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Among the many decorative breeds of chickens, there is one completely unique breed, one of the lines of which is strictly contraindicated from flying off the perch and walking on the ground, looking for tasty worms. These are phoenix chickens – originally “invented” in China. In the Celestial Empire, the long-tailed breed of chickens, then called Fen Huan, arose in the 1st millennium AD.
In this country, which is also the birthplace of Feng Shui, according to this system of arranging household items, in order to attract good luck, a Phoenix chicken should live in the southern part of the yard.
She lives. But judging by the landscape, she doesn’t have much luck.
To be fair, the tails of the ancient Fen-Huans were shorter.
Over time, phoenixes found their way to the Japanese islands, where they were renamed Yokohama-toshi and Onagadori, occupying a high position in the imperial court. After which the arms race began, in the sense of the struggle for the superior length of the rooster's tail.
To this day, the Japanese line of the phoenix breed already has 10-meter tails. The Japanese maliciously promise to lengthen the rooster's tail to 16 m.Why they need this is unclear, since the rooster is already deprived of the ability to move due to its tail. To walk with its own paws, the Japanese Phoenix rooster requires a special person to support its tail. If it is not possible to hire a person, you can wrap curlers around your tail. The Japanese keep their roosters in narrow and high cages. The width of the cage is no more than 20 cm, the depth is 80 cm. Food and water are brought to the chickens directly to the roost.
The feathers of chickens, like those of any birds, change twice a year, and the tails would not have had time to grow to such a length if it were not for the Japanese geneticist who was involved in breeding the breed, who managed to find and “turn off” the gene responsible for the seasonal change of feathers in phoenixes.
As a result, the older the rooster, the longer its tail. The oldest rooster, aged 17, has a tail 13 m long.
Thus, the Feng Shui symbol of good luck is a bird suffering from physical inactivity and improper metabolism, imprisoned in a single cage. Somehow luck usually appears differently.
The video clearly shows how “happy” the bird itself is with such a tail, even if it has the opportunity to walk
Fortunately, or unfortunately, such long-tailed chickens are almost impossible to get. In Japan, it is forbidden to kill and sell them; the transfer of a phoenix chicken to other hands is possible only as a result of exchange.
Practical Germans did not chase the size of the phoenix's tail, leaving the maximum length to 3 m. It is the German line that is mainly widespread in the world. Although roosters have shorter tails, there are still plenty of problems here. The rooster can still handle a tail of up to one and a half to two meters on its own; if a longer tail grows, the owner will have to walk his pet in his arms.
Phoenix chicken breed standard
The standard describes the German line of the Japanese chicken breed.
General appearance: Slender, elegant chicken with a long tail, which is a distinctive feature of the breed. A rooster weighs 2-2.5 kg, a chicken - 1.5-2 kg.
Breed characteristics of the rooster
A slender, proud-looking phoenix rooster makes an impression. It is given a proud appearance by its almost straight-set body with a wide and long back, narrower near the lower back. The tail, set low, fluffy and flat on the sides, does not weigh down the silhouette of the rooster, although it is of extreme length. Even if the tail of young roosters has not yet reached full size, however, even in one-year-olds it should be at least 90 cm. An adult bird flaunts tail feathers up to 3 m.
The small head of the phoenix rooster, with its simple, erect and low comb, can be used as a model for stylized designs of rooster heads. The combination of dark orange eyes with a gray-blue beak is very interesting. The beak can also be pale yellow, but this combination is no longer interesting. The beak is medium in size.
Further, the variety of colors of the rooster's head continues with small white lobes and medium-sized red earrings.
The rooster's neck is of medium length and covered with luxurious, very long and narrow feathers that even extend onto the back. On the lower back, feathers do not stop growing throughout the life of the rooster, and old phoenixes sport feathers that fall to the ground.
The phoenix rooster keeps its wings tightly pressed to its body, preferring to move on its legs with medium-sized shins covered with a dense layer of feathers.
Thin limb bones usually indicate a light skeleton. A thin metatarsus cannot have a powerful spur, so phoenixes sport elegant but long spurs.
The belly of a phoenix rooster is hidden by the long feathers of the lower back and is not visible from the side. It should be noted that the phoenix has hard and narrow feathers.
Breed characteristics of chickens
Phoenix chickens are smaller and sleeker, with a lower body. The head is decorated only with a small erect comb and small earrings. The tail, set horizontally and flat on the sides, is shorter than a rooster's, but also has an unusual length for chickens. The tail feathers are saber-shaped and quite long for a chicken of any other breed. The tail is very bushy with covert feathers long and rounded at the ends, capable of covering the tail feathers. Spurs on the legs are not a disadvantage for chickens.
Exterior defects for Phoenix chickens
Common to other breeds of chickens, red lobes are a defect for the Phoenix. A short nib is also unacceptable. This is especially true for the mane, lower back and tail of phoenixes. Wide braids in the tail of a phoenix rooster are disqualifying. Phoenix metatarsals can only be dark; Phoenix chickens with yellow or white metatarsals are discarded from breeding.
Colors
The Phoenix breed standard provides for five color options: wild, orange-mane, white, silver-mane and golden-mane. The phoenixes in the photo give an idea of what the different colors of these chickens look like.
Wild color
Rooster. The general impression of color is brown. The color of the earth in the forest. The black-brown color of the head fades into the red-brown with black streaks along the feather shaft and the color of the neck. The back and wings are similar in color to black soil. The loin is the same color as the neck.Flight feathers: first order – black; second order - brown. The only decoration of the “wild” rooster is its emerald-colored tail and mirrors on its wings. The lower part of the body is black, the lower legs are dark gray..
Chicken. Camouflage, dismembered speckled coloration. The black color of the head on the neck gradually turns into brown through the addition of a narrow brown border to the feathers. The plumage of the upper part of the body is speckled. The predominant color is brown with black specks, shimmering with green. The feathers are brown, on the upper part of the body without a black border, but with a light shaft. The chest is chestnut-colored with small black dots. The belly and legs are gray-black. The tail is black.
The color is less common than others. Perhaps because the word “wild” scares me away.
"Wild" and silver-maned
Orange-maned
Rooster. If not for the tail, it would be an ordinary village rooster with orange plumage on the neck, lower back and head. The wings and back are dark, brownish in color. The flight feather of the first order is black, the second is pale yellow on the outside. Black mirrors and tail have an emerald shine. The lower part of the body and shins are black.
Chicken. The head is brown. The dark color of the plumage of the head on the neck smoothly turns into yellow-orange with black specks. The upper part of the body, including the wings, is warm brown with fine black speckling and light feather shafts. The chest is a muted carrot color. The belly and lower legs are gray. The tail is black.
White
Pure white color without the slightest admixture of another color. In the Phoenix breed, yellow feathers are not allowed.
White
Silvermane
Rooster. When looking at the bird, you get the impression that the phoenix rooster is wrapped in a silver-white mantle from head to tail.The feathers on the head, neck and lower back shine with the shine of either silver or platinum. The back and wings are white. Arguing with silver, the second half of the rooster, covered with black plumage, shimmers with an emerald glow. The flight feather of the first order is black, the second is white on the outside.
A young, unmolted hen.
Chicken. The chicken is much more modest. A white feather with a platinum sheen on the head descends to the neck, diluted with black strokes. The body is dark brown with a beige chest, which becomes somewhat brighter in older age, turning into a muted orange color. The tail is pure black, without shades. The belly and lower legs are gray.
Silvermane
Golden-maned
Rooster. The color is almost the same. Like the orange mane, but the color of the feathers on the head, neck and lower back is not orange, but yellow. Plus a metallic shimmer is added.
Chicken. Like the rooster, the color is similar to the color of the orange-maned version, but the color scheme has a bias not in the red spectrum, but in the yellow spectrum.
Productive characteristics of the breed
Egg production is 100 light yellow eggs per year weighing from 45 g. Phoenix meat has good taste characteristics, if someone raises the hand to slaughter a chicken.
Pygmy phoenixes
Based on Japanese and bantam chickens, the same Germans developed the “dwarf phoenix” breed.
The description, appearance and colors of the dwarf phoenix are no different from its large counterparts. The only difference is in weight, productivity and proportionally shortened tail length.
The weight of dwarf cockerels is 0.8 kg, hens – 0.7 kg. The tail length is up to 1.5 m versus 3 meters for a large phoenix.Egg production is about 60 yellowish eggs weighing from 25 g.
Feeding
Feeding phoenixes is no different from feeding any other chicken breed. Phoenixes happily consume soft food, which is best given in the morning, and grain - at night. Phoenix chickens are usually fed twice a day. If phoenix chickens are fattened for meat, then you can feed them more often.
Breeding
There is an opinion that phoenix chickens are bad mothers, so the eggs need to be collected and the chicks hatched in an incubator. Perhaps this is actually true. Maybe the fact is that almost all phoenixes were bred in an incubator, without communicating with the hen. Oddly enough, the best hens are those chickens that were themselves bred under a hen. Chickens bred in an incubator often lack this instinct. With phoenixes, in this case, you get a vicious circle: buying an incubator egg - incubator - chicken - laying hen - incubator.
You can open it by conducting an experiment and breeding a phoenix under another layer. But usually they now prefer to use incubators.
Features of keeping and walking
Because of their long tails, phoenixes need to make special perches at a height of 2-3 m. There is no need to worry about walking. Phoenixes are very frost-resistant and happily walk in the snow, reluctantly going indoors. However, to prevent chickens from freezing, the roosting area must be insulated.
In general, with the exception of fuss with a long tail, the phoenix is an unpretentious and trouble-free chicken that can be owned even by beginners.
