep in mud and one female puppy who hovered at the edge of the mud field. The puppy was three or four months old and absolutely friendly as most puppies are. She had excellent coloring, very black coat and deep rust-colored markings. As she followed me a few feet up the driveway, I wanted to scoop her up and take her home, too, because she was chicken-proofed like the adult dog with no interest in chasing chickens.
On the way home I stopped at the feed store for supplies, looking like one of the guys in my muddy boots and dried mud up my jeans to the hem of my parka (Airedales love to jump up on people). Then I went to the grocery store where I looked a bit out of place among all the well-washed people. At least I checked my boots before going in to make sure I wouldn’t be tracking chicken poo around.
Introducing...
Muffin the Americauna and Edlyn, an old English name for a Modern English Game banty.
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