Polish chicken, also known as “Paduans” have a huge crest of feathers growing from a cone on top of their heads. These feathers may grow to an extend which impairs their eyesight, which makes them easy pray to a wide variety of predators including men. When finding their food becomes difficult some pruning of these feathers around their eyes might be necessary. Some are bearded, and many have a colour pattern whereby individual feathers are banded by a different colour. Their origin is Europe (Polish from the Netherlands and Paduans from Italy), where they are mainly kept as ornamental or show birds these days, but originally they were layers, laying acceptable numbers of white eggs. A bantam variety is much smaller than the usual breed standards suggest and make nice, hardy and easy to keep pets. Some hens will become broody and then will rear their chicks with much care. Choosing from all the dwarf varieties of chicken they are a good choice for beginners and will most certainly be a colourful complement to any garden.