Very long tailed chickens.

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello Jo and Diane,

Can you please help me with the name of the Chicken breed where the cocks have the extremely long tail feathers, as far as I can remember the breed is Japanese?:-?

I remember seeing a photo in a book with a cockerel sitting on top of a wall with a cascading tail that was over 10ft long, but I can't remeber the name?

The other question is are these birds available in the UK?

Paul.;)

[chris]

Hi Paul,

i know which you are referring to although i didn't know the tails were that big:shock: pitty i don't know the bloomin name

Chris

[Waxbillman]

holy cow Paul, 10ft long??

Matthew

[Diane]

I think you mean the Yokahama . Beautiful birds initially imported in Europe in l864 by a missionary called Girad. They were imported throught the Japanese port of that name - and thus onwards to France. The history of the breed's origins are obscure except that the Yokahama's progenitors came from Japan. (they need a very high perch and aren't particular good layers).

[Waxbillman]

below is a picture of the mentioned chicken, taken from the following site www.geocities.com/Tokyo/ Shrine/2425/yokohama.htm if you want to go on the site copy and paste the address as clicking on the link does not work
makes a good read actually

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/2425/yokohama.gif

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello all,

I'm sorry if my memory of the tail length is exaggerated,:roll: but the name Yokahama is the one I'm thinking of, the picture I remember in one of my books (which are still packed in boxes in the loft for a house move that didn't happen:-(), shows a cockerel perched on a brick wall with a tail far longer than the cockerel in Matthew's post.

Diane, I'm not surprised this breed isn't noted for being a good layer, I'm sure it was intended as a fancy breed rather than an egg layer.:lol:

I hope to find the time to go through the boxes in the loft in order to find the photo that brought about my question.

Paul.;)

[Rogerb]

hiya mate after your post I rang mum who 40 years ago had allsorts fowl on the farm the only thing she could come up with was that it might be a hybrid of an oriental bird related to the peacock family , I remember them as a kid and they did peck if you went into there territory the pics that matt put up are very much as I remember them but I was small so they looked a lot biger to me then ;-)

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello all,

I've found a link on the net which should explain better what I was thinking of,:grin: apparently the Yokahama is the name of a UK Longtailed Fowl, but the true Longtailed Fowl and the bird I had in mind is the Onagadori, please check out this link www.longtailed-fowl.com (http://www.longtailed-fowl.com) and click on the link for the Onagadori photos, you will be amazed.:lol:

Paul.:grin:

[kenny]

hi paul
you are right they are some really long tail feathers must be well over 6 feet some of them i wouldnt want to clean them up for a show

ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

I would say 6ft and then some, and then some more for good measure.:lol:

Apparently despite the poses for the photos, the birds destined for exhibition have their tails rolled into bags to keep them from becoming damaged.

Anyway I take back my comment apologising for exageration regarding the tail length of the birds I was thinking of.:-D

Paul.:wink:

[kenny]

hi all
just a warning here as i know that laura,you yourself mentioned buying sisal as nesting material,went to the new avairy at east park today(left me camera in the car) stupid idiot and i had to point out to one of the keepers that 2 of their bob-white quail had stuff wrapped round their feet in really tight balls the guy caught them up and he found out it was from a bunch of sisal that they had cut up in to 3inch peices for nesting material for all the other birds how it got round their feet with such small lenghts was beyond me and him but it could have been really bad if he hadnt noticed it

ken8-)

[laurab]

Thanks for that Kenny, I will keep an eye on them ;)