Text: Elly Vogelaar Photos: Aviculture Europe and Jan Sonnemans The

Text: Elly Vogelaar Photos: Aviculture Europe and Jan Sonnemans

Left: Jan with one of his Old English Game bantams. Photo: AE

The attentive reader may recognize the name Jan Sonnemans from the April issue; one of his German Modenas won Champion of the Virtual Fancy Pigeons Championship organised by Aviculture Europe. Besides the pigeons, Jan also breeds bantam chickens.

Jan Sonnemans Although the conversation that day focused mainly on pigeons, I also took some nice pictures of Jan in front of his chicken coops. But because we had to visit 2 other Winners that day, the ‘chicken stories’ unfortunately did not get a chance. After some discussions it was agreed that Jan would send us some more chicken photos with additional information on his experiences with breeding these bantams. In the headline picture of this article there is Jan in front of his pens, holding one of the white Old English Game Bantams - his pride - in his hands. Jan is now 79 years old but still as enthusiastic as when he first started with the hobby; we can actually say that in Someren he is the great animator of the small animal hobby. His breeding career is similar to the existence of the local club ‘Someren and Surroundings’, which was founded in 1962, the same year that John married his wife Ria. He was one of the founding members. He came from a big family where everyone was keeping homer pigeons, although his father, ‘the blacksmith of Someren’, was more versatile and kept all kinds of exotics in those days, including a collection of white peacocks. Jan's first chickens were Spangled Old English Game bantams, a present from his brother in law. He also purchased some Modern English Game bantams. In the garden of the home where he settled with Ria, he built a nice open front pen for the chickens, with 8 separate departments. Two years later he became member of the (former) Club of Old and Modern English Game Breeders, a club that doesn’t exist anymore. He had good relations with the club members and he could rely on the services of several Breed experts within the Club for breeding advice and birds were often swapped.

Left: One of his fine Partridge hens. Photo: Jan Sonnemans.

Old English Game bantams The Old English Game bantam doesn’t have such exaggerated features and the feathering— although classified as hard feathered—has more fluff and underfeather than the Modern Game. Compared to the Modern, the Old variety looks almost ‘normal’. At the end of the 19th century cockfighting was banned, so English fanciers turned to exhibiting their birds. During this period, many breeds were refined to English taste, new bantam breeds were created and the fighting Game Fowl was gradually turned into a show bird.

Today in England, the Old English Game bantam is one of the most popular bantams seen everywhere— although not always purebred. In these bantams, shape of the body is extremely important. In Holland, the body shape has been altered during the years. Originally the body had to be egg-shaped, then heater shape but lately it has been decided that it should be—when seen from above—like a triangle; broad at the front and narrow at the back. Seen from the side the back should be flat; the body should not be ‘ball-shaped’.

Right: One of his White cockerels. Photo: Aviculture Europe.

The head is small and tapered, with a big, strong beak. The colour of the large, fiery eyes and the legs vary with the plumage colour. The comb, wattles and earlobes are of fine texture and should show no white. The neck is strong and of fair length, with the neck hackle covering the shoulders. The breast is broad, full and prominent, with large pectoral muscles. The shoulders are carried high but the shoulder butts should not appear above the back, which should be short, flat and tapering to the tail, with the hips set not too far apart. The thighs are short, round and muscular, following the line of the body or slightly curved. The wings are large and powerful. The legs are strong and set not too wide apart with a good bend or angle at the hock. The tail is fairly well developed, carried up, not too much spread, sickles wide and nicely bent, main feathers and quills, large and strong, preferably not pointing through the sickles. Plumage is hard, smooth and sufficient, without much fluff. In hand the bird is hard, yet light fleshed, corky, mellow, and warm, with strong contraction of wings and thighs to the body.

Above and left: A Black-Red /Partridge cock and some hens, with all essential characteristics. Photos: Jan Sonnemans.

They are recognised in many colour varieties, and also with muff and tassel, although the latter are hardly seen in Holland. A peculiarity is that the Standard allows for black Old English Game bantams to have red eyes, white beak and legs and also dark brown eyes and black beak and legs.

Jan on his bantams At the moment he only breeds Old English Game bantams. He chose for this breed because they are very tame, and the caring was easy to combine with his busy job and the many professional studies. For the same reason he had chosen to keep fancy pigeons instead of homing pigeons, like most of his relatives.

Although Old English Game Bantams are quite tame and confined towards their owner, you do have to ensure things don’t get out of hand when they are put together in the breeding pen. Jan provides several hideouts in the coops for the less dominant birds to hide away from the more aggressive birds. This has become even more problematic since dubbing of the males was banned in Holland, says Jan, for the combs get damaged quickly when fighting.

When birds return home from a show, he sprays them—and the other birds in the pen—with deodorant before he puts them away. Then they all smell the same, and that often helps with resettling them back together.

Above: Young bantams. Right: Almost matured. Photos: Jan Sonnemans.

His chickens are fed ®Havens ‘Start & Grow’ throughout the year along with breadcrumbs from his neighbour— a bakery—and natural greens. It is said that game fowls need a little more protein food than other chickens. As the plumage must be tight and hard, sometimes feeding soft feed like bread can result in softer feathers. Jan’s bantams are perfectly feathered and are clearly do not have a problem with that.

Old English Game females lay a good number of eggs which are fairly large for such a small body. Sometimes the hens go broody and because the plumage is not as tight and sparse as in most other game fowl breeds, they are well able to brood and make good mothers. But because it is usually too late in the year to have well-grown chickens, Jan always uses an incubator.

Left: The pens. Photo: Aviculture Europe. Vermin, especially lice around the vent, is often a major problem in the Old English. This is because the ideal Old English Game bantam has been bred shorter over the years, so they cannot easily preen with their beak. Jan says: "After having tried everything, other breeders recommended Frontline® . I used it only once, and the problem was completely solved."

It is always the most pleasant if you are able (and allowed) to keep your birds at home in your backyard. Here, the chicken and pigeon lofts are not out of place in the beautiful garden, among the special plants. Unfortunately at the time of our visit, most container plants were still 'hibernating' in the greenhouses of Nursery Centre Wines. (Lately the club show has been held inside these greenhouses.) In the meantime Jan sent some pictures as a taste of the beauty that is to flourish here in the summer.

Now that he is retired, he can easily enjoy the breeding and taking care of his chickens and pigeons every day, although he always enjoyed it, no matter how busy he was. Even when he and his wife were away on holidays in South Limburg - his son and grandson taking care of everything - he could not resist going home every 3 or 4 days just for a short while and look at his birds.

Above: Overview of a part of the garden in its full glory. Right the pigeon loft and fly pens, in the back the chicken pens. Photo: Jan Sonnemans.

Breeding Jan has open-front pens; 7 wire netting runs with connecting doors, so he can easily walk from the one run into the other. The roosts are as high as 1.5 meter – the birds will fly up and this is good practice for their muscles. Underneath is a shelf for the droppings, which is cleaned each week. On the floor there is river sand that is sieved regularly. In the cold winter months the open fronts are covered with wind-break nets that are used in horticulture. This keeps the pens airy and lets enough light come through. All pens have drinking nipples - just like in his pigeon lofts. From the 4 trios of the White and 1 trio Partridge, he bred about 50 chicks this year. He has a forced air incubator with a capacity of 230 eggs and a small still air incubator. It is striking that the eggs of the White hatch 1 day earlier than the eggs of the Partridge! Left: Nothing compares to free roaming outside in the garden. Photo: Jan Sonnemans.

Jan on the Whites: “I bred the White from a splash bird (a fortuity from a black breeding pen) mated to a very poor pile colour. After several years of selecting I had ‘real’ Whites that gained very good results at the European Show in Amsterdam 1981, judged by the Game Fowl specialist Wilfried Detering from Ger- many. This was a great incentive for me, making the breeding of the Whites even more challenging. Time passed by and I had a fine collection of Whites, when suddenly we had that terrible Bird Flu outbreak in our region and all chickens had to be destroyed. I didn’t have the guts to hide them, as we have many large commercial poultry farms here and would not do anything illegal. So that was the end of my Old English Game bantams. Later I was able to trace some birds of my lines that I had passed on during the years to other breeders, who lived in parts of Holland that didn’t have to destroy their chickens. They were readily handed over to me and although the quality was not particularly good, it felt good to make a new start with some of ‘my own’ birds”.

Left: Jan (right) at the Jubilee Show of the Dutch Game Fowl Breeders Club. Photo courtesy of ‘De Vecht- hoenderfokkersvereniging’.

Clubs and Shows Apart from the small animal club in Someren (he is the only one of the founders still in life) Jan is also a member of the Dutch Game Fowl Breeders Club. And because of the pigeons, he also joined the German Modena Club and the Holle Cropper Club.

His wife Ria has a warm heart for the birds and for the hobby too. They always go together to the exhibition and in the earlier years Ria was the secretary of the local club. When Jan was not yet retired, she often took part in the care of both bantams and pigeons.

He still has great pleasure in preparing the birds for the show and showing his animals. Before showing, the white bantams are washed with green soap and then rinsed with some Reckitt Blue bag squeezed in the water.

Left: A white cockerel and a partridge pullet at the Club Show in Someren. Photos: Jan Sonnemans. Below: One of his White pullets at the Jubilee Show of the Dutch Game Fowl Breeders Club. Photo: Werner Lamkemeyer. www.vechthoenderfokkersvereniging.com/

White Old English Game bantams are not commonly seen; as far as he knows there are no other breeders in Holland that partici- pate at the shows with the Whites, also not in Germany or Belgium. At the Jubilee Show of the Dutch Game Fowl Breeders Club he had good results; his 8 birds were awarded: 3x96, 2x95, 2x94 and 1x93 points. At the Champion Show in Nieuwegein he entered 6 bantams, awarded 3x96, 1x95 and 2x94 points.

At the Show, the shape of the body, the balance and vitality are the first requierements; the judge will always try to get the bird to pose in the right way, but you do have to train your birds to get used to the show pen.

To end with Jan likes to end this interview with a few words on the Local Club: "We have here in Someren only a small club but with very enthusiastic members. We organize an annual show, held in the greenhouses of Garden Centre Wines in the past few years, as we are provided very good assistance and the coworkers of the nursery visibly enjoy to have the animals and accessories to hustle and bustle. The show also has the merit of attracting more public to the Garden Centre. Each year, when the chickens of our club members have their annual vaccination against NCD by the veterinarian, we always have a lot of unused vaccines left over, and for a few years we have invited hobby farmers who are not members of our club or any other association to have their chickens vaccinated too - for free and without any commitments. Perhaps this gesture is just the incentive to get them over the line and join our club. This year we celebrate our 50th anniversary with an extra festive show, which also houses the District show of the Wyandotte Club is housed. The show is on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of October, 2011".

In the next page you will see some photos and info of the OEG bamtam in Australia, by Greg Davies, poultry judge.

OLD ENGLISH GAME BANTAMS IN AUSTRALIA By Greg Davies, poultry judge.

Many of our strains are as mad as hatters and almost impossible to get tame! We set a lot of hens to hatch and brood their own eggs without any problems at all. I even let my Modern Games do likewise as they are excellent mothers. We find that it is useless to breed late chickens in OEG, because the late-bred chickens always have too short legs and thighs and are “dumpy”. Often those bred really early in the season grow large and coarse, so the breeding season is limited. These days many breeders are becoming faddish about larger tails which makes the birds look unbalanced and the feather quality overly soft—both bad faults in OEG. The main tail is not allowed to poke through the sickles, this is becoming a problem here, it is a bad fault in Old English. Some years ago, they were crossed with Indian Game (Cornish) to broaden the shoulders, but thankfully that style of bird has all but disappeared. Unfortunately, many judges seem to judge these birds “in the hand” and ignore the style, grace and action of the birds in the pen. The old axiom for judging OEG is to “start looking at the feet and work your way up”. By placing more importance on the look of the bird from above, birds that are duck heeled, dry heeled and cow hocked— all of which are disqualifications—are winning classes. This is a serious issue which really should be addressed. Pictures below of Aussie-style Old English bantams (the pullet should have a more fanned tail and perhaps be a little longer in the thighs).

Left to right: Black Red cock (wheaten-bred), Black-tailed Wheaten pullet and Dark Grey cockerel.