Casey, this is a beautiful boy but I agree with the others....Yours are spectacular~! "IF" I raised this type, I would want to start with your birds.
I'm very new to this, so my words probably don't mean much, but I absolutely love your birds. Again, I don't know much, but I personally like the rooster in your avatar, and the 2 pullets you posted a while back better. They have a nice round full shape with beautiful feathers. Take pride in your birds, they are amazing!
What struck me right off was how thin the feathers looked - some almost stringy. Even though frizzle feathers are curved, shouldn't they still be wide like a smooth Cochin? Your birds never look stringy to me - always seem to have nice wide feathers.
But he certainly deosn't seem frazzled - just very thin feathers.
Guess that's why I don't raise Frizzles. Yes - he does have nice type, but overall, I think I prefer yours. You don't give yourself enough credit.
I appreciate everyone's kind words, more than you probably realize. Its very flattering to me to hear things like this about my birds.
Gail, I see what you mean by the stringy feathers. I didnt point that out, because I wasnt sure if it were the camera causing them to look that way, or if it were the age of the picture. I am almost 100% sure that this pic was taken with a good old fashioned camera, not a digital and I think that may cause some of the finer points to be less noticeable.
And to add to Craigs comment, when I started showing and raising birds of quality there were not many frizzle breeders around. If I recall correctly, there were maybe a hand-full, and now there seems to be even fewer. I searched for almost 2 years before I finally found good enough birds to breed from myself, from Jamie. I know that frizzles arent one of THE most popular varieties of birds, and never really have been, but in the last few years it seems that there are fewer and fewer breeders raising, showing, and producing quality birds. I know that there are breeders who do not like frizzles, it has been brought to my attention at several shows. I have shown birds that even I knew were better than any of the smooth counterparts exhibited in the same show, yet the frizzles ALWAYS seem to get overlooked, no matter how well that bird is. Only twice has a frizzle that I owned ever went head to head with a smooth bird, and that was when I took RB with a Blue Frizzle Pullet under a White smooth from Tony Tucker, and once again when a frizzle male I had was judged openly against the best smooth birds at the Kentuckiana Show for BB and RB, against Shari McCollough, Sandy Isler, and a couple other Cochin breeders I cant recall that were showing there.
If anyone were to come to me searching for birds, and I not have any, I can only think of maybe 4 other breeders in the country to go to for quality birds, and only half of those in White. I have always loved Cochins, they are my passion, but the frizzles just hold a special place in my heart that nothing else ever has. My goal is to breed a frizzle that will make it to Champion Row, something I have never witnessed, only heard about.
~Casey