Onagadori - Long Tail Fowl and Long Crowing Fowl Discussion Forums

I had a problem along time ago with hens that I had already gave oyster shell to eating eggs.I moved there nest boxes up to where they were 2 to 3 feet of of the ground and it stopped immediatly.Out of site out of mind seems to be true.It also keeps roos out.I use mostly 5 gal buckets with the lid cut in half.It seems to increse the hatching rate to.Hope this helps someone.

That's a great tip. I've had birds that do that sometimes. Another thing that works, probably not as good as good as raising the boxes though, is giving them ping pong balls. They seem to just give up trying to break them open.

I can't get mine to use nest boxes. They just prefer the floor over in a corner of the pen. Kind of JF or pheasant-like?
Bye for now,


David

Try putting the box in a dark corner of the pen out of the wind.another thing that will work alot of the times is when they lay keep putting the eggs in the box.sometimes they catch on.lol

Mine are indoors in an insulated room. No wind. But even back in the dark corner with eggs and dummy eggs in it, no interest. I've heard that Jungle Fowl can be the same way in captivity?
Bye for now,


David

have any of you breeders ever tried putting the pine tree stands in the corners like pheasant people do?
or is it not necessary? Do your type of birds like the alfalfa leaves that I used by putting the piece of alfalfa bale ung from the ceiling wrapped inside of a piece of chicken wire? Maybe that would not work with your pens?
Also do the long tail birds breed with such a long tail? You can see I know nothing of this type of bird!!!
glenda L Heywood
frizzlebird9@yahoo.com
http://www.gkpet.com
click on pet forum

Hi Glenda!

It's great to have you here. I think long-tail pens are probably much like Pheasant pens. Our birds have the flight capabilities in common with Pheasants. They can travel at least 200 ft with complete control when they so choose. They can make sharp turns in the air. Not like most other chickens that only fly from point A to point B in a straight line.

I'm not familiar with the pine tree stands though?

I've never tried alfalfa with my birds (lots of phyto-estrogen), but I bet they would like it. They love about any other leafy green.

They can bred well up until the tail grows over few feet in length. After that it's either hold the tail out of the way by hand or cut it.

About every molting breed of long-tail (such as Phoenix, Yokohama, and Sumatra) can breed uninhibited like any other breed. It's only the non-molting descendants of the Onagadori that have problems. The tails get quite long and cumbersome for them. I just use the Japanese method for those: Test the males for at least a couple years to see that they are non-molting to make breeder selections, then cut the tail back to 2 Ft, and place them in a breeding pen. Takes them a couple weeks to figure out what to do. LOL
Bye for now,


David

I have never had a problem with the fertility yet as far as long tails. I have always heard testosterone plays a key role in the feather growth.That would explain the good fertility with mine. But I would imagine after the tail got so long it would get heavy and be hard for him to catch a pullet. my brood hens will all lay down for a roo and that helps fertility.