Frizzles for a Forest garden - Behaviour and Emotions, Dilemmas and Solutions

In the first part of this article I discussed aspects of the perceived wisdom on Frizzled birds and how and why this could impact on choices when it came to picking birds for a back yard or in particular a forest garden. If you have just landed on this subject and want to read the first part, you can find it here.

How frizzling affects behaviour

Spike is a fine example of a Polish Frizzle and has also something which I believe  well illustrates the dilemma faced by the Frizzled bird and why it is perhaps more interesting, for me, to look at the psychological issues involved in frizzling rather than the genetic ones.

I'm certain you can see his personality shining through here. Both he and his brother Rupert pictured in my previous article with their father Diavolo are gentle birds. Now and again they take it upon themselves to assert their territorial rights but it is done with a great deal of ritual and I might add, very little if any physical contact.

You can see in this comparison how Spike's hackle feathers differ from that of his brother and how, as we will see below, he is sending out clear signals to the others in the flock. This can get him into difficulties from time to time and this is where keeping Frizzles in a forest garden comes into its own because they have a very simple way of extricating themselves from potentially threatening situations. The fact that Spike and Rupert are co-rulers of a hen house and thus dominant males, can put them in the firing line for potential conflict from other aspiring cockerels.  Rupert however, see below, just looks quietly confident, whereas Spike due to his feathering has the potential for sending out different messages.

Bob the Irreplaceable

One of the first things I would like to look at is how other birds in the the flock interpret the signals that a frizzled bird is sending out. We all know that the 'puffed up look' is one that the male adopts when courting but it is also one, particularly in the feathers of the neck, which denotes throwing down the gauntlet and getting ready to fight. 'Raising the hackles', 'being hacked off' are expressions used about being annoyed or fed up with another person's behaviour and can mean the prelude to an argument. Thus to a hen or cockerel, the Frizzle looks permanently annoyed, aggressive and/or ready for a stand off. With several of my varieties of frizzled birds, who have Sebright blood, they have the extra bellicose signals of the Old English Game bird. This typical stance, which has the tail carried high, the wings held low, is usually accompanied by a very raffish look in the eye.

Just holding the head downwards to show a hen a tasty snack can lead to a contretemps as those hackle feathers look like the prelude to a show-down, as above, with Chocolatte. With my first ever frizzled birds, I was aware that they either gained dominant positions, almost by default or were keeping a low profile around the under-plantings of the forest floor. This is why I wrote earlier that I knew they could control their own feathers and actually make them lie flat against the body. Not only does this remove the 'puffed-up' look but it also makes them slimmer and smaller and a lot less visible. I have seen Sweep use this ability on several occasions back when he was a youth and wanted to avoid conflict. Furthermore, young Frizzles such as Honeycomb, below, will still adopt this feather-lowering option when moving between territories. For a hen Frizzle the stakes are rather higher, as I have always found female fights are a lot more physical and potentially dangerous than cockfights. In the main however, over time and as our birds got used to having Frizzles amongst them, the whole flock began to interpret these signals differently. It still does remain a fact though, that of all the hen houses/coops, there is not one where the dominant cockerel and/or hen has not been a Frizzle.

The lowering of the feathers is again something which happens either involuntarily or by design when it rains or the Frizzle becomes too hot sunbathing. Again this ability to control or have the feathers controlled by temperature or humidity is something which enables the Frizzle to enjoy life in the freedom of movement a forest garden provides. There are however times when it does become necessary to intervene.

Frizzles and emotions

One of the criteria by which man has always wanted to distance himself from animals and birds is by his idea that sentience is the preserve of humans. Well from my observations that is just not true. Birds and animals exhibit a whole gamut of emotions and it was my first ever rehomed Frizzle, who showed me that birds can get depressed. Frizzante as we called her arrived depressed, I thought this was quite natural because she and all the other denizens of the forest garden in which she lived had lost their 'keeper'. However, I was told that she had been in a monogamous relationship with a frizzled rooster, who had died the year before she came to live with us. Here she is on her first day, she even looks sad.

The Unfaithful Orlando with Lucy the Brahma

Luckily my Sebright cockerel and Frizzante formed a bond and although it was not a lasting one and although she laid six eggs, she never became broody. Orlando was the most laid-back bird we have ever had and his personality along with that of my next purchase, an Ardenner cockerel 'Raffles', worked wonders on Frizzante, who even grew back the plumage she had lost through stress.

My two Ardenner hens and Dorothy the Wyandotte cross made up the rest of our  little starter flock. Frizzante steered clear of Chicklette and Poulie, who as my first two hens and sisters had formed a very dominant pair. Instead the Frizzle rather cleverly, I thought, continuously attempted to balance up this power couple, by making friends with Dorothy but was snubbed at every attempt.  It is here, I think, where Frizzles come into their own, they are totally determined and will always try to make things work. In the end my little flock did achieve harmony and as it quickly grew ever bigger, that strength of will from Frizzante and the sybaritic insouciance of Orlando carried down through the generations. It has absolutely coloured the whole dynamic of the flocks we have today. This was also an important lesson for me to witness the strength and depth of emotions within this little hen and it helped me so much when dealing with later Frizzled offspring from the same bloodline, who became so depressed over our weather and in Squeaky's case below, a fall from power. As I explained in my previous post, I do have bloodline of unusually fine feathered Frizzles, whereas my Polish and Cochin Frizzles are well upholstered in cold weather.

Sweep's life too was made miserable by his inability in old-age to cope with cold weather. He would, like Squeaky (above) before him, spend his time either inside near the woodstove or at the window ready to come in again.  I just got the idea that he would benefit from some permanent extra warmth and used as a model, the turkey saddles, I had seen employed on the farm when I was a child. Sweep's coat was designed for the outdoor life he had always loved in his youth and allowed him to continue to enjoy it in old-age, he could even fly up to the perch in it to roost. I also found that on very cold nights he needed to sleep in it too. You can see how his stance echoes his Sebright blood. Seeing him standing like this and showing such confidence, also gave me good visual signals that he was feeling fine again!

I made a film of Squeaky's story and although old and filmed and edited pre-Open Shot and before I got a Birthday present of a better film camera, I think it does illustrate the essence of Frizzle.

In the next article I'll look further into the determined nature of Frizzles how it can be amazingly helpful and on occasions harmful and strategies for preventing the latter.

Meanwhile all the very best and if you have enjoyed this piece and found it interesting and/or useful please feel free to join the blog, subscribe to my youtube channel and of course to ask questions or comment and share your own experiences.

Sue

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© 2016 Sue Cross

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Choosing Chickens for a Forest Garden - Frizzles

In some countries, such as here in France, Frizzles are often viewed as an individual breed rather than a form of feather mutation, which can occur across several races of chicken, other poultry and wild birds. Interestingly in the 17th century, the ornithologist Carl von Linné, believing them to belong to a completely different species, catalogued them under the wonderful name of Gallus crispus! I've always been crazy about Frizzles ever since I was lucky enough to be given one to rehome many years ago. Below is Goldie, a second generation frizzle, with a mixture of Sebright x Ardenner x our Rehomed Frizzle of unknown breed. She has quite a delicate frizzling due to the Sebright and Ardenner influence, which are quite light plumaged birds. She is also sun-worshipping, so her feathers are less frizzled than usual but more of this later.

If you've ever read 'Genetics of the Fowl' by F.B Hutt, which I dip into now and again whenever I'm feeling strong enough, you will know that Frizzles were first identified in a drawing sent to the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, who included them in the second volume of his Ornithologiae, published in 1599.

I love the look of the Frizzle as depicted in this early drawing because to me it explains their character perfectly. They are determined, loyal and incredibly independent, something which makes both the male and female serious contenders for dominance, in a flock. It also, along with their striking appearance, makes them very easy to tame as they are often perceived as being less like domestic birds and more like fancy fowl. This is actually to do them a disservice as they are, despite appearances, incredibly hardy, rustic feeders, wonderful mothers and sometimes fathers and great for a forest garden. Although their altered wing feathers stop them from flying, they are great climbers and jumpers, so fit well into the arboreal landscape of a food forest.

In 1676 when  Francis Willughby of Warwick published his Ornithologiae, he made much of the fact that the Frizzle had been erroneously named 'the Friesland' due to a bastardisation or misunderstanding of the word. He further believed this had come about because by association;  'one would be apt to attribute (frizzling) to horror of cold'. In fact if you have seen my posts on cold stress you will know I was driven to make coats for my older Frizzles, one of whom was very obvious, albeit non-verbally, in his protest about cold weather!

However,  if conversely, you take a look at one of my Polish Frizzles in full Winter plumage, you realise that, in fact with the added air pockets provided by the frizzling, he is actually warmer than his smooth feathered brother. This is due to what one might call the 'eiderdown' effect. The problem and conflict of ideas arises also from the difference exhibited in the degree of frizzling, such as in those mutations known colloquially as 'woolies' and 'curlies', which can lead to their feathers being brittle and easily damaged. There is also some question about the basal metabolism of these Frizzles due to the spacing of the feathers and the paucity of the down feathers.

As with everything with chickens and in fact as far as I am concerned, birds and animals in general, it is all down to individuals, something research often fails to address. My mistake was to be so quick off the mark to breed from my rehomed Frizzle, that I paired her up with my then only cockerel, a Sebright, thus giving my first frizzled chicks the problem of very fine frizzled feathers, which were both more brittle and sparser than normal. This however, only became a problem in old-age and, as I had a solution, was one we could cope with. So the argument that all Frizzles need a hot climate won't wash, in fact where could you find a warmer snugglier home than with these frizzled Mummies?

Although feathers were thought to be composed primarily of beta-keratins you have no doubt read recently that it is an alpha-keratin mutation which causes frizzling. Well genetics is, to say the least, complicated and fraught with controversy so I'm not sure how far this gets us. However, if we enlarge a section from the above image and also take a look from another angle, we can see what has happened to the structure of the feather.

So how does the frizzle mutation express itself?

Frizzling has been described by geneticists, as a distinct curl backwards, thus outwards and upwards in the rachis (shaft) of the feather. The Frizzle was also aptly described by George Louis Leclerc, Count de Buffon, as having feathers 'in a reversed position', when he included it in his Natural History of Birds, which was  published in 1793.

The curling is made up of irregular kinks, which we see quite clearly in the image above and in that of Spike, our Black-laced Gold crested and bearded Frizzle and his Chamois father below. Where I part company with the research, is the suggestion that this curling precludes the feathers from ever lying flat against the body. This is because it is something I have witnessed 'in the field'. Again, I will expand on this later when I come to look at the psychology of frizzling. The irregular kinking or curling of the feathers is not the whole story, as Frizzles also have thickening of the barbs and barbules and alteration of the hooklets. This explains even further why they do not fly as well as normal chickens. As an illustration of the anatomy of the feather I have taken an old cockerel (non-frizzled) feather my neighbour gave me and which, as not being in its premier jeunesse, shows up very clearly the different components.  The image was obtained with the use of a supermarket purchased, mini microscope from the Science Museum!

The frizzling mutation usually comes out at 50%  of the chicks hatched from a Frizzle matched with a non-frizzle. Bungle, the mother, is possibly latent Frizzle as she comes from the same breeder. I got the eggs for her and Diavolo (the father) off e-bay, only four hatched from the dozen but they have all grown into wonderful creatures, hardy and rustic (see below) whether frizzled or not. If you are living in a very cold climate and want Frizzles, then Polish or Cochin or any of the other heavier plumaged birds are probably your best choice.

In the next article I'll look at, what for me is the most interesting facet of frizzling. This being, the psychological aspect of having frizzled feathers. It is this that impacts most upon the forest garden environment and why I believe a Frizzle (or several) in you flock is a fine choice and a fabulous edition.

Meanwhile all the very best and if you have enjoyed this piece and found it interesting and/or useful please feel free to join the blog, subscribe to my youtube channel and of course to ask questions or comment and share your own experiences.

Sue

The original 16th century drawing of a Frizzle, thanks to the Pinterest Board of summagallicana.it

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© 2016 Sue Cross