[duckface3]

what difference if any between bantam, miniture and dwarf ?

[Sylvia]

I've nrver heard of Minature or Dwarf chickens in more than forty years of keeping them. Bantams can be true breeds or a small variety of large fowl.
I breed quite a few breeds and find that when line or inbreeding you do get some "dwarf" chickens. The best way for these to go is in the freezer and you know it's time to change your cockerel!!!

[SallyintNorth]

I think I remember reading in an old book that a bantam is a true breed for which there is no equivalent Large Fowl; a miniature is a bantam-sized version of a Large Fowl breed which breeds true (to size and type.)  I guess dwarf would mean unexpectedly miniature, as Sylvia says a result of a breeding mishap perhaps.

But these days there doesn't seem to be the distinction between bantam and miniature - is it that we now have so many bred up and bred down and so available in both pint-sized and Large, that it's no longer even possible to say what small bird breeds are true banties?

[Mel Rice]

Over here (Germany) they have bantam sized birds listed as Zwerge Hunner, ie, dwarf hens...ive not seen any listed as bantams in any of the bird shows as yet!

[cluckingnuts]

Like SallyintNorth, I am under the impression that a bantam has no LF counterpart whereas a miniature does.
A dwarf refers to the leg not the body. It looks similar to breeds that have the creeper gene. Whereas the creeper gene is autosomal dominant and lethal in homozygote form, the dwarfing gene is non-lethal sex-linked recessive.
It is used in the commercial meat industry to produce the parent dam breeders, the reason being they have 37% better feed efficiency. Being sex-linked recessive they are always mated to a non-dwarf cock so all offspring will inherit the cocks leg length and feeders and waters can be kept at the same height.

[Rich/Jan]

British Poultry Standards list Bantams as a bird with no large fowl counterpart, miniatures are smaller versions of large fowl and dwarfs are basically a bird which hasn't grown to its full size but not recognised by the British Poultry Standards in any way.  Richard