Surprise winter chicks! 🤣🤪🥰

[MixedFlock23]

Update:
Peaches and Brownie began laying eggs last week. Mirabel (aka Abel), the frazzled bird, tragically passed away at the age of 12ish weeks. We believe he had heart failure as he was found in the afternoon uninjured, lying in the middle of the covered run. Rascal began crowing around 3 months old and rapidly became aggressive towards his sisters and mother and aunt. He is no longer with us. Raymond is the cutest little roo and thinks he is the lead guy in the main with the ladies, but really Shushpop the Silkie leads the main flock. Raymond crows at least ten times more than Shushpop though. ha ha
Peaches and Brownie lay a cream egg slightly larger than their mom (Serama) but smaller than a showgirl egg (dad's genes). They haven't gone broody yet (knock on wood), but I expect it since both Seramas and Silkie are broody often. I'll update with photos if I remember!

 

[MixedFlock23]

I finally figured it out. Rooster Ray is a frazzle. Today I held him and noticed his feathers are breaking and his wings feathers are only the shafts… just like Curly. Now it all makes sense as to why I have 100% curled chicks even though half the eggs were from a smooth feathered bird. A homozygous roo would always pass on the frizzle gene (which is dominant and only one copy is desired for frizzling). Mirabel (Abel) is Teeny’s chick for sure and received a frizzle gene from each parent making him a homozygous frazzle. I’ve now moved the frazzle roo into the secondary pen with all smooth hens, so no frazzle surprises can happen even if they sneak eggs from me again.

Going through photos on my phone and found a good pic of what a frazzle looks like. (Rooster Ray Monkey Llama has since passed away.)

I also found a few photos showing the health issues/growth issues/failure to thrive that Abel (formally known as Mirabel) had
as a frazzle. He had always breathed a bit more labored than his hatchmate siblings. He didn't grow much at all before suddenly dying right it the middle of the pen at 12 weeks old (we assume heart failure).

Just a friendly reminder not to allow two frizzles to bred and thus avoiding a potential frazzle completely. So sad. rip Abel.

 

[Painted Calls]

View attachment 3327476
Going through photos on my phone and found a good pic of what a frazzle looks like. (Rooster Ray Monkey Llama has since passed away.)

I also found a few photos showing the health issues/growth issues/failure to thrive that Abel (formally known as Mirabel) had
as a frazzle. He had always breathed a bit more labored than his hatchmate siblings. He didn't grow much at all before suddenly dying right it the middle of the pen at 12 weeks old (we assume heart failure). View attachment 3327479
View attachment 3327480View attachment 3327481Just a friendly reminder not to allow two frizzles to bred and thus avoiding a potential frazzle completely. So sad. rip Abel.

Poor buddy. Great word of caution though. Such a cute Abel. RIP sweet boy. ❤