Reviews by Soli

The Phoenix is a great bird for someone who wants a chicken that everyone will comment on, even non-chicken people. A well-bred Phoenix rooster can be a real showpiece on a farm. They are fair to medium layers, and the roosters are quite protective of the hens without being obnoxious. The downsides to the breed is that the roosters are not good for small backyard coops due to their tails, and the eggs tend to be on the smaller size, even for standard large fowl. They do make excellent free-range birds, however, with great flying abilities.

Sumatra are a great choice for either a breeder of ornamental fowl, or someone who wants a hardy, self-sustaining flock of free range birds. They fly extremely well at an early age and tend to be wary, which helps them survive predators when on their own, *if* they have a safe place to fly to (such as barn rafters, etc). As an ornamental fowl, they are quite beautiful and several show lines will have lengthy saddle and tail feathers, although you will not see this in hatchery quality birds. American Sumatra will tend to have longer feathers, while European-bred Sumatra will have more of a gamey appearance, with longer legs and tail and saddles not reaching the ground. Sumatra can display bird-aggression, particularly seasonally, but they are not considered gamefowl in any sense other than their historical origin.