By: Elly Vogelaar Photos: Aviculture Europe and Dick Hamer PART 1
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By: Elly Vogelaar Photos: Aviculture Europe and Dick Hamer PART 1 Photo left: Joop in his beautiful garden, sitting next to his chicken runs. Today we are visiting Joop Hageman. He lives at the highest point of the little village Didam (The Netherlands) called 'Mice Hill’ so named because in the old days, all the mice fled to this spot whenever the village was troubled by high water. So, we’ll be 'high and dry' which is very reassuring on this sultry August day, with the forecast of heavy rains and possibly some flooding. Luckily it only rained in the evening on our way home. Joop Hageman Joop was born into a fancier family, his dad being a fanatical breeder of Dutch bantams and Dutch Croppers and also a board member of the Local Fur and Feather Club in Zevenaar. It didn’t take long for Joop to get started with some chickens of his own. In 1958 he joined the local club in Doesburg (Dad arranged that for his son!) and he remembers very clearly that the first breeds he kept were Wyandotte and Dutch bantams. The Booted bantams arrived in 1975. Joop must be a very faithful man; not only are the Dutch and Booted bantams still around after all these years, but recently he and his wife Annie celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary! Young, enthusiastic and capable people don’t stay unnoticed very long, so when a new club in Didam was founded in 1965, Joop was invited to be Secretary; he was just 20 years old at the time. He spent 10 years as chairman of the Didam Club, but some years ago stepped aside to make room for the younger generation. His first Booted bantams were purchased from Henk Strijland and Henk Soërt, both founders of the Booted Bantam Breeders Club. In 1975 he became a member of that club and by 1976 had already won first prize with a millefleur Booted bantam, winning again in 1977 with a porcelain hen. In 1977 he became a board member of the club and in 1984 he was elected chairman. Left: A beautiful millefleur Booted Bantam cockerel. Photo: Dick Hamer As we will be visiting another Dutch bantam breeder soon, Joop and I agreed to restrict ourselves to Booted bantams and Barbary (Ringneck) doves (another of his favourites) for this story. Right: A pair of Booted bantams, millefleur cock and blue millefleur hen; old birds and a bit moulty at the moment, but still good quality, as you can see! The Dutch Booted bantam The breed is of a very ancient origin, probably from East Asia and is one of the oldest known poultry breeds. As early as the 17th century, Dutch artists had painted pictures depicting small feather footed hens. They are believed to have been brought to The Netherlands by merchant ships coming from Asia. In his book Die Geflügelzucht (1886), Bruno Dürigen wrote that booted bantams were found in most West European countries. In 1902, the Dutch Poultry Union recognised this bantam as an original Dutch breed, kept and bred in The Netherlands, as we can read in Houwink’s book Hoenderrassen, deel 1 (1909). Since that time their official Dutch name has been Nederlandse Sabelpootkrielen. In Belgium and France they are called Sabelpoot; the German name is Federfüssige Gartenhühner and just like the English name ‘Booted Bantams’ all these names refer to the heavily feathered vulture hocks and legs. In France and Belgium the breed is sometimes called ‘Mille-fleurs’ (1000 flowers), so named after the variegated millefleur colour pattern, although they come in many other colours. In Europe there are about 20 recognised colours: millefleur varieties, mottle varieties, partridge varieties, cuckoo (barred), columbian and self coloured. The Booted Bantam also comes in a bearded variety. Above: Prize winning millefleur pullet. Photo: Dick Hamer. The Booted bantams are ‘natural bantams’, meaning they don’t have a large counterpart. A Booted bantam must be ‘in harmony’, meaning the legs should be right in the middle under the body, with the head, breast and shoulders being about the same ‘volume’ as the rump and tail. This is one of the main differences of the d’Uccle Bearded bantam, the body of which is asymmetrical with an imposing front and a less developed back and tail. The head is middle sized and broad, not long and with a short beak. The comb is single; the ear lobes red with some white allowed; and the eye colour a bright orange-red to red-brown. The breast is broad and the tail well spread and carried rather high, the two longest sickles being slightly curved. The wings are carried low. The hocks (long stiff feathers, starting from the lower outer thigh) incline downwards and follow the outline of the wings. The hens should also have correct hocks. The legs should not be so short that the hocks drag to the ground. The shanks must be well covered with feathers, increasing in length towards the feet, making for profuse footings. The outer toe and outside of middle toe must also be covered with feathers and the legs and feet are blue. The footings should be free as possible from damage and above all, the chickens must show vitality. Right: Upgrowing Booted bantam cockerels, together with some Dutch bantam cockerels. Joop on his bantams As well as the millefleur, Joop also breeds the Booted bantam in a blue variety called ‘blue millefleur’. In conjunction with Jo Dommerholt, Joop created the blue millefleur Booted bantam and had it recognised at the National Poultry Union Show, ‘The Noordshow’ in 2000. Joop loves the challenge of the blue, and he breeds the Dutch bantams in partridge and blue partridge as well! He says there is an advantage in that he can breed black and blue birds together. Joop has 10 separate pens for his chickens; four Booted bantam breeding pens and two Dutch bantam breeding pens. During the breeding season the cocks are exchanged between the pens. The remaining pens are for the young birds. Left: This is not a buff mottled, but a ‘splash’ white mille- fleur. This colour can be mated to millefleur to become blue millefleur. After all these years Joop is not tired of these two breeds and says they are quite different in character. The Dutch bantams are definitely quicker and more tempera- mental. They can grow up together in one pen without problem, as the Dutch bantams run the show, despite being smaller! He can also easily tell the eggs apart, the Dutch bantam eggs being smoother and snow-white. Both breeds tend to go broody and occasionally Joop has a broody with chickens, although he prefers not to, as all his chickens are vaccinated against Mareks each year which has to be done immediately after hatching. That is difficult with a broody that may only have a few chicks. Above: One of Joop’s beautiful blue millefleur cockerels. Photo: Dick Hamer. The pens are properly insulated, even having ‘thermopane’ windows. In wintertime he can keep them frost-free with a small electric heater. This is a real luxury with no more frozen drinkers! Joop uses a mix of chopped straw and Aubiose® (Hemp bedding) for litter. He believes straw alone is too light and mixed with the Aubiose it becomes denser. Every six weeks by rotation the pens are cleaned out. The used litter breaks down easily and is valuable as a natural garden fertiliser. The neighbours don’t complain about early crowing cocks, as his birds are not allowed out in the runs before 9:00am each morning. Joop says: “Here in our village they are used to chickens and such. Even my neighbour keeps pheasants and Barbary doves… and a few eggs passed over the fence never go amiss!” Feeding is well planned. The little chicks get mash and later, an in-between feed of small pellets. After some months the cockerels and pullets are given different feed. “Cocks have more display feathers,” says Joop, “so the cock feed is specially developed for that. It’s a pellet feed which is better for cocks as they always search for the best bits. In this way each cock gets what he needs. The hens get mash which keeps them busy for longer. Late afternoon they get some mixed grains. All the feed is from Garvo® which I’m very satisfied with.” Because of the feather type these breeds are not often infested with lice. “Checking for lice is the most important thing,” says Joop, “not only the birds, but the chicken house as well. A hot hair-drier (or paint stripper) work great in the battle against red mites. An empty chicken house can be completely cleared of red mites using a wallpaper steamer.” Breeding the millefleur variety The Millefleur Booted bantam is the oldest and most popular colour. It is a tri- coloured variety; one of the most beautiful colours that you can imagine. In the USA this colour is sometimes called ‘Joseph's Coat of many colours’ (as in: Genesis 37). Ground colour is a uniform deep golden chamois, each feather ending in a round black spot with a white triangular tip. Of course this is not ‘judged’ feather by feather; the overall look should be bright with a regularly divided colour pattern, not too much black, not too much white and a clean ground colour. The tail feathers of both sexes are black tipped with white. Left: It is not easy to breed well marked black spangles and white tips. The marking in the left feather is a bit asymmetric.