I am in no way an expert in the breeding of Sizzles and there are many other people that are more knowledgeable about this than I am. So don’t take this to the bank but this is my understanding of all this. First off I personally screwed up right from the beginning. I bought eggs from a number of people and only kept the 4 hens in the pic above. I got rid of everything else that did not look like these 4 hens. That was a big mistake. So anyway, when my hens were old enough to breed I bought 2 good Silkie Roos to breed them with thinking that I would get ½ and ½, half Silkie looking birds and half Sizzles that look like my hens in the pics above. When you breed a Silkie to a Sizzle (like my hens) you actually end up with 4 different types of feathered birds. You get Silkie feathered, Frizzled Silkie Feathered, Barbed feathered and Frizzled Barbed feathered. A smooth is a Barbed feathered and my hens are Frizzled Barbed feathered. However, the advantage of using a Silkie to breed with is that you end up with a lot of the Silkie traits that are desired with Sizzles. The dark skin, 5 toes, the crest on top of the head ect ect but only ¼ of the chicks end up looking like my hens and don’t forget you get males and females within them. I say that because you DO NOT want to breed Frizzled feathered to Frizzled feathered. Doing so you end up with a Frazzle or a curly and their feathers are really brittle. They end up breaking off and you have a bird with few feathers that has a hard time regulating its body’s temperature and is sick a lot and need special care. So to answer your question, No I normally don’t use a smooth feathered male to breed with only because this past month was the first time I could actually hatch my own eggs. My Sizzle hens just started laying about 2 months ago. However I would have used one if I had one to breed with. Remember I told you I screwed up getting rid of all the other birds that did not look like my 4 hens. I had at least 2 good smooth feathered males that I could have used in my original hatch but I gave the birds away. A smooth feathered Sizzle and a Frizzled feathered Sizzle will give you a 50/50 hatch. 50% will end up with smooth barbed feathers and 50% will be Frizzled Barbed feathers (what we desire). Then when your chicks get old enough, you can set up 2 pens if you wanted. One with a Smooth feathered male over Frizzled feathered hens, the other with a Frizzled feathered male over smooth feathered hens. I really only prefer the Frizzled barbed feathered hens so that’s what I plan to keep with the exception of just one smooth feathered male to breed them with. All my chicks that I have hatched so far (like 50 of them in the last 3 weeks) have 5 toes. Some have crest some don’t. Some have dark skin and some don’t. My goal is to keep the chicks that turn out to be pullets with the best Slikie traits and that also have the barbed frizzled feathers. Then find me a good smooth feathered male to cover them. If I don’t get my male this go round with all the chicks I hatch, I’ll get another Silkie Roo and try again in the Spring. Chris
