Interested in Breeding Silkies Frizzles

[Nicole_Hutchison]

I have read thru a ton of threads and I am super confused. I am trying to incubate and hatch silkies frizzles.

Do I mix a regular silkie hen and a Cochin rooster to make a silkie frizzle? Or do I breed a frizzle silkie with a regular silkie to make a silkie frizzle?!

To complicate things even more how can I hatch a satin silkie?! What 2 breeds?

My verbiage here in the post might not be accurate (so hang in there with me) - the more I am reading I am finding out “frizzle” might not be a breed it is actually the type of chicken feathers?

 

[LynnaePB]

Satins and silkies are bred to the same standard other than feather type (satins have regular feathers which can be either smooth or frizzled). Silkies can also have frizzled feathers but it is harder to tell they are frizzled than in a regular feathered bird (they look a bit more frizzy than regular silkies). Satins are a project breed and are not recognized at this point.

Make sure never to pair two frizzled birds together, whether frizzled satins or frizzled silkies or a mix of the two. If you do you could end up with some frazzles (birds homozygous for the frizzle gene which besides brittle feathers often have other major health issues).

If you'd like to start off with some nice silkies and satins and not have to go through many generations to get back to something that is close to the standard your best bet is to buy some satins that are already many generations in from the original outcross to cochins. There are some good satin breeders out there that sell hatching eggs (shipped eggs can be pretty tough to hatch at times but if you have the funds I think they are absolutely worth it). Sometimes breeders have cockerels they can ship as well or pairs of birds which is more of a sure thing.

If you'd like to start your own line of satins you could breed a silkie to a bantam cochin (a frizzled cochin if you'd also like to add the possibility of frizzled silkies and satins to your line). If you go that route it'll take many generations of crossing back to silkies before they will be considered satins and not mixed breeds though.

A lot of breeders like mixing their satins and silkies so they can get many different feather types in the offspring.

For example if you had a frizzled satin (that came from a satin x silkie breeding so definitely carries the recessive silkie feathering gene) and you pair it with a regular silkie you could get....

25% frizzled silkies
25% regular silkies
25% frizzled satins
25% smooth satins

Definitely makes for a lot of variety in feather types! Just make sure if you are selling chicks to make the buyer aware that they could end up with silkies and/or satins. Some sellers consider their satins to be silkies as well and that can lead to some buyers being unhappy when there "silkies" end up not having silkie feathers.

All in all satins being a relatively new thing and not yet recognized there is a lot of terms thrown around and misinformation so it can get a little confusing. You might occasionally hear them being called "sizzles" as well as that was the old name for them before it was rejected and replaced with "satin".

I hope all of that didn't get too confusing! I'm not always the best at describing things and can get a bit long winded. If you have any questions or need clarification I'm happy to try to help though.

 

[nuthatched]

yes, Frizzle is the type of feather. Remember, breeding frizzles together will be deadly for the resulting chicks because frizzle feathers is a mutation.
What's your goal? Have 'satins' ( silkies with smooth feathers) with frizzled feathers?
Because it's impossible to have curly (frizzled) feathers on a silkie with silky feathers.

 

[SpotTheCat]

yes, Frizzle is the type of feather. Remember, breeding frizzles together will be deadly for the resulting chicks because frizzle feathers is a mutation.
What's your goal? Have 'satins' ( silkies with smooth feathers) with frizzled feathers?
Because it's impossible to have curly (frizzled) feathers on a silkie with silky feathers.

All genes that are not wild type are mutations, frizzle is a incomplete dominant gene that causes problems When a chicken is homozygote for it

 

[Nicole_Hutchison]

yes, Frizzle is the type of feather. Remember, breeding frizzles together will be deadly for the resulting chicks because frizzle feathers is a mutation.
What's your goal? Have 'satins' ( silkies with smooth feathers) with frizzled feathers?
Because it's impossible to have curly (frizzled) feathers on a silkie with silky feathers.

My goal is to have Satins, frizzled silkies and regular silkies. My issues is that I do not know what breeds to mix to what type of each breed to receive the results I am looking for.