Bassette

The bassette is a small Belgian chicken from the Walloon country around Liège, sometimes treated in English as the Liège bantam or Bassette Liégeoise. It is a light, active farmyard type rather than a feathered-leg fancy bantam, with a neat single comb, clean legs, close feathering, and a body large enough to make it useful for eggs as well as exhibition. It is seen in many color varieties, including black, blue, cuckoo or barred, duckwing, birchen, buff, and laced patterns.

These chickens are best managed as hardy bantam-size poultry: dry housing, secure runs, and enough outdoor space for their alert foraging habits. They can fly better than heavy large fowl, so fencing and covered pens may be needed. Hens lay small white to cream eggs, and brooding tendency varies by line. Because the breed is uncommon outside Belgium and specialist European circles, breeders usually value pure, correctly typed birds and avoid mixing them with generic barnyard bantams sold under a similar name.