Nankin

Origin:  Asia

Category:  True Bantams, Softfeather Light Breed

Egg Colour:  Tinted

Sitter:  Yes

This variety of bantams is one of the very oldest. Yellow bantams on the island of Java were known as Nankin which is a reference to the buff or nankeen colour of the fowl.  Some believe they may also have come from India. Early Nankin were yellow fowls with dull blue legs and feet and small combs. It is possible they may have been from the same origin as the Pekin bantams from China and are also related to the Silkies for all had the bluish tinge in the shanks and feet and many had five toes. These Nankin were among the first bantams to be transported to England via trading ships. They have been used in the creation of other bantam breeds including the Sebright Bantam. They have been widely recognised as excellent brood fowls, as great family pets, and they also have a place as an exhibition or fancy breed. Nankin were included in the 2016 importation of poultry from the United Kingdom to Australia.

Male Characteristics

Carriage:  Lively, haughty and courageous, strutting with a vain and conceited air.

Type: Small, neat and compact. 

Body: Small but rotund and trim. Back short, sloping slightly to the tail. 

Breast full, prominent and carried well forward. 

Wings: large, neatly folded closed and carried low, almost to the ground. 

Tail: large, well spread, carried upright with long curved sickles. Tail carried high but not squirrel, well furnished with flowing sickles and coverts. 

Head: Small, neat and refined.  Face smooth and fine in texture. Earlobes: small, smooth, flat, and nearly circular. Wattles: thin, small, well-rounded, and smooth. 

Neck: Arched, and of medium length; the cock's hackle very long and full, flowing well on to the shoulders. 

Comb: Single or rosecomb. Single - tidy 3 to 6 serrations upright and slightly flyaway. Rosecomb - small, round, close-fitting, full of coral-like spikes and having a small leader curved slightly upward. 

Beak: fine, slightly curved. 

Eyes: large, bright and full. 

Legs and Feet:  Thighs short, neat, slender - set well apart on short, rounded shanks free from feathers. Feet rather small. Four toes, spread and straight. 

Female Characteristics

Carriage is lower and less haughty in the female. The tail is slightly lower. Other aspects of the female are similar to those of the male allowing for sexual differences.

Colour

Plumage: 

Nankins come in a single colour , with buff on the body and black tails. The golden hue is deeper and more lustrous in males. 

Male Colour

The cock has very showy plumage,  with a ginger-buff ground colour and rich orange neck, back and saddle hackle.  Deep chestnut on the wings is apparent. 

Tail: Main tail feathers are black while the sickles and side hangers are bronze or copper graduating into black. 

Wing Primaries: black. Secondaries: The outer web, ginger-buff/cinnamon; the inner, degree of black.

Comb, Face, Ear Lobes, and Wattles: bright red.

Eyes: Bright orange.

Undercolour: ginger-buff. 

Beak: Light horn colour or white.

Legs and feet: slate blue or bluish white, sometimes a pinkish strip on outside shank.

Remainder of plumage: rich, warm ginger-buff or cinnamon, as even as possible in shade.

Female Colour

Plumage ground colour ginger-buff. The neck, back, wings and tail a dark ginger-buff. 

Tail gradually changing from ginger-buff to black at the ends.

Wing Primaries:  dark brown or black. Secondaries: The outer web, ginger-buff/cinnamon; the inner, degree of black but it may be absent.

Comb, Face, Ear Lobes, and Wattles: bright red.

Skin: (including face, comb, wattles & earlobes): bright red.

Eyes: Bright orange.

Beak: White or light horn.

Undercolour: light ginger-buff. 

Legs and feet: slate blue or bluish white. 

Remainder of plumage: clear medium shade of buff, as even as possible throughout.

Weights

Male: 680-740g

Female: 570-620g

Points

The points related priorities are firstly for 'Type and carriage' which carry 25. Second comes colour. The remaining features all carry lower amounts of points. See APS.

Disqualifications and Serious Defects

See Disqualifications.

Serious defects are: comb foreign to those allowed in the standard, serious deformity of comb, white earlobes, even colour throughout plumage, black striping or flecking on saddle and neck hackle, mealiness in suface or grey undercolour, visible black in closed wings, white in base of tail, white feathers in wings or tail, lack of any black at all in tails, Excessively long legs, disproportionately large feet, foreign leg colour. 

Sources

Australian Poultry Standards

http://www.kippenencyclopedie.nl/php/index.php?title=Nankingkriel

Entwisle, W. Flamank. (1894). Bantams. Wakefield: E.H. Entwisle. p. 88, 89. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433006525517&seq=120&q1=Nankin

The Nankin Bantam: A Rare and Ancient Fowl by Mark A. Fields.  https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/Foundation/journal/Winter09/images/nankin.jpg

McGrew, T. F. 1850-1930. (1903). The bantam fowl: a description of all standard breeds and varieties of bantams, and of new breeds that are becoming popular ... [2d ed.] Quincy, Ill.: Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company. p. 51.

Schuster, M. J. (1887). Das Huhn im Dienste der Land- und Volks-wirthschaft, sowie des Sports. 2. Aufl. Ilmenau: A. Schröter.

The Australasian Melbourne Victoria Sat 11 April 1931.

Weir, H. (190405). The poultry book. [2d ed.] New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nankin_Bantam

Entwisle, W. Flamank. (1894). Bantams. Wakefield: E.H. Entwisle.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dalemcnl/2975361858/ by Dale McNeill CC BY-NC 2.0