Banty Roosters for Training

[Happy Gilmore]

I need to thin my flock of Banty Roosters and Hens. Anyone interested give me a shout. I have some black, white, red, silky foots etc.

Anyone wants to buy a couple to help pay the feed bill give me a shout. They all are flying good and healthy looking. I think I have about 40-50 not sure on the exact count.

[BIGINNER]

for training??  that's a first for me   

[Happy Gilmore]

They are more exciting to dogs than any bird a dog will ever encounter. They are the only domesticated bird which carries "wild scent". They work for pointers and are great for retrievers to get better attitudes on blinds, thrown as fliers they cackle just like a real rooster and they are great for use on breaking/steadying drills because the dogs love them so much.

[Stilly bay]

yeah they are almost as good as guinea hens.

[Special T]

Is there a specifica kind of bantum that works or is it any of the bantum family?

[Heredoggydoggy]

They may be good for training, but I don't think it's a good idea to get a dog used to attacking chickens.  One time a friend and I stopped at a farmer's house to get permission to bird hunt on his property.  The land owner and his dog were going to hunt with us, and we let our dogs out of the truck to get acquainted with his dog.  My dog immediately saw a bunch of chickens in the yard, and headed over to them.  I yelled "Chickens! No!".  She came right back.  (Her best friend at home was a Banty Hen). 

[lokidog]

They may be good for training, but I don't think it's a good idea to get a dog used to attacking chickens.  One time a friend and I stopped at a farmer's house to get permission to bird hunt on his property.  The land owner and his dog were going to hunt with us, and we let our dogs out of the truck to get acquainted with his dog.  My dog immediately saw a bunch of chickens in the yard, and headed over to them.  I yelled "Chickens! No!".  She came right back.  (Her best friend at home was a Banty Hen). 

My thoughts as well.  Of course if you don't have chickens. ... Although I would question the "wild" scent thing since "banty" is simply any chicken that has been bred to be small.  If it clucks like a chicken and walks like a chicken it probably smells like a chicken.

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[Happy Gilmore]

They may be good for training, but I don't think it's a good idea to get a dog used to attacking chickens.  One time a friend and I stopped at a farmer's house to get permission to bird hunt on his property.  The land owner and his dog were going to hunt with us, and we let our dogs out of the truck to get acquainted with his dog.  My dog immediately saw a bunch of chickens in the yard, and headed over to them.  I yelled "Chickens! No!".  She came right back.  (Her best friend at home was a Banty Hen). 

My thoughts as well.  Of course if you don't have chickens. ... Although I would question the "wild" scent thing since "banty" is simply any chicken that has been bred to be small.  If it clucks like a chicken and walks like a chicken it probably smells like a chicken.

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Bantams are from the Jungle Cock family and are not a down sized domesticated bird. The are ancestoral to the asian family of birds like the common ring neck. We'll assume you are "training" a dog. My dogs will not chase anything unless told to do so- hence "training".

[Heredoggydoggy]

Yep--It's all in training your dog to do what you want.  I trained my dog to avoid Skunks, too, and it paid off one day when mamma Skunk wasn't happy about my dog pestering her babies! 

[Happy Gilmore]

yeah they are almost as good as guinea hens.

same thing

[AspenBud]

My dogs will not chase anything unless told to do so- hence "training".

I'm hoping you mean that your dogs are trained to whistle sit or "leave it" and not that you tell them when they can or can not flush a pheasant or grouse once they are hunting for you...unless you're attempting to hunt like the Europeans do with pointers.

That said, while I'd be leery of encouraging a dog to view chickens as game, I think all dogs are at risk of being chicken killers if they get loose and are unattended by their owners. Not my first choice for training a dog, but birds are birds I suppose.

[Special T]

So what this conversation seems to be evoling into is "What is the best bang for the buck/effort for having training birds... Pigons, bantums, guinifowl, and??? Which are the best and why?

[Happy Gilmore]

My dogs will not chase anything unless told to do so- hence "training".

I'm hoping you mean that your dogs are trained to whistle sit or "leave it" and not that you tell them when they can or can not flush a pheasant or grouse once they are hunting for you...unless you're attempting to hunt like the Europeans do with pointers.

That said, while I'd be leery of encouraging a dog to view chickens as game, I think all dogs are at risk of being chicken killers if they get loose and are unattended by their owners. Not my first choice for training a dog, but birds are birds I suppose.

My dogs find chukar left behind from the pointer hunt tests all the time on their morning jaunts. They bring them back alive like clockwork. Properly force fetching a dog(completely) will teach the dog birds are not to be killed by his mouth.

[lokidog]

They may be good for training, but I don't think it's a good idea to get a dog used to attacking chickens.  One time a friend and I stopped at a farmer's house to get permission to bird hunt on his property.  The land owner and his dog were going to hunt with us, and we let our dogs out of the truck to get acquainted with his dog.  My dog immediately saw a bunch of chickens in the yard, and headed over to them.  I yelled "Chickens! No!".  She came right back.  (Her best friend at home was a Banty Hen). 

My thoughts as well.  Of course if you don't have chickens. ... Although I would question the "wild" scent thing since "banty" is simply any chicken that has been bred to be small.  If it clucks like a chicken and walks like a chicken it probably smells like a chicken.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk 2

Bantams are from the Jungle Cock family and are not a down sized domesticated bird. The are ancestoral to the asian family of birds like the common ring neck. We'll assume you are "training" a dog. My dogs will not chase anything unless told to do so- hence "training".

I won't argue that what you have  are from the jungle cock family (maybe your terminology is a little off?), but the term Bantam refers to any of a variety of breeds in a small form.  Here from Wikipedia:

A bantam (Indonesian: Ayam kate) is a small variety of poultry, especially chickens. Etymologically, the name bantam is derived from the city of Bantam [1] - currently known as "Banten Province" or previously "Banten Residency" - once a major seaport, in Indonesia. European sailors restocking on live fowl for sea journeys found the small native breeds of chicken in Southeast Asia to be useful, and any such small poultry came to be known as a bantam.
 
Most large chicken breeds have a bantam counterpart, sometimes referred to as a miniature. Miniatures are usually one-fifth to one-quarter the size of the standard breed, but they are expected to exhibit all of the standard breed's characteristics.   (bold is mine)

[Special T]

I thought tho bantams we NOT minitures of a standerd size?

[lokidog]

Maybe not originally, but that is the common reference today.  It could be the original bantum was a smaller variety of chicken or closely related fowl found in indonesia.   Although I can't find any references to a different breed of fowl called a bantum.    There are birds referred to as "true" bantams such as Silkies and Malaysian Serama that do not have a large counterpart.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bantam

[Heredoggydoggy]

I don't know what mine were.  My neighbor said they were some sort of cross.  I went through the poultry barn at the Waterville Fair this year, and there were breeds I'd never even heard of...

[AspenBud]

So what this conversation seems to be evoling into is "What is the best bang for the buck/effort for having training birds... Pigons, bantums, guinifowl, and??? Which are the best and why?

Homing pigeons, because they are tough and you can build a pen for them and reuse them. They are also generally stronger fliers than a lot of pen raised quail.

[AspenBud]

My dogs will not chase anything unless told to do so- hence "training".

I'm hoping you mean that your dogs are trained to whistle sit or "leave it" and not that you tell them when they can or can not flush a pheasant or grouse once they are hunting for you...unless you're attempting to hunt like the Europeans do with pointers.

That said, while I'd be leery of encouraging a dog to view chickens as game, I think all dogs are at risk of being chicken killers if they get loose and are unattended by their owners. Not my first choice for training a dog, but birds are birds I suppose.

My dogs find chukar left behind from the pointer hunt tests all the time on their morning jaunts. They bring them back alive like clockwork. Properly force fetching a dog(completely) will teach the dog birds are not to be killed by his mouth.

Chasing and retrieving are two different things.

An angry chicken owner probably won't see the difference. The bird is being chased and/or the bird is in the dog's mouth, bad bad news for a dog owner and his dog.

[Stilly bay]

So what this conversation seems to be evoling into is "What is the best bang for the buck/effort for having training birds... Pigons, bantums, guinifowl, and??? Which are the best and why?

Homing pigeons, because they are tough and you can build a pen for them and reuse them. They are also generally stronger fliers than a lot of pen raised quail.

I agree 100%

bantams and guinea fowl are very helpful for certain applications but not nearly as useful as homing pigeons.

yeah they are almost as good as guinea hens.

same thing

used for the the same situations maybe but bantam chickens and guinea fowl are nothing alike. Nothing beats a guinea fowl for teaching a dog to work running birds. I think they can fly farther than your average Bantam too.
The tricky part is finding an area where you can actually use them, those guineas can out run a pheasant.

[AspenBud]

So what this conversation seems to be evoling into is "What is the best bang for the buck/effort for having training birds... Pigons, bantums, guinifowl, and??? Which are the best and why?

Homing pigeons, because they are tough and you can build a pen for them and reuse them. They are also generally stronger fliers than a lot of pen raised quail.

I agree 100%

bantams and guinea fowl are very helpful for certain applications but not nearly as useful as homing pigeons.

yeah they are almost as good as guinea hens.

same thing

used for the the same situations maybe but bantam chickens and guinea fowl are nothing alike. Nothing beats a guinea fowl for teaching a dog to work running birds. I think they can fly farther than your average Bantam too.
The tricky part is finding an area where you can actually use them, those guineas can out run a pheasant.

I forgot one, train the dogs on the birds they are going to hunt if you live within a reasonable (you determine that) distance of them. One of the best bird dogs I know of is a German Shorthair that gets run on pheasant several months out of the year and spends about an equal amount on ruffed grouse.

There is no better trainer for a bird dog, or at least a pointer with some natural point in it, than wild birds.