T Is For Types

An eclectic alphabet of chicken facts with a difference.

- Andy Cawthray

ORNAMENTAL

It could be said that the only thing these breeds have in common is that they do not sit easily within any of the other breed groups of layers, meat, game, or dual purpose. This is not to say that all the members of this group type have different characteristics. In fact many do share some of key aspects of those breed groups; some are light and flighty and make excellent layers, others have strong game bird origins and attributes, whilst others, such as the Brahma, are huge docile birds, who were at some time used for meat.

What many of the breeds have in common, though, is that they carry hereditary features that are often unique to that specific breed, be it beards, feather pattern, or length of leg. It is these features that are a diagnostic of the breed identification and its origins. It would, however, be impossible to provide a general profile of the characteristics of this group of birds beyond saying that they are ‘showy’. They often have a high maintenance appearance and this can be a labour of love for the keeper, but, if managed correctly, they can epitomise what it was like to keep and breed poultry during the Hen Fever of the nineteenth century.

TRUE BANTAM