Booted Bantam

     The Booted Bantam, also known as the Dutch Booted Bantam or the Sablepoot, is a rare breed of bantam Chickens from the Netherlands. It’s a true bantam, and always single-combed, has red earlobes, and feathered legs. The Booted Bantam’s name is derived from its extravagant feathering on the feet and hock joints, which are called the vulture hocks or “Sabels” in the Dutch language.

     The Booted Bantam is more popular in Germany and the Netherlands than any other country, where you can find indeed the widest array of color-varieties. In Belgium, they were crossed with the Barbu d’Anvers‎ to produce the Barbu d’Uccle.

     Booted Bantams appear in more than twenty different color-varieties. Official colors accepted in poultry shows include; barred, black, blue, buff, cuckoo, grey, millefleur (which is the most common and beautiful), mottled, partridge and White.

     Booted Bantams are good foragers, and do less damage to garden plants because of their heavily feathered feet. The hens readily go broody, and lay very small eggs that are white or tinted in color. Booted Bantam hens lay better in the summer, and their egg production is respectable for bantams (around 160 eggs per year).