Australian Game Chicken

Though developed from the Australian Pit Game, the Australian Game chicken differs greatly in stature. Originally it was called the “Colonial” or “Colonial Game”. The Colonial was considered the perfect farm breed providing good meat for the table.

This breed was accomplished by recrossing Australian Pit Games, with breeds used to develop it like: Old English Games, Malays, and Asil with much emphasis on the legginess of the Malay and other Modern Games.

Over the last 25 years the bantam variety has been established in many colors.

Show judges look for birds of superior style, type, and feather quality.

Australian Game, The Facts:

Class: Heavy

Size: Standard Male: 9 - 12 Ibs. / Standard Female: 9 – 10 Ibs. / Bantam Male: 44-56 oz. / Bantam Female: 36-44 oz.

Comb, Wattles & Earlobes: Pea or triple comb, though often dubbed. Wattles and earlobes smooth with a slightly loose upper brow, all usually red.

Color: There is no standard for color with full attention to proper structure.

Place of Origin: New South Whales

Conservation Status: common in Australia

This breed is tall, heavy, and rugged with a good following developed and refined in the latter half of the 19th century as a true Pit Game Fowl. Today they are raised exclusively as an exhibition breed. They are known for being quite tame towards their keepers in spite of their history in the fighting pit.

They are expected to be well proportioned but massive with tight feathering and little down. A cockbird’s tail feathers should be held moderately full and long, just above horizontal.

Words like: upright, fearless, vigorous, and active are used to describe the standard of expectation for this breed. Though tall they are expected to be short bodied, heavily muscled legs, with wide shoulders diminishing towards the tail. Their slightly arched neck is long adding to their image as a very large chicken.

The adult female mirrors the stature of the male in all points but size and obvious sexual difference.