Frizzle gene.... how does it work?

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Do you ship hatching eggs?

I have never shipped eggs before. To tell you the truth, I'm still working on building my breeder flocks up this year and we're not NPIP certified or anything. I've had Cochins for a very long time just because I love the breed, but it's only recently that I've started to get into breeding them.

 

[Paige2213]

I have never shipped eggs before. To tell you the truth, I'm still working on building my breeder flocks up this year and we're not NPIP certified or anything. I've had Cochins for a very long time just because I love the breed, but it's only recently that I've started to get into breeding them.

Okay. Well if you decide to start shipping again, let me know. I just want to add a few to my fancy flock.

 

[jenniferburns01]

The frizzling gene is an incompletely dominant gene. What that means is that if a bird carries the gene at all, they will show its effect, but that there's a slightly different effect with one copy of the gene than there is with two copies. The gene is not sexlinked, so it does not matter if the frizzled bird is the male or the female, it will be passed on in equivalent numbers to both sexes in the offspring.

Two copies of the frizzle gene causes extreme frizzling and brittleness of the feathers, and issues with the heart and metabolism of the bird as well. Birds with two copies are known as 'frazzles' because, well, they often look quite frazzled. This is the reason why you should never breed frizzle to frizzle, because some offspring from that crossing will inherit two copies of the gene and be frazzles.

Your bird does not appear to have two copies of the gene. With one copy, a bird has normal frizzling and no apparent internal issues. They will only pass the gene on to about half of their offspring, however, so only half of their chicks when bred to a smooth-feathered bird will be frizzled, and the other half will just be smooth. If bred to another individual with one frizzle gene, about half of the chicks would be frizzled, one quarter smooth, and one quarter frazzled.


As far as whether your bird is male or female, it's hard to say from those pictures because near as I can tell this is not a pure Cochin. The leg feathering is very sparse for a Cochin, and the leg coloring is incorrect. I also can't tell for sure because of how far away the bird is in the pictures, but it almost looks like this bird has a rose comb instead of a single comb like Cochins should have? Closer, clearer pictures would help a lot for identification.

Hello, Pipdzipdnreadytogo

Can I butt in and ask some more questions as you sound like you know what you're talking about??
I'm just starting to breed frizzles and want to do it right!
I bought fertile frizzle easter eggers from Myers Hatchery. I ended up with 1 frizzle hen and 1 smooth feather rooster.
I thought I was safe to breed these two cause they both don't have frizzle feathers.
But now I'm second guessing myself.
Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Hello, Pipdzipdnreadytogo

Can I butt in and ask some more questions as you sound like you know what you're talking about??
I'm just starting to breed frizzles and want to do it right!
I bought fertile frizzle easter eggers from Myers Hatchery. I ended up with 1 frizzle hen and 1 smooth feather rooster.
I thought I was safe to breed these two cause they both don't have frizzle feathers.
But now I'm second guessing myself.
Please let me know your thoughts.

It's safe

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yes, as Jacin said, breeding frizzle to smooth should be safe. You should get approximately equal numbers of frizzled and smooth offspring from that cross.