Frazzle management in the winter.

[Kiraeh]

I have a frazzle- hatched out of some purchased eggs, not my breeding, though I'd like if he's ever confident enough to make a pass at a hen to someday breed some frizzle chicks from him.

I was in doubt for a long time if he was indeed a frazzle, or just a manky, silkie feathered frizzle, but at this point I'm pretty sure. He has better feathering than most frazzles that pop up on a casual search, though, and his skin being pretty much the same colour as his feathers and down really makes it hard to tell at a glance how bad he's got it. What he does have - especially now- is an enormous amount of down. Despite my best efforts, he's extremely shy of humans, so bringing him indoors for the cold is something I haven't done yet, though I will if we have sufficiently severe cold weather.
He actually does amazingly well socially. He seems to manage by just 100% accepting being bottom of the pecking order, but never gets seriously bullied or pushed off food. He mostly stays in my greenhouse run with a small flock of bantams, but comes out sometimes, and the big chickens go in there to dust bathe, and he never has problems. He's doesn't roost but the bantams let him into the cuddle puddle.

Is there anyone else managing a semi-normal life for their frazzles? Are there any subtle hints of distress I might be missing? Anything I can supplement his feed with to encourage stringer feather growth? What frazzle management tips can we get together here?

Here's a few more pictures so you can see how bad his feather condition really is- does anyone have a silkie frizzle or frazzle to compare with,iis my boy really just a manky frizzle?

 

[Kiraeh]

He had these crazy wings as a baby! Those should be the only feathers a silkie gets, but he doesn't have any hard feathers at all, they've always been these bare curls of feather core. And although it's hard to tell, it's pretty much always just been down on his body, if you looked under his wings in the upper pic, he'd be bare. I think he may have down there now, I should check.

 

[Kiraeh]

One more pic/bump from the summer showing how are he is.

 

[Partly_yellow]

My frazzle lives in our brooder coop with two bunnies, as she was rejected by our other chickens to the point where they almost killed her. Normally I’d remove the “bully” but in the case of our Frazzle, Kiki, EVERYONE was the bully. The bunnies snuggle Kiki and they keep each other warm. If we know there will be a multi-day storm, we put one of the low-heat brooder heaters in there with them and everyone snuggles under or on top of it.

 

[L0rraine]

View attachment 2491922
I have a frazzle- hatched out of some purchased eggs, not my breeding, though I'd like if he's ever confident enough to make a pass at a hen to someday breed some frizzle chicks from him.

I was in doubt for a long time if he was indeed a frazzle, or just a manky, silkie feathered frizzle, but at this point I'm pretty sure. He has better feathering than most frazzles that pop up on a casual search, though, and his skin being pretty much the same colour as his feathers and down really makes it hard to tell at a glance how bad he's got it. What he does have - especially now- is an enormous amount of down. Despite my best efforts, he's extremely shy of humans, so bringing him indoors for the cold is something I haven't done yet, though I will if we have sufficiently severe cold weather.
He actually does amazingly well socially. He seems to manage by just 100% accepting being bottom of the pecking order, but never gets seriously bullied or pushed off food. He mostly stays in my greenhouse run with a small flock of bantams, but comes out sometimes, and the big chickens go in there to dust bathe, and he never has problems. He's doesn't roost but the bantams let him into the cuddle puddle.

Is there anyone else managing a semi-normal life for their frazzles? Are there any subtle hints of distress I might be missing? Anything I can supplement his feed with to encourage stringer feather growth? What frazzle management tips can we get together here?

Here's a few more pictures so you can see how bad his feather condition really is- does anyone have a silkie frizzle or frazzle to compare with,iis my boy really just a manky frizzle?
View attachment 2491958View attachment 2491959View attachment 2491960

I’m just wondering what he looked like as a chick? I have six potential sizzle chicks that all look pretty normal at this point, but they are only six days old. One, however seems a bit scruffier with his ‘amount’ of feathering. (I’m guessing he’s going to be a roo already because he seems to have abnormally long legs.) He also has a couple of small areas with no feathering, which I hadn’t seen in my chicks before. Otherwise he seems healthy and happy.

 

[L0rraine]

View attachment 2492707View attachment 2492709
He had these crazy wings as a baby! Those should be the only feathers a silkie gets, but he doesn't have any hard feathers at all, they've always been these bare curls of feather core. And although it's hard to tell, it's pretty much always just been down on his body, if you looked under his wings in the upper pic, he'd be bare. I think he may have down there now, I should check.

Just saw these, how old is he in this picture?

 

[Kiraeh]

Maybe 2 weeks? Not older than that. You can tell frizzles in the first week, it doesn't take long to be obvious. His feather curl was more extreme than the frizzles. Lemme find some pics of them.

the curl starts showing as soon as wing feathers come in, by a week its unmistakable, and it's fairly orderly, feathers all curling neatly in the same direction. Not at all like the chicks I've had that had messy looking feathers wheb they were growing in.

Another frizzle from the same hatch, at the same time as the crazy curly wings pic above of frazzle.

By the way, he's doing ok still though he looks a real mess by now. We brought him inside when it got really cold and let him out in the greenhouse with some of the flock on warm days. He has some silkie chick friends now and I'll be leaving them all in the coop at night again soon.

 

[L0rraine]

Can’t believe I ordered six chicks knowing the odds were only 50/50 and at this point (six days) feathers are all looking pretty straight. A couple of them still aren’t showing hardly any hard feathers yet, so maybe there is still hope.

I think my ragged guy just ended up with more of the green ‘nutritional’ goo all over him and it’s slow to clean up.

 

[L0rraine]

Maybe 2 weeks? Not older than that. You can tell frizzles in the first week, it doesn't take long to be obvious. His feather curl was more extreme than the frizzles. Lemme find some pics of them.
View attachment 2610696the curl starts showing as soon as wing feathers come in, by a week its unmistakable, and it's fairly orderly, feathers all curling neatly in the same direction. Not at all like the chicks I've had that had messy looking feathers wheb they were growing in.
View attachment 2610699
Another frizzle from the same hatch, at the same time as the crazy curly wings pic above of frazzle.

By the way, he's doing ok still though he looks a real mess by now. We brought him inside when it got really cold and let him out in the greenhouse with some of the flock on warm days. He has some silkie chick friends now and I'll be leaving them all in the coop at night again soon.
View attachment 2610704

And thanks for taking the time to share the helpful photos!

 

[Kiraeh]

What a shame, that's really disappointing.