A bantam is a small variety of poultry especially chickens. The name bantam originates from the city of Bantam, once a major port in Indonesia, now known as Banten Province. When sailors stopped to restock on their journeys they found the small native breeds of chicken in Southeast Asia to be useful, and small poultry came to be known as a bantam. Bantams are sometimes referred to as miniature as they occur in the same breeds as large chickens. Miniatures normally exhibit the characteristics of the standard breeds and are approximately a quarter of the size. Bantam hens can be used as laying hens, with some breeds laying up to 150 eggs per year. However, due to the smaller size of a bantam chicken, the eggs are about half or a third of the size of a regular hen’s egg.