The exact origin of the Frillback is unknown but it is believed to have come from an area of Asia Minor.
The breeding of Frillbacks goes back to at least 1640, as early as 1735 Moore in his Columbarian mentions the Frillback, whilst in the year 1757 a certain Hazelquist saw pigeons in Cairo 'on which each and every feather was twisted or turned round'.
Frillbacks were certainly bred in England as early as the first half of the eighteenth century.
The shell-crested whites are attributed to Holland and Milan with the plain-headed red and blue grizzles being attributed to Hungary.
Black Frillbacks were first exhibited in Germany around 1908 and were developed by pairing white Frillbacks to black Trumpeters.
Yellow grizzles were first exhibited at the World Congress Fair in 1936, this colour was made by crossing an Isabell Carrier pigeon to a white Frillback.
Shield-marked or saddle Frillbacks are attributed to Prussia and were first seen over one hundred years ago. They were developed by crossing white Frillbacks to Saxon Shields.
In 1971 recessive red, yellow and gold coloured Frillbacks were first developed by Tom McCaig of Hacienda Heights, California. A Saxon Whitetail was used to make this colour variant. They are becoming quite popular in the USA and a few breeders now have them in Germany.
Tom McCaig has also introduced whiteside Frillbacks in recess
ve red. This was achieved by crossing a recessive red that showed a rosewing marking to a Dutch white shield Highflyer.
Today, Frillbacks are bred world wide in a variety of colours. Recent developments in Germany has seen the acceptance of shell-crested shield-marked Frillbacks in red, yellow, blue, black, mealy and cream.
In November 2008 the first European Frillback Club show will be held at the VDT Show in Dortmund, it is anticipated there will be an entry of 400 birds. For those interested in exhibiting, the birds must be penned on the Wednesday 26 November and all entries must have been inoculated against Paramyxovirus.
Our own Club Show will be held at Pickering where our judge will be Friedhelm Bartnik from Germany.
We have a number of new breeders of Frillbacks and I look forward to hearing how these birds progress. Generally speaking Frillbacks will breed better on their own or with other varieties of a similar quiet nature.
As I write these notes, late April, the weather has started to improve and hopefully the risk of early morning frosts has diminished. Some of our birds will have strong foot feather, particularly red grizzle and crested white, and this should be carefully trimmed back to avoid squeakers being inadvertently pulled out of the nest bowls when the adults come off to feed.
If I can be of any further assistance please e-mail me on
pandhallen@yahoo.co.uk
PAUL ALLEN
This article arrears in the May 2008 issue of Feathered World
