[Northkeep] OK, here is a Lenten question...maybe Talana?

[Susan O'Neal]

Interesting, and from my experiences with chickens the bantams have much
more yolk as a percentage of the egg than the standard eggs do.  Also of the
various breeds of chickens, 2 of the true bantams (the other two I can think
of offhand are from China and Japan) are from Belgium.  We have a quail one
of these, <http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/bantams_danvers.html> and
she is tiny. This is what I found about the bantams in general,
http://139.78.104.1/breeds/poultry/chickens/dutchbantam/index.htm

The Polish is the old old European chicken we have, they don't classify it
as a bantam but the body is pretty small and the legs are long and they have
wild feathers on their heads that remind me of Phyllis Dillar.  <
http://139.78.104.1/breeds/poultry/>  They lay a very different egg than our
others, they are longer and more uniform from end to end, not the classic
egg shape at all.

If anyone is interested in seeing a couple of these different chickens, I
can try to cage a couple of these odder ones and bring them to a fighter
practice or something and if I work it right an egg or two from each one so
you can see.  As for other breeds we have that are older than the Victorian
messing around, we have the white standard Cochins, black Silkies (these
showed up in medicine as their black/grey meet was seen as a cure for many
things-the original color of these were white with black skin under is
striking), and Japanese bantams.  We've had several others, but they were
either roosters that we rehomed (this includes a Japanese Pheonix rooster, a
Houdan, and others I can't remember offhand) or were lost to racoon, dogs,
and a skunk.  Other than that, most of our older breeds like the Orphington
are of Victorian design and we have the classic American chicken of the
pioneers, a Dominique who is a great little bird.

Enough meandering from the crazy chicken lady,
Susan the Curious
if anyone wants to meet the chickens, just let me know-we're up in
Collinsville

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 9:51 AM, Talbot the Mad <talbotthemad at gmail.com>wrote:

> On the subject of chickens, again, I recently came across a "reference",
> while doing research. Several times, in fact, but with no actual reference
> other than, "It is said" or "It is widely known". The observation was that
> Bantam or Dwarf breeds of chickens existed in the Medieval period, because
> the largest eggs produced by a peasant's flock were to be given to their
> lord as part of their rent. Bantam eggs, being a great deal smaller, were
> exempted from this tithe, and could be kept by the housewife for the
> family's own use. While eggs in modern times are quite a bit larger than
> their historical counterparts, Bantam eggs were even smaller yet. Thus we
> get recipes handed down that include phrases like "Take a thousand eggs or
> more".
> Has anyone else come across this? Ever found an actual bibliographical
> reference? Thoughts?
> ~B. Talbot
> __________
>