The Sizzle Thread!

[FiveToe]

Faerie...
the breeder lady I got my chicks from showed me how she plucked the feathers from around their eyes
she just scooped up the chicken and started her grooming... chicken didn't seem to mind much at all
I think they all have the downy feathers by their eyes...but I'm new to this all
so maybe some one else will chime in on this

 

[why do birds]

Faerie, you have a very handsome roo! Love that frizzle look!

This is our smooth sizzle roo (he crowed a couple of times), Fredo by his Dyson, just outside of his XL dog crate in the kitchen, getting some exercise.

5 toe, we feel the same way. We're in NY and have these polar vortex's come through, it's been negative (-) 25F here a few times this winter. Our 3 birds are in our kitchen, they were hatched end of December and we still have a heat lamp available to them, but it's at least 55F inside of our house. I think it's good to use your judgement on the heat lamp, especially it it's cold at night. Ours are about 12 weeks now, and had the heat lamp, INSIDE the house, at about 10 weeks. When they moved away from the heat lamp we turned it off, about a week ago.

 

[TAMMACLEAN]

Our 2 1/2 week old babies.

 

[Theresa sla]

From reading the beginning of this forum it is clear to me that to further the Sizzle breed and get good birds it takes many generations of breeding. So my thinking is to get quality birds from one of the breeders that has been doing this for years is the best way to get started with my own line....as I understand it you breed Sizzle to sizzle unless you need to strengthen the Silkie traits. I got my birds from Sheri in Lincoln Ca and they are at least 13th generation but there are others posting in this thread that also have birds that are many generations into their breeding programs....a true Sizzle is not just a cross breed!!

yes, buying eggs or birds when you can from someone thats been breeding sizzles for years WILL get you better looking birds faster. but it is not your only option to get good quality sizzles. if you start with good quality birds for your projects you can also get good quality sizzles pretty fast. heres one of my examples of a few generations and about a years time breeding.

*starting with a good black silkie hen and a frizzled cuckoo cochin roo bought at the same time in january 2013 ( i sold the roo after i had chicks from the pair so i dont have pictures)

i keep one cuckoo F1 sizzle rooster named him Ziggy and mated him to a different black silkie hen. june 2013

that mating gave me a F2 sizzle rooster that


i sold to a friend and fellow breeder who gave me some eggs in exchange he mated him to a pen of both cuckoo and black silkie hens.
that gave me a f3 sizzle about a year later and he looks wonderful!!!

3 generations, and a years time and i think he's just as good as any f-37 generation sizzle. cant wait to see him all grown up
he still needs correction in darker skin tone, but thats more of a cuckoo problem and not a sizzle problem.
i see people blindly fallow the higher the generation equals higher quality when looking at sizzles. when people should pay more attention to the quality of the parent stock. that being said, Sheri Minkner the queen of sizzles has AMAZING birds!! and i recommend them to anyone and every one looking for sizzles. she's got some of the highest generation sizzles out there, but also has the quality to back it up.
but if you want to start from scratch you can also get good birds fairly quickly as long as you are selective, but still willing to work past minor issues for better future generations.

 

[Theresa sla]

not related to the birds above but from my crele cuckoo project F1 sizzle

F1 columbian sizzle roo

F3 black sizzle hen

F2 white smooth sizzle hen

 

[Theresa sla]

My new Silkie (pullet??) for my newfound Sizzle project. Can anyone tell me I I managed I do it right and pick a female?? PLZ!!!

looks like a pullet to me

 

[Theresa sla]

Question...
I'm trying to put my breeding pens together on paper so when I finally get everyone in their pens I know where to put everyone. Right now I only have 3 sizzles, two of which are smooth. So in Pen 1 I'd like to put the Sizzle Roo over the Smooth Hen and the Silkie/Cochin Cross Hen.

In Pen 2 I'd like to have the Frizzle Hen, Silkie Roo, and another silkie hen so at least 1 of the eggs will be pure silkies.

I have a couple of other silkies that I'm unsure how/where to place them. If I were to place a Splash Silkie Hen in with the Splash Sizzle (frizzled type) would I get more sizzles or not really because I'm not breeding a Silkie to a frizzle?

sounds like you got the right idea.
if you have spare silkie hens and your looking for more sizzles i would place them with your frizzled sizzle rooster in pen 1. your frizzled sizzle IS a frizzled bird and breeding to a silkie would give you second generation sizzle chicks.
in the first few generations to bring up type and quality it is best to use the best silkies you can find and afford,

. and breed them back to your first or second generation frizzled sizzles. after you get your birds looking good, right amount of toes, dark skin, nice crest, cushion, bloomers, chest, feathered feet all looking like the best examples of their silkie counter parts.
then your smooth sizzles birds are going to be worth their weight in gold in your future breeding plans.
since the silkie feathering gene is recessive gene you could actually breed out the chance of getting silkie offspring. and only get smooth and frizzled sizzles in our future generation. it is what every serious sizzle breeder should be working towards. it will also greatly help to get sizzles recognized as their own true breed. but sizzle are such a new breed that most people are still very much working on improving type on their birds, so in till then smooth sizzles and silkies can be used interchangeably.

 

[Lynzi777]

sounds like you got the right idea. 
if you have spare silkie hens and your looking for more sizzles i would place them with your frizzled sizzle rooster in pen 1. your frizzled sizzle IS a frizzled bird and breeding to a silkie would give you second generation sizzle chicks.
in the first few generations to bring up type and quality it is best to use the best silkies you can find and afford,   . and breed them back to your first or second generation frizzled sizzles. after you get your birds looking good, right amount of toes, dark skin, nice crest, cushion, bloomers, chest, feathered feet all looking like the best examples of their silkie counter parts.
then your smooth sizzles birds are going to be worth their weight in gold in your future breeding plans.
since the silkie feathering gene is recessive gene you could actually breed out the chance of getting silkie offspring. and only get smooth and frizzled sizzles in our future generation. it is what every serious sizzle breeder should be working towards. it will also greatly help to get sizzles recognized as their own true breed. but sizzle are such a new breed that most people are still very much working on improving type on their birds, so in till then smooth sizzles and silkies can be used interchangeably.

Thanks for answering my question! Sounds like I'm on the right path...my sizzles are from Sheri Minkner's lines and my silkies are from Geri Godina's lines. So I better start with pairing those birds before anyone else.

As far as my two smooth sizzles, one is a roo one is hen, Can those be placed with say a silkie roo? Will I get sizzles from a smooth hen and silkie roo or no? That's what's been throwing me off as well, where and how to place those with the silkies, sizzles, frizzles. Would I be back tracking a bit if I were to keep the frizzle in the same pen as the smooth sizzle roo? Or should I keep her with my Silkie roo to produce 1st generation sizzles?

 

[sonderah]

The Silkie I've had for 2 weeks and 1 day IS IN THE NESTBOX!!!! For the 1st time! I had 1 egg in each, but yesterday made 1 with 6 eggs, & apparently it got her attention. Lol

 

[Theresa sla]

As far as my two smooth sizzles, one is a roo one is hen, Can those be placed with say a silkie roo? Will I get sizzles from a smooth hen and silkie roo or no? That's what's been throwing me off as well, where and how to place those with the silkies, sizzles, frizzles. Would I be back tracking a bit if I were to keep the frizzle in the same pen as the smooth sizzle roo? Or should I keep her with my Silkie roo to produce 1st generation sizzles?

you would get smooth sizzles chicks from crossing a smooth sizzle with a non frizzled regular silkie mated together. they would still make a second generation sizzle but you wouldn't have a chance of frizzled offspring from that pairing.

when possible always keep all frizzled girls OR all frizzled boys in a breeding pen together. but its better to not breed frizzles with each other. After quite a few generations of breeding frizzle to smooth you can get an extra bonus dose of frizzled gene, in the form of a smooth bird that will produce a frizzle gene with out outwardly showing frizzled feathers. bringing your percentages of getting frizzles high with out increasing your odds of getting a over frizzled, curly, frazzle or what ever other name you would like to give them birds. like you would get breeding frizzle to frizzle.

i'm assuming when you say your frizzle in the above statement your not talking about a frizzled sizzle. (but a frizzled cochin or what have you) and yes then that would be backtracking and i would stay away from mating back to them. i would give you more F1's and it would be better in that case to breed more silkie traits into the birds. if your frizzle is a hen and a keeper i would keep her with a full silkie roo just know you will not necessarily be improving the line but you can still get some good F1's. but it would be a better choice than putting her with your smooth sizzle roo.

non sizzle frizzled hen + silkie roo = 50% silkie traits
non sizzle frizzled hen + F1 sizzle roo = 25% silkie traits
F1 frizzled sizzle + silkie = 75% silkie traits
F1 smooth sizzle + silkie = 75% silkie traits (all smooth)
F1 + F1 = 50% silkie traits

the trick is to get all the silkie traits with out losing the harder non silkie feathering, unless your goal is to breed for frizzled silkie only.
the first few generations breeding back to silkie is very necessary, just be-careful not to over do it with silkies. if you end up with frizzled silkies and mate them back to silkies you will only get more silkies both frizzled and regular but you lose the possibility of having more sizzle birds.
frizzled silkie roo, i plan on mating him to smooth sizzles only.

younger frizzled sizzle roo, would also like him to be with smooth sizzles if possible, but silkies will also work just fine in a pinch.
pictures are just to show you the difference between frizzled silkie and frizzled sizzle