Cochin Bantams and Frizzle Cochin Bantams!!

[kemcarver]

And yes he needs a bath...

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Yeah, I don't see anything unclean about them. My mom was not an animal person but I am all in with my animals! I cuddle, love and whisper sweet words to them. My daughter says I give them much more love than her. LOL I tell her I am giving mommy love to them all because I am the only mommy they know.

I get what you are saying. My grandmas motto is "the only good animal is a dead one". Which might sound really mean, but you figured she lived on a farm-during depression time at that. So you raised animals to eat, to live.

That is funny about your daughter. Tell her it is two different kinds of love lol.

 

[kemcarver]

 

[mindylee]

I have 3 bantam frizzles one cockerel whit.pullet white one brown.should I breed whitecto white ir allow the white to fertilize the brown frizzles eggs.they arent laying yet and im new to any kind of chickens.but these are beautiful.frizzle fraggle and rock...any suggestions on how to pair my chickens to have quality chics.got them april10th..been feeding starter grower when and what do I change feed to.? Thanks in advance.

Don't breed them if all 3 are fizzles. You have to have a smooth roo for frizzle hens and smooth hens for a frizzle roo.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I have 3 bantam frizzles one cockerel whit.pullet white one brown.should I breed whitecto white ir allow the white to fertilize the brown frizzles eggs.they arent laying yet and im new to any kind of chickens.but these are beautiful.frizzle fraggle and rock...any suggestions on how to pair my chickens to have quality chics.got them april10th..been feeding starter grower when and what do I change feed to.? Thanks in advance.

All three are frizzles? Unless you are a serious breeder who is prepared to deal with the resulting and expected double copy frizzles, I would not breed them together.

A normal "frizzle" has one copy of the frizzle gene. Their feathers are normal and wide. The only noticeable difference between a frizzle feather and a non frizzle (smooth) feather is that the frizzle bends away from the body. In "shorthand" the genotype (the actual genes of the animal) looks like this: Ff. The capitalized "F' represents the dominant frizzle gene. The small "f" represents the recessive smooth gene.

If you breed a frizzle to a frizzle, you get 50% normal frizzle (genotype Ff), 25% smooth (ff) and 25% double-copy frizzle (FF) also known as frazzle. The frazzles are very different from a normal frizzle. (Ff x Ff = FF + ff+ Ff + Ff)

A double-copy frizzle (FF) has very weak, narrow feathers. They break and fall out with minimal handling. The feathers shred, leaving just the shafts so instead of a bird covered in feathers, they are covered in wires. They have a very short life expectancy. They cannot cope well with the cold. I had to bring my double-copy frizzle cockerel into the house any time the temps this winter went below 50F. The other double-copy frizzle lived in a tote in my kitchen all winter. Double-copy frizzles take a lot of special care to keep alive.

If you bought hatchery frizzled Cochins, they came out of a breeding pens of frizzles bred to frizzles. They might even be a double copy frizzle in your little group. If you bred a double-copy frizzle to normal frizzle, you would have 50% double-copy frizzles and 50% normal frizzles. Double-copy frizzles bred to each other produce 100% double-copy frizzle.

This is a quality of life issue for the birds themselves. It is unfair to saddle an unsuspecting buyer of your chicks with a double-copy frizzle--they are just not a whole lot of fun and need so much extra care to survive.

If you want to breed the frizzle hens, you really should get a smooth rooster. Or, a smooth hen and do not hatch the eggs from the frizzles.

A double-copy frizzle has value in a breeding program as all chicks will carry the frizzle gene. It just isn't a nice life for the chicken.

Here is a picture of my "Kitchen Chicken" who spent the winter in a tote in my kitchen. The damage to her feathers was from just two weeks free ranging with two cockerels that were added to my backyard flock. Even wearing a saddle to protect her feathers and back, all her feathers were broken. She now is penned and will never be free in my back yard because I have one or two bantam roosters. The last picture is of the same pullet a few weeks before I the cockerels joined the flock.

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

I have 3 bantam frizzles one cockerel whit.pullet white one brown.should I breed whitecto white ir allow the white to fertilize the brown frizzles eggs.they arent laying yet and im new to any kind of chickens.but these are beautiful.frizzle fraggle and rock...any suggestions on how to pair my chickens to have quality chics.got them april10th..been feeding starter grower when and what do I change feed to.? Thanks in advance.

The previous posts on breeding these birds are point on. Please do not breed Frizzle to Frizzle. Decide what your breeding goal is and then get the smooth Cochin to make that pairing happen.

 

[County Boy]

Here's a quick shot I like of my cockerel Ranger. I'm really curious as to what was so fascinating about this tree. He stood like this for minutes.

 

[mindylee]

Blk ants running up and down the cracks of trees
???

 

[NosiphoChooks]

Here's a quick shot I like of my cockerel Ranger. I'm really curious as to what was so fascinating about this tree. He stood like this for minutes.

he has interesting colouration. Which project are you growing him out for? I have had a couple of similar one from a millefleur roo and a blue hen. Not sure what the breeding was behind the roo though as he came from a pen with a variety of mottled as well as mf.

 

[NosiphoChooks]

I would also like to apologise to everyone for my previous comment. I was out of line and maybe a little harsh. I can have a sharp tongue sometimes.