Malay Bantam
The Malay Bantam- by Dave Pauls
Malays are thought of as one of the old, pure breeds of poultry. Their sinister look and massive proportions have won them fans all over the world. Malay Bantams were added to the APA standard back in 1904 with the original stock coming from England. Although they have been in the standard and shown for over 100 years, they have never placed highly at shows. The main obstacle being that they are too tall to stand properly in a Bantam coop.
In 2018 I began the massive project of creating a Malay Bantam that could fit in a standard bantam show coop and be competitive at shows. When I started breeding poultry, the two breeds that immediately interested me were the Cornish and the Modern Game. Both were extremes of type that looked more like dinosaurs than chickens. Feathers like scales, type made from bone and muscle. Both breeds have issues though. Cornish are difficult to keep and breed and Moderns require dubbing for show, something my wife banned me from doing.
In 2014 I was introduced to Ko Shamos and I fell in love. They had the scale like feathers with the upright station of a modern and all the grotesque beauty of a Cornish....plus so much more. So I spent a few years studying and learning everything I could possibly learn about Ko Shamos. In the process of learning Kos, I taught myself about similar breeds. For me that includes Cornish and Moderns as well as Shamos and Malays.
The Malays really caught my attention and I started to obsess about them. I came up with an idea that I could recreate them using Ko Shamos and Modern Game Bantams and in 2018 I started that project. I crossed the Ko males over the modern hens, then paired those back to Ko Shamos for a second dose. I had the wrong comb so I secured an oversized Bantam Malay and crossed that in as well. From then on I have been selective breeding towards my goals.
The key features of the breed are an upright stance, or station, similar to a modern game with the body held a bit more horizontal. The bird should look powerful and prehistoric in every feature. The top line should be made of three downward curves. The first coming from the curvy, thick neck. The second is the back, enhanced by the wings, and the third is the whipped tail. There are 10 points allocated to Station which is another word for the stance. These ten points are taken from across the type points and are given to a bird that stands erect and shows off it's three downward curves. The birds can be trained to stand when a judging stick is presented.
What I'm looking for in a good Malay Bantam is thick solid bone. The body should be very deep and wide at the shoulders, tapering to the stern. The back should be short in length and the powerful hip muscles combined with a taper to the tail produces a distinctly domed back. The wings should be thick and powerful and held slightly away from the body at the shoulders, tapering to the root of the tail. The wings have a tendency to go up on the back which is fine unless they touch or cross.
The legs and neck are long, thick and powerful. The head should be a semicircle in profile and be broad and long with a strong brow and a mean expression. The beak should be thick, short and well curved. The eyes are Pearl and deep set. The comb is a small strawberry set well forward on the head.
Malays in general are quite tame and calm despite the fierce look, and the bantams are no exception. Modern games are known for having very sweet personalities. They are typically naturally tame and easy to work with. Ko Shamos are known as one of the most intelligent breeds and are also extremely tame and fearless. Because these are the breeds I used, the Malay Bantams tend to be a mix of the parents. They are smart and steady and easy to train.
As far as specific needs, these are just chickens like any other breed. There are a few things to keep in mind though. The males, and sometimes the females, fight. It starts at around 4 months. The first step to avoiding it is to separate the sexes at around 2 months old. Next is to single cage the aggressor AND the victim. Never take a bird out of the group for more than an hour or two, then put him back in.
They are extremely hard feathered. This means a couple of things. First they aren't as cold tolerant as soft feathered breeds. They can take surprisingly cold temperatures but for best health, they should really be kept above freezing most of the time.
The next thing with hard feathers is keeping them in condition. Unlike most chickens, if the feathers get too dry, they curl and can chip or break off quite easily. I find that spraying them with water every few days makes a huge difference. It adds that moisture back into the feathers and encourages them to preen natural oils onto the feathers. I also like to take them outside on nice days and dip them in a bucket of water and allow them to dry on the grass.
They really are an ideal little bird and I hope that one day, they gain the popularity they have in other parts of the world.
