The Black Phoenix
The Black Phoenix, a breed I created out of crosses
between: White Onagadori (recessive white with willow green legs, out of
Silver Duckwing breeding), Silver Duckwing Onagadori, White Modern English
Game, Sumatra (Swiss type - a bit thick-bodied), Black Hamburger (Bubentzer
strain) Rosecomb Minorka (Swiss Strain) and a huge Yokohama of Dutch descent.
Later the breed was crossed with Bantam Black Phoenix by my colleague Knut
Roeder to improve type and leg colouring, but this also reduced the size
incredibly.
I created the foundation of the line in the late
1980's, but Knut worked with it for a number of years while I was unable
to care for them. He then gave them all over to a retired farmer in northern
Germany who had no idea what to select for and what I got back after 6 years
was a near-bantam with a few long sickle feather. The type had also gone
back to the Minorka with giant earlobes and heavy bodies. I am now working
with them again and, with the help of black Hamburghs (again Bubenzter strain),
a very elegant bird of the Japanese Longtail breed Kurogashiwa and extremely
feather-rich Phoenix from an East German strain from Eberhardt Schubert,
the birds are starting to look like large black Phoenix again. The bird
in the top illustration was my principle breeding cock in 2000.
The breed should meet the strict requirements
of the Phoenix in that the form should be pheasant-like, the combs simple
and finely pointed with at least 4 points (preferably 5 or 6), the saddle
feathers should be full and hang at least to the spores or better, all the
way to the ground, the tail feathers should trail the ground at least by
a few centimetres, better would be trailing by 15 - 20 cm. The legs will
be dark to black and the eyes dark brown. Earlobes pure white and the combs
between 4 and 6-pointed.
I have now had the line back for 5 years and the two birds
above are now typical for my line. I have outcrossed them, however, with
the extremely feather-rich line of Phoenix from Schubert that I mentioned
above to improve saddle and covert length, the results of which I will show
here in late 2001, early in 2002. Stay tuned!