Type

          Type, what does it mean? I had an email from a person that had gotten birds from breeders, (I use the term loosely) who advertised on the Internet. This buyer found the JBBA web site and read a few articles that had been posted there. They emailed me with the question, what is type. Many of us use this term in conversation and know what we mean when we say it, but to new people it may have no meaning.

          When some people look at a chicken they see a chicken. When others look at the same chicken they see a Black Tailed White Japanese Cockerel. Type is what makes a Japanese Bantam, a Japanese Bantam, a Leghorn a Leghorn, and an Old English, an Old English. It is shape, size, and over all make up.

          I recently saw an advertisement on the Internet for 2 'beautiful show quality Japanese females', so I looked at the pictures of these birds. They're backs looked like the ski jump at the Olympics; long sloping hill with a quick upturn at the bottom. They did not represent the Japanese Bantam breed. The back of the female Japanese Bantam should look like a U, not a ski slope. If you were to put your fingers between the tail and neck of a Japanese female using three fingers, your fingers should touch the tail and the neck. The Japanese should have a very short back. In Kirk Keene's article from last month's Poultry Press, he states, " approximately 2/3 of the total value of the scale of Points is allotted to shape (type)." He also says that the back is worth 12 points and the breast is worth 10 points. This is out of a total of 100 points. The breast and the back of the Japanese can make or break the bird. If the breast is held high or too narrow the bird should be culled. If the back is anything but a nice narrow U, it should go into the stew pot.

          The male looks a little different in the back from the female. Because of his saddle, he may not have a real defined U, but never the less, the back should be narrow. Do be careful though not to allow squirrel tails. A bird can seem to have a small back when in fact their tail is tilted forward beyond perpendicular causing the look of a small back.

          We are getting close to those fall shows and we should all be culling for the very best for the shows and for the breeding pens next spring. SO look at those birds closely.

          I had a few extra eggs after I turned off the incubator and I had two pullets that had laid eggs and wanted to set so I gave them the eggs I wanted to hatch. These pullets didn't really look that good and I had planned to cull them after they hatched and mothered their chicks. To my surprise as I was looking at the chicks hatched I noticed that the pullets had really shaped up into very nice females. I wondered what happened and I got my answer when I visited a friend. He asked me why I had never written anything about culling female Japanese Bantams. I asked what in particular. He said, " we can cull too early, Japanese females don't type up as fast as males do. That was my answer to the two pullets. When I came home I determined to let females that didn't look that good go an extra couple of months to see if they were late bloomers. Keep this in mind. Female Japanese Bantams type up later than males. Their tails will be carried low one day and the next day they will look totally different.

          So type, (shape) is very important. Its what makes our Japanese Bantams, Japanese.