what are frizzles like??

[phoebs]

Hi i was just wondering what frizzles are like i was thinking about getting some and i was
just curious on theese simple things like: Do they lay? Have they usually got good temperments?how long do they live for?
what colours do they come in?
thanks

 

[Lacrystol]

I have a black Cochin Frizzle and she is very aggressive towards others, she's OK with me but she likes to be in charge when it's bed time towards the other chickens. I also had a Brown Frizzled Cochin rooster, who could careless about anyone. YES, they will lay eggs, NOT the roosters. LOL.. I have had a Black Cochin Frizzled rooster who would try and mate with my ducks, one loose screw with him, he was NOT aggressive at all, you could hold him and do whatever, he just liked the ducks for some reason.. LOL...

 

[hdowden]

it really depends on the chicken since each chicken is different...they lay just never breed a frizzle to a frizzle

oh yea theres frizzled cochins, polish, serma, silkies (sizzles) color depends on were you get them and the color of the parents

 

[Rachel96]

Well, I have a couple of full Frizzles and a couple of Silkie/Frizzle crosses (just to let people know, in Australia, Frizzles are considered their own breed, not a frizzled variant of something else). Both the Frizzles and the Sizzles seem to be friendlier and calmer than my other chickens (although that could be the Silkie blood in the Sizzles), although it might just be because they were handled a lot more when they were small than some of my others.

The reason you're not meant to breed a Frizzle with a Frizzle is so that you don't get Curlies. I'll try to explain it (as I understand it) using my very basic knowledge of genetics from Year 10 science.

So, let's call the frizzled-feather gene F. This makes the normal-feather gene f (don't ask, it's how genetics work). A normal Frizzle has a genome of Ff. Suppose you breed two with a genome of Ff together. Their offspring have a 25% of FF, a 25% chance of ff, and a 50% chance of Ff like their parents. Frizzles with a phenotype of ff will have normal feathers; Ff as I said is Frizzle feathers; and FF is double-frizzled, or curled.

To give an example of what that looks like, here's a picture of my curly Frizzle (Wimpy) next to a picture of my normal Frizzle (Domino). You can see that normal Frizzle feathers are broad, they just curl towards the head. Curly feathers are like tight ringlets, not like feathers at all. Just to let you know, these two are both cockerells.


As for their temperament, well, I've found mine are quite gentle. I was told that double-frizzled Frizzles tend to be really wild and crazy, but I found it was just the opposite! Wimpy got his name for a reason (my mother says I need to give him a more masculine name to live up to). He's so calm and placid, and just takes whatever happens to him. I've taken him out a couple of times, which I'd never do with any of my other roosters, to homeschooling group and to an ASD (autism) camp, and just held him in my lap (not even held him, just sat him there), and let children poke and prod him, and he doesn't care. He's such a sweetie.

As for other stuff about Frizzles, they're quite small, maybe the same size as an Araucana, a little bigger than an OEG Bantam. I do know of some breeders who are trying to improve the size, but generally I think Frizzles are quite small birds. They look pretty plump and dumpy, but that's just their cool feathers.

And as far as laying goes, I've been told from several sources that Frizzles are reasonable layers. Not the best, but not bad either. Unfortunately, my five Frizzle pullets are still only about 14 weeks, so I don't have any evidence of that for myself yet. But they're gorgeous birds! And obviously the roosters don't lay!

I'm not sure about colours... from what I've seen, they can come in just about any colour! Frizzles are a fairly new breed (as evidenced by the fact that they're not considered a breed in America), so I suppose they just come in the colours of whichever breeds they were originally bred from.

Finally, I want to disclaim everything I've just said. I'm not expert and just passing on what I've heard or what I've noticed from my own birds. I'm fairly new to Frizzles myself, so you'll probably want to search out someone who's had Frizzles for longer.

I hope I've been in some way helpful,
from Rachel.

 

[phoebs]

wow thanks i had a little bit of trouble with the fF and the FF and ff but any way o and is wimpy sizzle or frizzle and is he the grey one?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Rachel, you explained very well! And you got the symbol for frizzle (F) correct.

Here is a Punnett Diagram for frizzled feathers:

Frizzle X Frizzle Punnett Square

​

F​

f+
F​

FF
Ff+
f+​

Ff+​

f+f+​

 

[phoebs]

thanks

 

[Rachel96]

Oh yes... Punnett Diagrams... one of those things that I'm trying to block from my memory... I did SO MANY of them last year... including a strange one about the potential children of SpongeBob SquarePants and SpongeSuzy RoundPants...

Both of the roosters pictured are full Frizzles, as far as I know. Neither of the pictures are very good, and I would offer to get some better ones but it's raining and their frizzles go a little flat in the rain. I could probably put some pictures of my Sizzles up if you're interested, but you asked specifically about Frizzles so I thought I wouldn't. Anyway, Wimpy is the buff one (you can see he's got tight little wispy curls) and Domano is the grey one (poor picture, but his feathers are like normal chicken feathers, they just curve around to point at his head). I really must find some better pictures.

And I was just thinking, about the temperament... I don't really hold with different breeds having different temperaments. Okay, some are calmer or flightier than others (Silkies, anyone?), but you've got allow for each bird to be an individual. Also, if you get them young and hold them a lot, they're going to be a lot calmer and friendlier than birds that you got full-grown.

from Rachel.

 

[phoebs]

thanks so much i get it now i think the pictures are fine they are great picturres very clear when you get time could you put up a few more!
thanks phoebe

 

[Rachel96]

Thanks! It's not rained for most of the afternoon, so I'll go out now and see if they're frizzly enough to take pictuers of!