Golden Phoenix, any one haveexperience with them?

[lockedhearts]

I am getting 5 GOlden Phoenix next week. I really like them and honestly am hoping to show them someday.
Wondering if anyone here has experience with them and/or showing in general.
I assume to keep them and any Show Birds in the best conditiion I need a coop seperate from my regular laying flock.
ALso wondering about feeding show birds. I am reading everything I can get a hold of. Just trying to learn.

 

[wclawrence]

If the phoenixes you are getting are of really nice type, they will grow feathers really fast and therefore will need finer feed than a normal laying type bird. They will need animal protein, as well as plenty of fruits and veggies, and lots of grass ( I substitute aflalfa pellets in hanging feeders.) I feed dogfood to them anytime they are molting or growing feathers, or while hens are laying. I have lots of longtail fowl, only a dozen or so phoenix.

Where are you getting the phoenix from?
Keep us updated!

 

[lockedhearts]

My local Feed Store is ordering them for me, not sure where from. Also getting 5 Mouttled Houdans and 5 Silver Lakenvelders.
I don't expect these to be excellent Show Birds, but was thinking I could get used to taking care of them and feeding, training etc before spending the $$ on Show Birds.
I have been reading and was thinking about mixing my own feed. Alfalfa pellets are not a problem, I can always pick up a bag at the feed store. I did some reading and some are suggesting feeding calf manna or animax. I have heard of animax but never used it, I am familiar with calf manna.
Among other things suggested was wheat germ, sunflower seeds.
I can always do fruits/veggies etc, I give them as treats to my laying flock.
Is there a special feed for Show Birds? The feed store just seems to have layer, grower, starter or scratch.

 

[wclawrence]

I just mix three-way scratch with the alfalfa pellets, layer pellets sometimes, dry dog food, sweetfeed sometimes, I just kinda keep it assorted. Today I bought some "wild bird seed" and added to the mixture.

The only drawback to the alfalfa is that is has some naturally occurring chemical that can cause the roosters to produce too much female hormones, which can cause their tails to not grow as much. But my birds seem to have long enough tails.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I am going to guess that your feed store is getting them from Ideal, they are the only place that sells "silver" lakenvelders. With the phoenix try to keep them in a pen that has grass or sand or something that wont ruin their tails. For extra protein we use meal worms, cat food, or mice when we have extras. Since they are coming from a hatchery, their tails wont be really long like some you see online, but they will be longer than normal chickens. If you can, try to get some eggs or chicks from a breeder to improve your birds. We have pheonix bantams and they can be flighty so watch out for that.

 

[lockedhearts]

Thamks for all the advice. I already feed cat food as a treat to my laying flock. I readily have sweet feed , since I have horses. So adding alfalfa pellets or meal worms will be easy.
The flock I have now gets fruits, veggies, crickets , worms, bread, oatmeal and a lot of variety as treats.
I'll haveto get a load of sand, we don't have a lot of grass but I can run get a truckload of sand and line their pen with that.
Oh Boy! Wait till hubby gets the news that he has to build another coop/pen........

 

[Napalongtail]

And the answers you are looking for are here....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=308-Phoenix

Want to know more? Feel free to contact me at
[email protected]