New arrivals - Barbu d'Uccle bantams

Since moving out to the countryside I have been keen to get some ducks or chickens. It seems ducks can be a bit smelly and so I decided chickens would be the way to go. There is also a bit of a tradition in my grandmother's side of the family keeping chickens and bantams. By good fortune I was offered some of the chicks from the flock of bantams that wander around on the front lawn of the big house.

They are Barbu d'Uccle bantams (bearded bantam chickens from the Uccle region of Belgium). They have feathered legs, sometimes called 'booted', the beginnings of which can be seen in the photo. The colouring is mille fleur - thousand flowers - quite a romantic name for the spotted/mottling on their feathers. We selected a couple of chicks whilst the remaining birds ran around trying to avoid capture. We could feel them trembling in our hands and chirping in distress as we removed them and took them away to our back garden. After a day or so they were settled in just fine and running out to get their chick crumb from us.