Old English Game

Old English Game is a British chicken breed most likely originally bred for cockfighting, a use that continued until the practice was abolished in Britain in 1849, after which the breed was kept primarily for show rather than fighting. It is recognized in two main standards, the Carlisle type and the taller, more upright Oxford type, alongside a bantam version, with a remarkable range of recognized plumage colors: thirteen colors under the British Carlisle standard, thirty under the Oxford standard, thirty-three recognized by European poultry organizations, and twenty-eight by the American Poultry Association. Standard sized birds range from roughly 1.8 to just under 3 kilograms depending on type, with bantams considerably smaller at 620 to 740 grams, and hens lay a modest number of small tinted eggs, about forty a year. Since the nineteenth century ban on cockfighting the breed has survived as a popular and colorful exhibition fowl overseen by dedicated breed clubs recognized by the Poultry Club of Great Britain.