Booted Bantam
Other names
  • Dutch Booted Bantam
  • Sabelpoot
  • Dutch: Nederlandse sabelpootkriel
  • German: Federfüßige Zwerghühner
Country of origin
  • Netherlands
  • Belgium
  • Germany
  • United Kingdom
Useshow
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    maximum 850 g
  • Female:
    maximum 650 g
Egg colourwhite or tinted
Classification
APAfeather legged[1]: 8 
EEyes[2]
PCGBrare true bantam[3]

The Booted Bantam or Dutch Booted Bantam is a European breed of true bantam chicken. It is characterised by abundant feathering on the feet and shanks, which gives it a "booted" appearance; and by vulture hocks, long stiff downward-pointing feathers on backs of the thighs,[4]: 139  from which the Dutch name Sabelpoot ("sabre-legged") derives.

History

old coloured engraving of a hen with feathered legs and feet
old coloured engraving of a cock with feathered legs and feet
Ulisse Aldrovandi, illustrations of small feather-footed hen and cock, for the Ornithologiae tomus alter of 1600
old coloured engraving of a hen with feathered legs and feet
old coloured engraving of a cock with feathered legs and feet
Eleazar Albin, illustrations of bantam hen and cock, from A Natural History of Birds (1738), showing feathering and vulture hocks

The history of the Booted Bantam is complicated, aspects of it involving Belgian bantams, the German Federfüßige Zwerghühner, the Dutch Sabelpoot and bantams in the United Kingdom.[5]: 87  Feather-footed bantams have been present in Europe for hundreds of years; birds of this type are pictured in the works of Ulisse Aldrovandi and Aelbert Cuyp in the seventeenth century, and Eleazar Albin in the eighteenth.[6]: 2 [7]: 313 [8]: 32  Albin's description of 1738 says of the bantam cock "... from the Thighs grew long stiff Feathers reaching beyond his Knees two Inches, which they call Boots; his Legs were also feathered down to his Toes ...", while of the hen he says "... she was booted and feathered down to her Toes, as all the true Bantam kind are"; he is clear that these birds were originally brought from "Bantam in India".[8]: 32 

These birds were not included in the first British poultry standard of William Tegetmeier in 1865, but were described in detail in his The Poultry Book of 1867;[9]: 47 [10]: 249  he mentions that a pure white colour variety had recently been shown.[10]: 250  Both the white and the black variety are thought to have been bred in the United Kingdom;[5]: 87  the black variant is documented at least from 1841, when William Flamank Entwisle received a pair as a gift.[11]: 47 

The birds were present in the United States by 1836, when they were being bred in Massachusetts.[12] The white colour variant was included in the American Standard of Excellence in 1876,[13]: 190  and was added to the American Standard of Perfection in 1879.[12]

In the United Kingdom, a breed society – the Booted Bantam Society UK – was formed in 2014.[5]: 87 

Characteristics

The Booted Bantam has a short compact body, short in the back and with the breast carried well forward; the upper line of the neck, back and tail has a pronounced U-shape. The legs have well-developed vulture hocks, long stiff feathers pointing down from the backs of the thighs and almost reaching the ground; the shanks and feet are heavily feathered, particularly on the outer side. There are four toes. The wings are long and large, and point downwards at about the same angle as the vulture hocks. The comb is single and upright, with five to seven points; the earlobes and wattles are red. The colour of the beak varies according to the plumage.[5]: 87 [14]: 75 

The Entente Européenne lists thirty-three colour variants, of which twenty-six are recognised at European level.[2] Eleven colours were listed by the Poultry Club of Great Britain in the sixth (2008) edition of the British Poultry Standards: black, black mottled, blue, buff mottled, cuckoo, gold millefleur, lavender, lemon millefleur, millefleur, porcelain, silver millefleur and white.[14]: 75  The number was increased to fourteen in the seventh (2018) edition of the standards.[5]: 87  The American Poultry Association list five variants: black, millefleur, porcelain, self-blue and white.[1]: 8 

Use

The Booted Bantam is kept for show. Hens may lay about 120 eggs per year, with an average weight of some 30 g;[15]: 35  the colour varies from tinted to white.[16]: 135 

The bearded and feather-footed Barbu d'Uccle was created in the early years of the twentieth century by cross-breeding birds of this breed with Barbu d'Anvers stock.[15]: 86 

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sabelpoot.
  1. 1 2 APA Recognized Breeds and Varieties: As of January 1, 2012. American Poultry Association. Archived 4 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 Liste des races et variétés homologuée dans les pays EE (28.04.2013). Entente Européenne d’Aviculture et de Cuniculture. Archived 16 June 2013.
  3. ↑ Breed Classification. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Archived 12 June 2018.
  4. ↑ Christine Heinrichs (2007). How To Raise Chickens. St. Paul, Minnesota: Voyageur Press. ISBN 9780760328286.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 J. Ian H. Allonby, Philippe B. Wilson (editors) (2018). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, seventh edition. Chichester; Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781119509141.
  6. ↑ Rudi Theylaert (October 2008). D'Uccle Bearded Bantam. Aviculture Europe. 4 (5), article 7. Accessed August 2021.
  7. ↑ Ulisse Aldrovandi (1600). Ornithologiae tomus alter ... cum indice copiosissimo variarum linguarum (in Latin). Bononiae: apud Io. Bapt. Bellagamba.
  8. 1 2 Eleazar Albin, Elizabeth Albin (1738). A Natural History of Birds: Illustrated with a Hundred and one Copper Plates, Engraven from the Life, volume III. London: For the author.
  9. ↑ William Bernhard Tegetmeier (editor) (1865). The Standard of Excellence in Exhibition Poultry, authorized by the Poultry Club. London: Groombridge and Sons, for the Poultry Club.
  10. 1 2 William Bernhard Tegetmeier, Harrison Weir (illustrator) (1867). The Poultry Book. London; New York: George Routledge and Sons.
  11. ↑ William Flamank Entwisle (1894). Bantams. Wakefield: Edith H. Entwisle.
  12. 1 2 Brief History: Belgian d'Uccle and Booted Bantam. American Belgian d'Uccle and Booted Bantam Club. Archived 29 July 2013.
  13. ↑ [s.n.] (1876). The American Standard of Excellence, as Revised by the American Poultry Association, at Their Convention Held in Buffalo, N.Y., January 15, 1875: Giving a Complete Description of All the Recognized Varieties of Fowls. [Buffalo, New York]: Printed and published for the American Poultry Association.
  14. 1 2 Victoria Roberts (2008). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, sixth edition. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 9781405156424.
  15. 1 2 Rassetafeln: Zwerghühner (in German). Reichenbach, Haselbachtal: Bund Deutscher Rassegeflügelzüchter. Accessed August 2021.
  16. ↑ Chris Graham (2006). Choosing and Keeping Chickens. London: Octopus Publishing. ISBN 9780793806010.
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