Japanese Bantam

"Chabo" redirects here. For the Japanese musician, see Reichi Nakaido.

Japanese bantam

A pair of black-tailed Japanese bantams
Other names	Chabo Shojo Chabo Katsura Chabo
Country of origin	Japan
Distribution	South Asia
Use	fancy
Traits
Weight	Male: 510–600 g Female: 400–510 g
Skin color	yellow
Egg color	cream or tinted
Comb type	single
Classification
APA	single comb clean-legged
EE	yes
PCGB	True bantam
Chicken Gallus gallus domesticus

The Japanese bantam or Chabo is a breed of chicken originating in Japan. It is a true bantam breed, meaning that there are no large fowl counterparts. It has a large upright tail that often reaches over the bird's head. The wings angle down, and to the back, along the sides.

Characteristics

A young Black-tailed buff Japanese bantam cockerel, which has not yet developed the breed's characteristic large tail and comb

The Japanese bantam has very short legs. This trait is caused by a single lethal gene. All proper Japanese bantams are then heterozygous meaning that when the birds are bred, 25% of the embryos will receive two mutant alleles and die in shell. The other 50% of the embryos will receive one mutant allele and one wild type allele and will then be short-legged. The remaining 25% receive two wild type alleles and have legs that are longer than what most breeders want. Long-legged birds bred to each other will never produce short-leg offspring.

There are many colour varieties of Japanese bantam, with standardised colours including birchen grey, black, black mottled, black-tailed buff, black-tailed white, blue, blue mottled, blue-red, brown-red, buff Columbian, cuckoo, dark grey, golden duckwing, gray, lavender, Miller's gray, partridge, red, red mottled, silver-grey, tri-coloured, wheaten and white. There are also frizzle-feathered and Silkie-feathered variations. These chickens have been known to live for up to 13 years with proper care.