The Small & Stylish Brahma Bantam

The Small and Stylish Brahma Bantam

The argument against a weight increase

By Bob Anderson, Blue Hour Poultry

January 26, 2023

On Saturday, December 3rd, 2022 at the Klein Poultry Extravaganza in Spring, TX a Light Brahma Bantam was chosen by the judges as Champion of the Feather Legged class. Shortly after the placing a grievance was filed by another exhibitor with the complaint that the winning bird was over disqualifying weight. The show superintendent agreed to weigh the birds with the result that the grievance was upheld, the overweight birds were disqualified, and a new class champion was chosen. The bird that exceeded standard weight by more than 20% was properly disqualified from competition.

On that very same day across the state line at the Red Stick show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana a Light Brahma Bantam pullet won Reserve Grand Champion of Show. The bird was the proper size and the win became part of the official show record. This bird descends from the Blue Hour Poultry line which has its roots in the work of renowned bantam Brahma breeder O. Fayne Whitney, who for many years bred, showed, and sold Brahma bantams of the proper size – small and stylish. His hard work, his legacy, lives on in these birds.

The purpose of the rules of exhibition is to create a fair playing field and to reward excellence in breeding. When a competitor places poorly or has a bird disqualified, that is a signal to the exhibitor that their birds are lacking and they need to go back home and re-tool their breeding program to improve the quality of birds they are producing – even if that means a two or three year hiatus from showing. That’s what happens when the system is working as it is designed.

What happened following the December 3rd shows was something entirely different – a push by the directors of the Brahma club to permanently change the breed weights for the bantam Brahma to accommodate losing birds. On January 1, 2023 I received an email from the American Brahma Club that included an attachment from the club President dated December 30, 2022. The email stated that the breed club board of directors met on December 28th, 2022 to discuss the events at the show in Texas and “would like to submit a recommendation” to the American Poultry Association and American Bantam Association to increase the Bantam Brahma weights, concluding “We will be submitting the recommendation shortly”.

It is the charge of the breed club to protect, preserve, and promote the bantam Brahma.

The justification set forth in the letter, paraphrased, is that breeding bantam Brahmas at the current weight is extremely difficult. Since the standard defines bantams as one fifth to one fourth the size of their large fowl counterparts, the board concludes that the Brahma bantam should be changed from one fifth the size of the large fowl to one fourth the size of the large fowl -– increasing the cock weight from 38 ounces to 48 ounces, a full 26% increase in size. This strikes me as a justification-after-the-fact for a decision that had already been made following the Klein show, as there would be no other reason to put this forward at this time. There is no basis for this in the history of the Brahma breed and it is out of step with the Brahma’s sister breed, the Cochin.

Where would we look if we wanted to make an informed decision about a standard revision for the Brahma bantam? We are fortunate that there is an abundance of information provided in the historical literature, the genetics books, and the standards themselves. Let’s start with some breed history.

It is impossible to talk about the Brahma without also talking about the Cochin, and impossible to talk about either in the United States without also talking about their development in the United Kingdom. Both the Brahma and the Cochin were created from the Shanghai fowl imported to the US and the UK in 1846 and 1847 following the re-opening of the port of Shanghai following the first Opium War. The two breeds were developed from those same imports with the pea-combed, Silver patterned birds eventually becoming known as Brahmas and the single combed, Gold patterned birds eventually becoming known as Cochins. The Buff Cochins gifted to Queen Victoria are largely credited for creating the “Cochin Craze” that became the genesis of the first modern poultry shows with judges, standards, and score cards for an accurate assessment of the quality of the birds. Even in those days, birds were traded back and forth across the Atlantic with competing standards for the different breeds. And, while the Brahma is largely considered an American creation, the British breeders were instrumental, for example, in introducing new blood to the Dark Brahma to brighten the silver base color and improve patterning.

The Americans, ever practical, considered the heavy-boned and hardy Asiatic fowl to be a practical bird for meat and eggs while across the Atlantic the Cochin Craze was in full effect and the English breeders created a Cochin which was indulgent with and abundance of long, soft plumage far more extravagant even than the birds that were originally imported. Following the second Opium War in 1860 the first Pekin (Cochin) Bantams were brought to the UK by the British army, having been confiscated from the summer palace of the Chinese ruler. These birds were largely Buff in color and were too weak to continue breeding without an outcross. They were later bred to large fowl Buff Cochins in the US and brought back down to bantam size. In addition to direct imports from Asia, both Booted Bantams and Nankin are documented as being used in the creation of what we now know as the Cochin Bantam.

The popularity of the Pekin and Cochin Bantams grew rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic, and, sensing an opportunity the great English Bantam enthusiast W. F. Entwisle created the Brahma Bantam breed from whole cloth. He documented creating the Light Brahma Bantam by crossing a very small Gray Aseel cock over Booted Bantam hens. The resulting offspring reverting to brownish colors, he obtained a small large fowl Light Brahma cock to breed over the best of the pullets and continued to breed from the smallest cockerels. Finally, he bred one of his best Light Brahma cockerels to Black Tailed White Japanese pullets with the objective getting back to true bantam size. In other words, the Brahma Bantam is small because it was designed to be small. That is the essence of the breed as it was created, and all of the right dwarfing genes were included from the beginning via the Booted and Japanese bantams. (Van Dort 108-109)

The APA standard weights for the Booted bantams are 26 oz Cock/22 oz Cockerel/22 oz Hen/20 oz Pullet. The APA standard weights for the Japanese bantams are 26 oz Cock/22 oz Cockerel/22 oz Hen/20 oz Pullet.

When I pulled the 1894 Standard of Perfection from the shelf to check Brahma weights, the Brahma bantams were not listed. Brahma bantams were not recognized in the US until 1895 (Dark) and 1898 (Light). So I pulled the 1905 version. The originally published weights for the Brahma bantam are the same as the Cochin bantam at that time at 30 oz cock/26 oz cockerel/26 oz hen/24 oz pullet (see photo). This is between 15% and 20% larger than the Booted and Japanese Bantams, which makes sense since the Brahma is supposed to be a heavier boned bird. Interestingly, the 1905 standard specifically calls out disqualifying weights for Brahma bantams as 34 oz cock/30 oz cockerel/30 oz hen/ 28 oz pullet, and notes that the general shape and color of the bantam Brahma shall conform to the corresponding large fowl. There is no corresponding disqualification for birds being underweight.

At some point in the modern era, the weights for the Brahma Bantams were raised to 38 oz cock/34 oz cockerel/34 oz hen/30 oz pullet as reflected in the current APA standard. This is significantly higher than the originally published disqualifying weights and puts current disqualifying weights of 20% above standard at 46 oz cock/41 oz cockerel/41 oz hen/36 oz pullet. It is also higher than the Cochin bantam weights of 32 oz cock/28 oz cockerel/28 oz hen/26 oz pullet. I have not found in my reading through historical literature, the standard, or breed club publications the reason for this significant increase in published weights. I have reached out to the breed club President, Mike Spencer, to see if he had additional information regarding this weight increase and he did not.

At current weights, the Brahma bantam cock is 20% of the large fowl weight while its sister breed the Cochin bantam is at 18% of large fowl weight. The proposed weight of 48 oz for a bantam Brahma cock would bring the Brahma bantam up to 25% of the large fowl weight compared to the Cochin at 18%. It would make the disqualifying weight for cocks 57.6 oz, almost twice the original standard weight for the breed, and 50% heavier than the bantam Cochin. There is no logical, historical, or genetic rationale for such a large difference.

There is a saying “As large as a house, as small as a mouse” that some of the old-time breeders used to describe the Asiatic large fowl and bantams. The large fowl are supposed to have structure and presence and the bantams are supposed to exhibit all of that presence in a small package. A massive large fowl and small bantam are valuable precisely because they are desirable to own and difficult to breed. The genetic term that applies here is regression to the mean – where the large fowl will tend to become smaller over time and bantams will tend to become larger over time unless in the hands of a skilled breeder. Yes, breeding small bantams with all of the breed characteristics of a heavy boned large fowl is difficult, and that is exactly why it is valued.

The breed standards also offer us guidance about the importance of small size in bantam breeds. The 1910 Standard of Perfection section in Applying the Comparison System:

· Disqualifying Weights: Specimens falling below disqualifying weights after December 1st of each year must be debarred from competition, except Bantams, which, when exceeding disqualifying weights, shall suffer a like penalty.

· Bantam Type: While smallness of size is desirable in all Bantams, no specimen shall be entitled to win over a larger bird simply because of its small size; it must conform to the type and symmetry demanded for the breed it represents.

What does this mean in plain English? That bantams are treated differently from large fowl regarding weight and are called out specifically as not being allowed to compete when exceeding disqualifying weights. That small bantams are desirable and that, all else being equal, the smaller bantam is considered more desirable than the larger bantam. The section on cutting for defects in the current (2015) standard reinforces this idea by noting that bantams will be cut by one half point for each ounce overweight but cuts for being underweight only begin to take effect when the bird is at least two ounces underweight.

Our counterparts in England, where Brahma bantams were created, are even more clear about this. The English standard lists the weight for Brahma bantams as 38 oz maximum and females as 32 oz maximum, and states “Brahma bantams are exact miniatures of their large fowl counterparts so all standard points apply”. The standard weight is the maximum weight and any bird exceeding that weight would be disqualified from competition. There is no point cut for Brahma bantams being under weight. In other words, the English breeders believe Brahma bantams of this size that represent their large fowl counterparts are both desirable and achievable, with emphasis on keeping the birds small.

So, what is supposed to happen in the US when it appears that a bantam Brahma is overweight. The section on Interpretation of Standard for Judges, Breeders and Exhibitors (2015 Standard of Perfection, page 28) offers the following guidance under “Size and Weight: When size and weight cannot be determined by comparison, it is advisable to require the weighing of the specimens”. That is what quite properly happened at the Klein show on December 3rd, 2022.

What was the genesis of these very large Brahma bantams? Approximately eight years ago a well-known breeder and judge crossed large fowl Brahmas into a bantam Brahma line, presumably to enhance some of the breed characteristics. Now, using large fowl to improve bantam traits in itself is not a problem. After all, the original Brahma bantams were created using a small amount of large fowl blood over 130 years ago. The original bantams, too, were created using multiple doses of “true bantam” (e.g., Booted & Japanese) blood. The challenge here lies in the fact that the modern outcross birds were never brought back down to proper bantam size – they are a magnitude too big to be considered a true Brahma bantam as they lack the required dwarfing genes. In other words, these are a breed all their own, separate and distinct from what we have known as Brahma bantams in the US since 1895.

On more than one occasion I talked with Brown Leghorn breeder Mark Atwood about his crossing of large fowl Light Brown Leghorns into his bantam Light Brown Leghorn line to improve traits such as feather width. The first cross created what he called “billigans” (sp?) – neither large fowl nor bantam, but a bird in the middle for size. These F1 mid-sized birds when paired together would largely produce more mid-sized birds. There would be some variability in size in future generations but the mid-sized birds would predictably reproduce more mid-sized birds. To get back to a truly bantam sized bird that also carries all of the desired traits of the large fowl using only the mid-sized birds required intensive hatching and selection over many years. The quicker route would be to cross the smallest of the F1 outcross birds back to pure bantam stock to ensure all of the proper dwarfing genes were present in the right dose. The challenge would be to do this in a way that also preserved the desired traits, such as feather width, that were gained from the outcross. Mark did eventually get his Light Brown Leghorn bantams back down to proper bantam size. I raised them for years with good success and their genetics are still being used by a breeder in the Pacific Northwest today.

Poultry genetics has progressed in such a way that we are able to explain the mid-sized phenomenon from a genetics perspective. “Dwarfism has been studied more by researchers than gigantism. There are four documented dwarfism genes, three of which are sex-linked. There could be others as well as modifiers for any or all of these four genes. In my experience, though, four genes are more than enough to explain all the bantam/dwarfism effects I have observed in my own breeding experiments.” (Reeder, 100)

“Gene: Dominant Sex-linked Dwarfism (Z) – Jull and Quinn (1935) studied dominant sex-llinked dwarfism. In both instances, crosses of bantams to large fowl (Sebright bantams x Light Brahma large fowl and Black Rose Comb bantam x Barred Plymouth Rock large fowl, with the large fowl being about five times the size of the bantam breed) showed intermediate sizes in the F1 with the tendency for weights to be below the midpoint of the two breeds. Maw’s work utilized both fast and slow feathering sex-linkage silver/gold sex-linkage and showed the sex-linked nature of this form of dominant dwarfism, with the F2 confirming this. Somes later assigned the gene symbol Z to this factor (Crawford, pg. 230).” (Reeder, 101)

“Gene: Recessive Sex-Linked Dwarfism (rg) He (Godfrey) felt that a gene was responsible for part (perhaps 10% reduction) of the small size of the Black Rosecomb bantams. Godfrey assigned this gene the symbol rg and estimated, based on F1 and F2 generation variances and parental mean differences, that about 16 pairs of genes were involved in the genetic ctonrol of body size differences between these two breeds, with the recessive sex-linked rg gene being sufficiently stronger than any of the others to be detected as a single entity (Crawford, pgs. 230-231). This is a classic example of a quantitative trait where seemingly single phenotypic is the result of many genes.” (Reeder, 101. Underlining my own)

“Gene: Sex-linked Dwarfism (dwB) Custodio and Jaap in 1973 identified another gene, called dwB. It is also thought to be a sex-linked recessive and was found in Golden Sebrights. Custodio and Jaap called this gene the bantam gene (B after dw stands for bantam). They showed that homozygous males had a size reduction of about 14%. However, they also reported that heterozygous males had a 5% size reduction, suggesting that it may not be a sex-linked recessive.” (Reeder 101)

“Most bantams I have worked with, especially those on the larger end, appear to result from two major genes, with one almost always being sex-linked. The very small bantam lines seem to be the result of three genes, usually two sex-linked and one non-sex-linked. It can be very hard to determine if one Is dealing with a sex-linked dominant or recessive factor, as females of both types will show the one allele of the gene. It is in the males that the dominance effect becomes obvious, because in a sex-linked recessive, males must have two alleles for the phenotype to be seen.” (Reeder, 102)

“The smallest breeds, such as Rosecomb, Old English Game, and Serama (and I’ll add here Booted and Japanese) seem to have at least three genes at work. It seems that when all three genes are present, they have a stronger effect than any (combination of two) of the three genes together.” (Reeder 102-103)

What we have seen in showrooms in the US in recent years is two very different Brahma bantams. One being small and stylish, historically and genetically correct. The other the product of recent large fowl breeding that presents as a completely different bird, not only taller and heavier but of a more rustic body style. The difference between the two becomes quite apparent when looking at the males side-by-side, as I have done. Our true bantam Brahmas fit neatly into a bantam show coop with plenty of space to move and pose properly. The males with recent large fowl blood are exceedingly tall by comparison, towering over the true Brahma bantams. The two look nothing alike.

When the exhibition system is working as it should, the birds that have not been brought down to size would be disqualified from exhibition and the breeders would re-tool their breeding programs, bringing in the genetics required to get back to proper size. As mentioned above, there can be multiple genes required to do that and it is not clear that those genes exist within the larger Brahma bantams. I have heard it said that the true Brahma bantam does not exist today in the US and to this claim I take great exception. They may be hard to find in some parts of the country, but there is a good handful of breeders out West breeding and showing the true bantam Brahmas. The line we are working with here at Blue Hour Poultry traces back to Fayne Whitney and has been here at least twenty-five years. Our line of birds regularly wins major sweepstakes awards, including Grand Champion of Show at the Tulsa State Fair two years ago under an experienced judge, Grand Champion of Show at a show in Georgia two years ago, a sweepstakes award in the feather leg class at the Indiana State Fair this past summer, and, as mentioned earlier in this article, Reserve Grand Champion of Show at the Baton Rouge Show in December 2022. I am very proud of the intensive work Don Bischof and I have put into preserving and improving our Brahma Bantams over the years. Despite claims that breeding a properly-sized Brahma is too difficult, recent Best in Show wins say otherwise.

That the Brahma breed club board of directors would try to push through a permanent change to the breed standard weight as a result of an oversized bird being disqualified at the Klein show is an abdication of duty and the exact opposite of what should be happening. It rewards sub-standard birds and punishes the breeders who have been working diligently for years to preserve and promote the Brahma bantam. It is important to note here that the membership of the American Brahma Club did not agree to this change. There was no poll taken and there was no discussion with the membership before the board made their decision. The process itself appears to be reactive.

The burden of proof to change the standard belongs with the people wanting to make the change, not the people preserving the breed, and that burden of proof has not been met.

There simply is no valid reason for this proposed increase in Brahma bantam weights. While there is an ongoing issue with breed weights not being enforced at shows, that applies to all breeds and is the bailiwick of the national organizations to solve. A single breed club putting forth a weight change does not solve the underlying problem and makes this proposed weight increase look opportunistic. Changing the rules to suit the loser undermines any sense of fairness about the process and disenfranchises long-time breeders. If breeders and exhibitors cannot trust that their work in earnest to produce birds that meet the breed standards will be recognized and judged fairly, the rules become meaningless, and anything goes. Shows and judging become irrelevant, and the breed club has diminished its own standing.

This proposal from the board of directors is in no way a compromise. It is supplanting a historic breed with what is, for all intents, a totally different breed that will take its name. I am documenting, for the record, my strong disagreement with the American Brahma Club’s board of directors decision to push through a weight increase on the Brahma bantam. It is your solemn duty to protect, preserve, and promote this historic lineage. To do otherwise is to dishonor Fayne Whitney and all the Brahma bantam breeders who came before him who worked diligently year in and year out to produce a small and stylish bird; to insult long-time breeders such as myself who continue in this work and take seriously the preservation and betterment of the breed; and, most importantly, to injure the breed.

For these reasons, I ask the American Brahma Club board of directors to rescind its proposal to the APA and ABA to increase bantam Brahma weights.

My fellow Brahma bantam breeders and exhibitors: this is your call to action. If you are concerned about preservation of the true Brahma bantam please reach out to the American Brahma Club board of directors via facebook or email to let your opinion be heard. Also reach out to your APA and ABA district directors and ask them to vote down this proposal should it end up on the agenda at their board meeting. Time is of the essence as there will be an APA board meeting this coming weekend in California.

Let’s come together now to protect and promote the small and stylish Brahma bantam we all love so it will be around for future generations to enjoy.

References:

1. American Poultry Association Standard of Perfect, 1905, 1910, and 2015 editions

2. British Poultry Standards, sixth edition, 2012

3. An Introduction to Form and Feathering of the Domestic Fowl by Brian Reeder, 2011

4. Brahma and Brahma Bantams by Sigrid Van Dort, 2016

Photos:

1. Light Brahma bantam cock at Blue Hour Poultry taken August 2022

2. Original Brahma bantam standard and disqualifying weights

3. December 30, 2022 letter from American Brahma Club informing members of plan to propose weight increases

4. Formal proposal from America Brahma Club to increase weights, published on the breed club facebook page January 26, 2023.