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Origin
: Only at the end of the seventies serious attempts were made to breed
bantam versions of the large Belgian gamefowl breeds. Before that one or
two bantams were only found sporadically and usually they left much to
be desired in size and body shape. Only after Mr. Van Loy started
breeding Belgian game bantams with the desired head pigmentation, a lot
of improvement was made.
Characteristics
: Compared to the large Belgian game there are a few remarkable
differences. First of all bantams grow a lot quicker and start laying at
much younger age. The hens brood very easily and they are good mothers.
The pugnacity of the bantams is comparable to the large Bruges but
because of the lighter mass of the bantams the damage after a fight is
usually much less dramatical. Therefore it is much easier to keep the
bantams in groups.
Appearance
: The body shape of Bruges game bantam and large Bruges game is
identical. They are also quit large bantam game. The roosters weigh
about 1250 gram and the hens 900 to 1000 gram. This is of course very
logical when keeping in mind that Bruges game are one of the largest
chicken breeds. The body is carried upright and the back is flat and
slopes very little. The thighs are very muscular and the slate blue
shanks are very powerful, thick and rather long. In contrast with other
breeds, spurs are desired also in the hens. The head is very powerful
with developed eyebrows. The face and the comb are heavily pigmented and
purplish red until almost black. The triple comb and wattles should be
as little as possible.
Varieties
: There are a lot of varieties but the most common are blue yellow
birchen and yellow birchen. Other recognized varieties are black, blue,
white, black-red, silver duckwing, golden duckwing, blue golden duckwing,
birchen, blue and birchen.
State
: Very rare. There are only a few breeders left in the Northern
Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Sporadically seen in the South of
Belgium, Holland and Germany.
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