It is a true bantam, and has no full-sized counterpart; males weigh about 700 grams and hens about 600 g. It is a tail-less variant of the Barbu d'Anvers, and is otherwise similar to it in every respect.
[2]: 52 In about 1904 a tail-less Barbu d'Anvers was born to the breeder Robert Pauwels, creator of the Barbu d'Everberg breed, at his breeding farm in the municipality of Kortenberg, between Brussels and Louvain.
By careful cross-breeding he created a good number of such tail-less birds, which were seen at many exhibitions up to the time of the First World War.
[2]: 52 In 2012 a total of 170 breeding Barbu de Grubbe birds were counted in Belgium.
The Barbu de Grubbe is regularly seen at poultry exhibitions in the Netherlands, and has since 2008 been recognised in Germany.