Curly feathers

[Glenda L Heywood]

I hope your not breeding frizzle to frizzle?
then if doing that you all will not have many
feathers on the chicksd when they fully molt out
I will post an article on frizzles
I have a lot of them on my web site

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

FRIZZLE IS THE BREED
By Glenda L. Heywood

People have gotten interested in the Frizzle breed, with its many varities, of large fowl and bantams.
Here is a sample of a letter that came into my desk.
WHAT ARE FRIZZLES?

QUESTION
I am new to the Frizzles and the first time I ever heard of them was in a catalog that was sent to me on chickens and supplies. I ordered 5 red frizzles and some buff silkies.
They are 6 weeks old now and only two of the frizzles, frizzled, I would like to breed them next year and I thought that to get more frizzles they would have to be bred to only frizzles until I read your article.
I thought it was a breed in itself.

ANSWER Frizzle is the BREED, the kinds of frizzles are breed type such as Cochin Frizzles, Jap Frizzls, Rock Frizzles, Silkie Frizzles and Naked Neck Frizzles and
on thru the breeds. Also there are Sabastopol Geese. They are the only frizzled feathered waterfowl.There are frizzle breeds in large fowl and bantmas.

QUESTION:
Why did only two of my 5 chickens come out frizzled?

ANSWER: Because good frizzles throw a certain amount of the smooths (1/2 frizzle & 1/2 regular feathered with frizzle gene) It is just as well that only two are frizzled.

Now you can breed the frizzles to the smooths. Smooths are the 1/2 frizzle and 1/2 regular feathered frizzles, but have the Frizzle genes. They are very important to your
breeding plan. If they are good typed do not discard them.

They have a modifying gene when bred to the frizzle side of the breeding they being disposed to a frizzle parent will then make the breeding ie: frizzle to smooth = 1/2 frizzle
and 1/2 smooths in the next generation. At least 1/3 will be smooth and 2/3 frizzle. Any ways mine always did. I never bred frizzle to frizzle as it caused so many extra curlies with not enough feather folicles to have good feathering. Narrow whispy wet looking
feathers mostly what amount they did have.

Breeding frizzle to frizzle will only breed the feather folicles off the birds and make narrow whispy feathers and not good frizzles.These birds can not survive either cold weather or hot weather not enough feathers. They only can be disposed of.
You need wide frizzled feathers for a good frizzle of any breed.

You can try breeding frizzle to frizzle but most times it only is wasted space and feed you spend for nothing. In the end they are not good frizzles. Now if some one wants to start
breeding frizzles you only need one of the pair frizzled. Then the next year use the smooths that come out of the breeding back on the frizzles. The frizzle gene is dominent always when bred to straight ( no frizzle gene at all) feathered birds.

QUESTION I have other chickens that I bought in the past, I also have some white leghorns, can my frizzles be bred to them or my buff silkies?

ANSWER
THE LEGHORNS CAN BE BRED TO THE FRIZZLE AND
MAKE LEGHORN FRIZZLES. It will take a few yrs of constant breeding for type etc. But the frizzle gene will be there.

The SILKIES can be bred to the frizzles and make SILKIE FRIZZLES. What breed are you using for frizzle? Probably a Cochin Frizzle is this right?

If so then the feathers on the legs of the Leghorn Frizzles, have to be bred out of the Leghorn frizzle offspring , these feathers on the legs are called stubs ( any leg
feathering on the Leghorn frizzles).Leghorns are of the Single Comb Clean Leg class. Also the Leghorn type will need to be bred into the offspring. The tail will have
to be bred into them to be Leghorn type. A rock type frizzle would be better to use with leghorns.

In the Silkie Frizzles If using a Cochin Frizzle you have to have the Silkie feathering, Silkie comb- Walnut type Mulberry color comb, the turquoise Blue earlobes,also a
crest and bearded or non bearded, and 5 toes.None of which are on Cochins.

So the frizzling has to be gotten and then go back on Silkies only with Frizzled off spring/same is true with the Leghorns, go back with Leghorns on the Frizzle off spring.Use your 1/2 frizzle and 1/2 regular feathered smooths that came out of the
cross.

I would use frizzle females on the silkie male or Leghorn male, when going to 2nd generation matings.

The frizzles can be raised alone or with the other birds. If the other birds are not ggresive. I never raised the large fowl and bantams together, so the frizzles and the modern games and rocks and what ever I had lived together except at breeding time,

Also the males were all pened seperate at all times after maturing. Then I seperated all breeding pens according to kinds and breeds for the matings. I usually kept a trio in by them selves.

Remember if breeding Cochin frizzles they need the circle of feathers pulled out gently one by one, in a 3 inch circle in diameter of the soft vent feathers, plucked from around the vent area feathers of both the male and females. So that fertilization can happen and not be wasted on the feathers.

Do you have the American Bantam Assn Standard.The new 2005 Bantam Standard has color pictures of birds. It lists all the breeds of Bantams and Bantam ducks. The 2003 APA Standard has a lot of color photos of Large fowl, bantams, waterfowl & turkeys.
These books are necessary for any breeder of any breed.