Mary Allen
The history of the Eichbühler is special. Originating from a farm in Oberaargau, the breed is now at home all over the world due to its extravagance. However, to this day it is not very common. But that doesn’t seem to hurt her.
Human history is closely linked to cultural developments and their legacies. A good example is the Egyptian pyramids, which testify to a high culture on the Nile several thousand years ago. In addition to such relics of world importance, it is precisely the little things that make the whole thing. This includes the pigeon breeds.
Pigeons are living proof of human culture and testify to ambition and breeding work. Many generations have worked on them with great enthusiasm and yet they have almost always disappeared without a name. Even the places of their origin can be found exactly in the rarest of cases. Mostly it is regions or cantons in which the pigeon breeds were bred. Because of this, references to their origins are almost always found in the breed names.
In this regard, the Eichbühler, the most extravagant Swiss pigeon breed, is no exception. Nevertheless, he has a unique special position and is among all currently recognized pigeon breeds. With him, not only the region can be specified, but even an individual farm. The Hof Eichbühl still stands at the point where the pigeons originated. It is located in AuswilBE in Oberaargau, so the Eichbühler belongs to the Bernese breeds.
Shy and Undemanding
It is no longer possible to understand why such a breed was able to develop on a farm more than 200 years ago. In contrast to most other Swiss pigeon breeds, the Eichbühler is also of rural origin but is fundamentally different from the other colored pigeon breeds. It was not for nothing that he was counted among the form pigeons abroad for many years. But even here the Eichbühler was not in good hands. You could most likely count him among the carrier pigeon-like pigeons. So just like the German show pigeons and the many English breeds that count carrier pigeons among their ancestors.
It is very likely that the Eichbühler is a combination or the result of crosses between carrier pigeons and field refugees. Apparently, he found the ideal conditions for this on the Eichbühl farm. As was usual at the time, the pigeons had to look for their own food. Supplementary feeding was only considered in exceptional cases. Under such housing conditions, only undemanding pigeons could assert themselves.
Exactly that, as well as a tremendously fleeting, almost shy nature, distinguished the Eichbühler from the beginning. He avoided people and still accepted the dovecote that was offered. With this behavior, the Eichbühler belonged and still belongs to the most original breeds at all. Because just like their ancestors, the rock pigeons (Columba livia), they show what is special in the domestication of pigeons. They can be kept in complete freedom and yet they attach themselves to man. This is what distinguishes pigeons from all other domestic animals. So if you look at the history of the Eichbühler, then the animals were initially more of a pigeon loft than an independent pigeon breed. The fact that a breed has developed from this small nucleus speaks clearly for them.
Mentioned Early in the Literature
Incidentally, their reputation seems to have been very good relatively quickly. In contrast to the other Swiss pigeon breeds, they were mentioned almost without exception in the large specialist literature. Karl Stauber even goes one step further and has proven through research that Eichbuhler was already exhibited at the first German National Poultry Show in 1893 in the Krystall-Palast in Leipzig. This makes them in all likelihood the first recognized Swiss pigeon breed to have crossed federal borders.
Most of the descriptions in the books relate to stories, so some mistakes must have crept in. The illustrations do not always correspond to the desired breed type. Exceptions are the “Illustrated magnificent work of all pigeon races” by Emil Schachtzabel and the book “Enten, Gänse und Tauben als Nutzgeflügel” by Julius Bloch from 1921, published in Aarau. In both works, the Eichbühler already shows the clear lizard head, the characteristic one Harness, which has since given way to stockings, and the somewhat crouched posture. In the Bloch book even traditionally as a line drawing in front of the Eichbühl farm.