I have a set of Red Cochin Frizzled Bantams, and have read that breeding them to one another leads to a loss of feathers and causes balding in chicks. I (my dad) has plenty of cochin pullets that I could breed my rooster to, but, no reds. He has whites, buffs, blues, and blacks, problem is I have no idea what colors I would get if I crossed my rooster with one of them, and I don't want just a bunch of oddball chicks. Does anyone know what these crosses would throw out? Or does anyone have a link to a site that would help me, that's in a semi-simple format?
Thank you for your post, Leroy. I have no comment. Perhaps some others here do.
The best thing to do is expand your population of reds. If you breed frizzles together only 1/4 of the chicks will be total culls (their feathers will break off and you should put them out of their misery early). 1/2 of the chicks will be frizzled like their parents and 1/4 will be normal feathered. If you don't want any more culls to contend with breed the normal feathered reds that you get to frizzled birds. 1/2 of the progeny from this cross will be frizzled and 1/2 will be normal feathered so that you can maintain the normal X frizzle crosses indefinitely.
Rokimoto, what do you mean a fourth of the chicks will be total culls? I really don't know anything about frizzles and have been curious about them. What do you mean their feathers will break off and they are in misery? Is this painful for the chicks, and what is causing the pain? What causes the feathers to frizzle anyway? Hope you don't mind all these questions, just never had the opportunity to ask before.
Certainly, Rokimoto can speak for himself. I just mention here that, I believe, he is thinking in terms of having frizzle birds that are heterozygous for the frizzle gene, F. A mating of two frizzle birds that are heterozygous for frizzle (F, f+) x (F, f+) the chicks you get are 25% (F, F), 50% (F, f+) and 25% (f+, f+). The (F, F) birds are homozygous for frizzle and will have brittle feathers. The 50% that are heterozygous (F, f+) will be frizzled and their feathers won't be so brittle. The other 25% (f+, f+) will have normal feathering.
Most of the FF homozygotes will have feathers that are too brittle and break off. The birds are poorly insulated and do not do well unless you are in a warm climate. Feathers are also protection against cuts and scrapes, and hens have no protection against the roosters claws when they mount. It is best to euthanize them once they are detected.
Thanks,
Leroy
By Infomaniac on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:08 pm:
Best wishes and good luck.
By Rokimoto on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:18 pm:
If your Reds are the same color as Red Leghorns the safest color to cross them too is to buff stocks. Buff stocks have most of the same genes for feather color, but they also have red diluters. You will get a lot of birds that aren't red enough, but you can cross them back to your red line to darken the color.
By HannahH on Saturday, January 12, 2002 - 12:16 am:
By Infomaniac on Saturday, January 12, 2002 - 03:11 pm:
If you cross a frizzle heterozygote, (F, f+) with a normal feathered bird, (f+, f+), you get 50% frizzle heterozygous (F, f+) which will have frizzle feathers and 50% normal (f+, f+).
I don't know if the frizzle homozygote birds are miserable or not, and if they are, I don't know why. If the feather breaks off in the feather germ / follicle, that might be painful. Other birds might pick them because of their feather loss.
By Rokimoto on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 01:15 pm:
You can avoid producing this type of bird by only crossing the show quality frizzled birds (Ff+) to normal feathered birds (f+f+). All progeny will either be Ff+ or f+f+ in a 50:50 mix so you can make the same type of crosses in the next generation.
In terms of culls and there is no advantage in chick numbers to breed two frizzled birds together (Ff+ X Ff+). 1/4 are total culls and you really can't use for breeding (FF), again like in the above cross 1/2 are show frizzled (Ff+), but only 1/4 are normal f+f+.
The advantage of breeding two frizzled is that you can more accurately predict the feather quality of the offspring, but if you breed a frizzled to a non frizzle there is some doubt about the quality of frizzle that the non frizzled bird will produce. The advantage to breeding a show frizzle to a non frizzle is that you don't throw away 1/4 of your chicks hatched, but you can select for color and conformation in the non frizzled birds. In both crosses only 1/2 the chicks hatched will be show quality. In the frizzle X frizzle you throw away 1/4 of the chicks hatched, but in the frizzle X non frizzle all chicks are potential breeders.
By Infomaniac on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 01:58 pm: