As any chicken keeper can attest, once you see a frizzle, you want a frizzle.
Frizzles are a type of chicken that have gained popularity for their curly feathers and quirky appearance.
Frizzles are not a breed as such, but chickens of any breed that carry the frizzle gene.
The frizzle gene causes feathers to curl upward, imbuing these chickens with their unique looks.
What Two Chickens Make A Frizzle?
Any breed can come in a frizzled form if this gene is present, but Polish chickens are among those most commonly seen in frizzled form.
A frizzled chicken as part of a breeding pair will result in 50 per cent frizzled offspring, the rest having normal smooth feathers.
Frizzled chickens come with a few cautions for both breeding and care.
Can Any Chicken Be A Frizzle?
In the United States, frizzles are not considered a separate breed.
Rather, frizzling denotes a type of plumage.
Any breed of chicken can be produced in a frizzled form, but some breeds are more popular as frizzles than others.
Frizzle chickens are most commonly seen in breeds including:
- Polish
- Cochins
- Pekins
- Plymouth Rocks
- Japanese Bantams
Depending on the starting breed, frizzles can look like unruly and unkempt feather dusters, or elaborately coifed.
Note, there is such a thing as a breed called the Asian Frizzle, but that is not what most chicken keepers mean when they talk about frizzles.
What Causes Frizzling In Chickens?
The frizzle gene is an incompletely dominant gene that causes the shaft of the feathers to twist, creating the unique curled feathers.
One copy of the gene is enough to cause frizzling.
The Frizzle gene is what’s known as a pleiotropic gene, which means it influences multiple traits, primarily phenotypic ones i.e. ones that affect the individual’s phenotype or appearance.
How much frizzling a bird displays depends on another gene called the ”mf” or “frizzle modifier” gene.
If the mf gene is present, it can suppress the frizzling so much that the chicken looks relatively normal.
How Did Frizzles Arise?
It’s unclear how frizzling first came about.
However, frizzled bantams have long been popular in the United Kingdom.
References to frizzle chickens date back as far as the 1600s.
The evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin is said to have mentioned them, referring to them as Caffie Fowls, found in India.
How Do You Tell If A Chicken Is A Frizzle?
Not all offspring of frizzles will be frizzles.
Frizzled chickens can be recognized by their distinctive feathers, which curl outwards creating a permanently bedraggled look not unlike that of an eighties rock star who’s partied a touch too hard.
How Do You Tell If A Frizzle Is A Rooster Or Hen?
Frizzles can be even more challenging to sex than ordinary chickens.
With combs and even wattles hidden by a crazy eruption of feathers, behavior can be your best indication of whether your frizzle is a boy or girl.
Often you may have to wait a little longer than usual to be sure of your frizzle’s gender.
How Do You Tell If A Chick Is A Frizzle?
Not every chick with a frizzle for a mom or dad will be frizzled.
Frizzling is not obvious at hatch, either.
How Soon Can You Tell If A Chick Is Frizzled?
It becomes clear that a chick is frizzled soon after hatch, as the first feathers begin to come in.
Usually within a few weeks, you’ll know which ones are not like the others!
Frizzled chicks will have a ruffled appearance that stands out amongst their smooth-feathered clutch mates.
What Size Eggs Does A Frizzle Chicken Lay?
Because frizzled chickens are not a separate breed, but a subset of any other existing breed, they don’t lay any particular size of egg.
Rather, a frizzled chicken will lay the same size egg as other smooth-feathered chickens of the same breed.
What Color Eggs Does A Frizzle Lay?
As with egg size, the color of egg a frizzle lays is determined by the overall breed of the chicken.
So, for instance, a Polish Frizzle will lay small white-shelled eggs —just like all Polish chickens.
The same rule applies to other characteristics such as temperament and broodiness.
How To Care For A Frizzle Chicken
Frizzles make a fun addition to any backyard flock, but chickens with frizzled feathers do require a little extra care, particularly in wet weather.
Make no mistake, frizzles are squarely in the ornamental chicken category.
Stunning? Yes. But not exactly practical or hardy.
Low maintenance, they are not.
Rain Protection
While most chickens can safely go out in the rain, you may not want to let you frizzles get wet.
The looser feathering of frizzles is less water resistant than regular chicken feathers.
When it rains, you may need to actively intervene to bring your frizzles inside as they will likely be tempted to stay out with the rest of the smooth feathered flock.
Protection From Hot And Cold Temperatures
Frizzling may also interfere with a chicken’s ability to properly insulate themselves from both hot and cold extremes of temperature.
Hair Cuts
Frizzled head feathers may also need trimming if they’re not to significantly impair vision.
A good indicator of this is if your chickens are startling easily — if they squawk and flap wildly when you come near, it may mean they have not seen your approach.
It’s possible their less-than-sharp vision has something to do with why frizzles can sometimes end up with their glorious crests feather pecked into bald pates.
Inability To Fly
Poor vision, along with the fact that frizzles can’t fly, mean that frizzles are not very good at predator evasion.
They also can’t fly up to perches that are high off the ground, so you’ll need to supply lower ones.
To summarize, before venturing into frizzles, make sure that you are:
- Prepared to give hair cuts around the eyes on a regular basis
- Offering predator proof coop, run and free range areas
- Preventing feather pecking by other birds
- Able to provide adequate dry areas, including low perches, for your frizzles
- Willing to be a present and attentive keeper able to look after them whenever the weather is anything but mild
Frizzled chicks may need extra time in the brooder under heat, until they feather out.
Tips For Breeding Frizzle Chickens
So, how do you make a frizzle?
Basically you need to start with a frizzled bird as one of the two parents.
Frizzle x Regular = 50% Frizzle + 50% Regular.
The main thing to remember when raising frizzle chickens is that two frizzles should not be bred together.
Every breeding pair should consist of one frizzled chicken and one smooth.
This is because a double dose of the frizzle gene, which occurs in one quarter of offspring from a frizzle x frizzle mating, produces 25% of chicks with an overdose of frizzle known as frazzle (explained in the next section).
It’s also important to select away from birds with extra large crests and beards —when these features get the frizzle treatment, they can obscure the chicken’s eyes to such an extent that vision is impaired.
Safety implications include:
- Increased risk of head injury due to walking and jumping into things
- Heightened vulnerability to predators because frizzled chickens can’t see threats, and frizzled roosters are unable to effectively spot danger, in order to warn the flock
- Decreased foraging ability
What Is A Frazzle Chicken?
Frazzled chickens aare produced by inappropriate breeding of frizzles.a
Frizzle x Frizzle = 50% Frizzle +25% Regular + 25% Frazzle
Where frizzles have an appealing curl to their feathers, frazzles are just a physical mess.
Some of a frazzle’s feathers will be so curly that they break, and frazzles may even have featherless patches or near-total baldness.
Frazzles can also be prone to:
- Heart and other physical problems
- Shorter lifespans
So, frazzling is serious defect that impacts a chicken’s quality of life and not something to ever create.
What Happens If You Breed Two Frizzles?
Responsible breeders will never breed two frizzles together —and there is no advantage in doing so, as it doesn’t produce any higher proportion of frizzled chicks than mating frizzle x normal chickens.
Both pairings give 50% frizzled offspring.
It’s just that when you breed frizzle x frizzle, half the chicks that would ordinarily be smooth feathered turn out frazzled instead.
What Is The Difference Between A Frizzle And A Sizzle Chicken?
A sizzle is a frizzled Silkie.
In other words, for a chicken to be a sizzle, the feathers must be silkie, not standard.
🐓 See all articles on Breeds
Conclusion
Frizzles add a charming presence to any backyard flock and are a guaranteed conversation piece.
Frizzled versions of existing breeds do require some special care, including protection from inclement weather.
It’s crucial not to breed two frizzles together as this creates ”frazzled” offspring 25 per cent of the time.
Frazzles are birds with serious physical problems due to a double dose of the frizzle gene.
One frizzled parent is enough to create frizzling in half of the offspring.
References
Hutt, F B, Genetics Of The Fowl, Norton Creek Press, 1949
University of Illinois Extension, Incubation and Embryology, History of Breeds, downloaded May 2022
