The Barbu de Grubbe, nl, 'Grubbe baardkriel', is a breed of bantam

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It is a true bantam, and has no full-sized counterpart; males weigh about 700 grams and hens about 600 g. It is a tail-less variant of the

Barbu d'Anvers The Barbu d'Anvers, nl, Antwerpse baardkriel, italic=no, is a breed of bantam chicken from Belgium. It is a true bantam, and has no full-sized counterpart; males weigh about 700 grams and hens about 600 g. The Barbu d'Anvers is one of the oldest ...

, and is otherwise similar to it in every respect. The same colour varieties are accepted for the Barbu de Grubbe as for the Barbu d'Anvers.

History

In about 1904 a tail-less Barbu d'Anvers was born to the breeder Robert Pauwels, creator of the Barbu d'Everberg breed, at his breeding farm in the municipality of Kortenberg, between

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and Louvain. By careful cross-breeding he created a good number of such tail-less birds, which were seen at many exhibitions up to the time of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The name Barbu de Grubbe was given to the breed. After the War they were not again seen for several decades. In 2012 a total of 170 breeding Barbu de Grubbe birds were counted in Belgium. The breed is rare, and is considered to be "in danger"; the conservation status of many other Belgian bantam breeds is classed as "critical". The Barbu de Grubbe is regularly seen at poultry exhibitions in the Netherlands, and has since 2008 been recognised in Germany. In the United kingdom it is classed among the true bantams.

Characteristics

The Barbu de Grubbe is identical in all respects to the Barbu d'Anvers, except that the tail and

coccygeal The coccyx ( : coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and other ...

bone are absent.

Use

The Barbu de Grubbe is an ornamental breed, kept mainly for fancy. Hens lay small creamy-white

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

weighing about .

References

Bantam chicken breeds Chicken breeds Chicken breeds originating in Belgium Kortenberg {{poultry-stub