Defining Sizzles

[walkswithdog]

Show and breeder quality Ameraucana are indeed normal large fowl. Hatchery birds are - as you found out - Easter Eggers and often smaller.

A well bred Ameraucana has a lot of heft, lays a lovely largish egg and is totally differentfrom anything a hatchery produces. There's a man near me who breeds the loveliest wheaten ameraucanas, he could show except his disability limits him. But he's dedicated to the breed and it shows.

You'd have to ask the silkie show folk about a true weight range for show and breeder quality birds.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Silkie Bantam weights:
Cock..............36 oz.
Hen...............32 oz.
Cockerel.........32 oz.
Pullet.............28 oz.

Ameraucana Bantam weights:
Cock……………….30 oz.
Hen…………….….26 oz.
Cockerel…………26 oz.
Pullet……….…...24 oz.


Ameraucana Large Fowl weights:
Cock…………..……6½ lbs.
Hen………………...5½ lbs.
Cockerel………….5½ lbs.
Pullet………….…..4½ lbs.

 

[pbjmaker]

I went ahead and joined the yahoo group and posted. Here is a couple of pictures of the girls I am keeping at this point. The little chick I spoke of is a bear to catch. He has been raised by broodies and doesn't like to be handled. (But is very "street" smart and avoids predators)

Dolly - my NN sizzle. She is about 2 months old. She has a great crest but a little bit of redness to her skin on her neck and the foot feathering isn't as great as my other pullet. Toe spacing is good and comb is correct type.

Tina - Hatched March 30th. Has great feet, leg and foot feathering. Feet are really good. Crest needs some help. Comb is correct.

It is amazing how many chicks were hatched out and these are the only two I got. Most of the frizzle cochin X showgirls have been regular silkie feathered or "frilkie" feathered.

I know for sure my frizzled cochins carry silkie in their immediate background.

 

[walkswithdog]

PBJ lol Tina could be my Aris's little sister. I'll have to get a newer pic, her "crew cut" grew out a little more and her body recently feathered in more.

I kind of like the whole work in progress thing, though I really lucked out starting with fourth generation birds.

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
These are first generation birds for me BUT really I think since some of the "moms" have silkie in them that would technically make them F2. I'm not sure if all the moms have silkie in them though.

This is the girl I think I should be working with the most to get good crests on my first generation. She looks terrible though right now (this is a pic from last fall) All her head feathers are gone as are her back and shoulders Her feathers seem a little more brittle than the other frizzles (they are all related)

ETA: WWD - If I'm ever near Tn I'll drop off that chick to you - heck maybe I could just chase him there. My daughter and I tried to catch him a bit ago for a photo-op. It was a no-go. She is an awesome chicken wrangler and she just refused to try and catch that one again.

 

[walkswithdog]

If you can avoid going back to a red faced bird, do so. It's a pain to have a beautiful traited bird with a red face two or three generations later - or try to use a heavily silkie featured male, otherwise you'll get a TON of face/comb DQ'd birds. Causing much

I lucked out and only got one single combed red faced bird in the mix, though I did have one male I sold going lighter than mulberry. The three Sizzles I did keep are all very dark face and comb thanks to Sarah. The blue silkies I hatched look to be very dark faced. Now they need to be hens...

As an aside I got two baby seramas and a Silkied Serama today OMG and I'm dying of cuteness. And some serama eggs because one of his roos is a brown/red and I want those GENES. He didn't want anything to do with the little silkied serama roo, so I took him.

 

[jimnjay]

Just to add a little different perspective to the breeding of Sizzles and probably outcome, I started with chicks from F-1 birds, ( first generation cross) I then used the frizzled hard feathered hens (Sizzle) with a Silkie Roosters. I continued to breed the Sizzle girls to Silkie Roosters through F-4. I never had any red faced birds and only a few single comb birds. I did get occasional 8 and 9 toed birds. Only a very few lacked Black Skin. I did, however get LOTs of Silkie feathered birds and a good percentage of Frizzled Silkies. None of these were of any use to my breeding program. My goal was to breed Sizzle to Sizzle after there were deep Silkie traits established before I threw back the combination of recessive gene problems. I lost my entire flock last year and so I have only a smooth non frizzled girl left. I also have two of Sarah's birds and a Sizzle Rooster from a different breeder. It will be interesting to see how the F-4 girl I have produces this year. I have her eggs in the incubator now. I also have the rooster with a regular Silkie thinking I may get a few nice Sizzles from that mating. No matter which way one approaches the progression, there will come a time in ones breeding program to breed back to a pure Silkie to strengthen the various and unique traits that the Silkie carries.

As Sarah mentioned, this is a long term project pitted with frustration but what a wonderful time we are having ,especially when those little chick's wing start to curl at around 7 days old. I have two little two week old babies in the brooder and it looks like I might have another one coming along. It is only 4 days old so it may be wishfull thinking.

 

[pamperedpoultry]

Glad you posted this, I have a few 2 month old chicks from a frizzle cochin roo and silkie hens, 1 is a sizzle, dark face and has 5 toes with hard feathers. The other 3 are the same except they are smooth. My question is I think one of the smooths is a rooster and the actual sizzle is a hen, how do I go from here?

 

[walkswithdog]

Jaynie it was the breeding of your birds that made me comfortable with shifting in a generation of silkie hens when my hatch only produced two hens and five roos. I used to love the pics of your old flock. Hugs. Best of luck with the new one! And then just onward and upward.

It's also why I decided to use blue silkie hens eventually with the pet male - who is SC and red faced.

The seramas add a possibly strange potential for yet another distraction. Chuckle. The new guy is crowing behind me as we speak. Frizzled seramas? Frilkie seramas. This'll be fun.

 

[jimnjay]

LOL, you are a glutton for punishment. I sometimes read the things Sarah and I have written on Sizzles and I think how did I ever get here?

Pampered, You are pretty much stuck with the pair, Sizzle hen and smooth roo. Do you have the Frizzled Cochin still? If so you could breed him back to the two female smooth sizzle hens. We are Using a small "s" in sizzle to denote the smooth sizzle bird. You will deal with lots more red and single combs that otherwise but it will still produce a potential frizzle for your smooth hens. If you don't have a Frizzle bird, you may be able to get one from one of us breeders, This seems to be the year of the rooster for me.