DENIZLI
One of the WORLD'S GREATEST LONGCROWER!
- Good news also for America - in the
Spring of 2002 I was successful in officially exporting the Birchen Denizli
to a small group of breeders in America who will be dedicating themselves
to this incredible trumpeter! Contact me if you are interested, the waiting
list is growing.....
- Click on the image or here for a mpg file from the official Denizli-horoz
website - it is a large
file and takes a few minutes, but one can hear a troup of
- Denizli crowing in the background like a herd
of elephants!!! INCREDIBLE!!!
Perhaps the world's best "singer fowl".
The western world has Mr. Wolfgang Vits (see picture below, lecturing on
the Denizli in the mid 1990's) to thank for the (re)discovery and the dissemination
of this incredible breed of fowl outside of Turkey.
Wolfgang, in 1984, during his travels in Turkey,
heard said that there was an extremely long-crowing breed of poultry in
East Analtolia. In Trabzon, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, He met
together with gamefowl breeders and witnessed a gaming event of fowl organized
by a Turkish pigeon breeder friend, Mr Ihsan Kandill who at that time lived
in Southern Germany. At this event, he was told that there was a special
breed called Denizli horoz, that one of the breeders would like to show
him. It was late at night, however, when the Turkish man brought his cock
and the bird was not very willing to "sing" at this hour and not
in front of strange surrounding. He was supposed to have a "song"
of at least 15 seconds.
In 1985 and in 1986 he tried in vain to import
eggs by way of Turkish seasonal immigrant workers in Germany. Not even a
high "finder's fee" helped as incentive. For this reason he undertook
the trip again, this time with his wife, Dr. Brigit Vits, to travel inland
again in the search of this rare breed. In order to keep the breed pure
and to ensure its survival, a governmental breeding station has been set
up that maintains the selections of voice. Chicks are then avaiable to farmers
in the surrounding area. By this method the government has ensured their
suvival, as the birds that are given out are often quickly crossed with
laying- and broiler-hybrids that roam free with them on the farms. The breed
is well known in Turkey. The city of Denizli has an image of a crowing rooster
in its coat-of-arms and a common expression in Turkish is "you make
as much noise as a Denizli rooster!"
The visit to the breeding station was very impressive
indeen. 100 or more cocks werre in a kind of farm shed divided of approximately
4 ' x 4' into small family groups (according to ancestory). They were raised
on wood slats for hygiene purposed. "The roosters sang, or rather trumpeted
continuously and simulatenous, each with a slightly different pitch: a complete
orchestra!!", Wolfgang vits. "This was around noon. In the morning
they would sing more! Most of the crows were about 10 - 15 seconds in length,
some longer. One particular cock crowed only 7 - 8 seconds. I was told that
he had a particularly melodic voice."
Wolfgang received 30 eggs of ca. 60gram weight
each and a breed description in Turkish (!) which took a while to have translated
and to understand.
translated and adpated by Marc King - used with permission from
Wolfgang Vits, Marburgh, GERMANY
