Yokohama Chicken
Yokohama Chicken
Featured video is of US Standard Breed The Red Shoulder. It is most notably credited to Hugo du Roi around the 1880's where it derives from ornamental birds brought to Europe from the Japan Port of Yokohama. The Yokohama Chicken has a very distinct reddish/brown colorization on the chest and wings followed with very long tail-feathers. The beak, legs, and feet are all yellow with a pea or walnut comb. Their eggs typically are white. The standard size lays up to 80 eggs per year while the Bantam can lay up to 90 eggs per year. These birds are more for Show and ornamental than for production and meat uses typically found in the United States.
The weight ranges
- Males: Standard: 2.0–2.5 kg (4.41lbs-5.51lbs)
Bantam: 900 g (1.98lbs) - Females: Standard: 1.3–1.8 kg (2.87lbs- 3.97lbs)
Bantam: 700 g (1.54lbs)
The History
The Edo period in Japan (1639 to 1854) saw no foreign trade until under the Convention of Kanagawa of 1854. There it was brokered that five ports were to be constructed for trade with the rest of the world. Opening trade goods and exposed us to their vast rich culture. One of these fine ports was to be in Yokohama, Japan opening officially in June 2, 1859. The port expanded throughout the Meiji and Taisho periods most known for their raw silk.
In 1864, The Jardin Zoologique d'Acclimatation in Paris, officially named the majestic bird The Yokohama for their port of origin. They were then introduced to Hugo du Roi where he began to breed them. Hugo was also the first president of the Bund Deutscher Rassegeflügelzüchter, the German national poultry association.
Photo: Utagawa Yoshitora | A Distant View of Yokohama from Kanagawa | Japan | Edo period (1615–1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
Other Characteristics
The bantams Yokohama was bred in Germany in the usual way, by crossing the breeds' standard-sized birds with the desired suitable colors found in the bantams of other breeds. In Germany, only two colors are recognized as being The Yokohama Chicken: the white and red-saddled.
In the United Kingdom, where the name more commonly used is The Phoenix, there are several more colors in addition to red-saddled and white; these include black-tailed buff, blue-red spangled, black-red, golden duckwing and silver duckwing. In the United States, the red-saddled (red-shouldered) and white varieties were added to the Standard of Perfection in 1981.
Photo: Cock and hen, illustration from the Geflügel-Album of Jean Bungartz, 1885