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

RELATED ARTICLES

Frizzles for a Forest Garden 2 Behaviour & Emotions

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...read more

Polish Crested - Beauty, Brains and Rusticity.

It's hard to believe that a creature which looks so frou-frou can be anything but ornamental and therefore totally unsuited to a backyard or smallholding but in the following article...read more

Practical Prevention & Cure - Cold Stress

Although this might seem to be some chichi fashion statement, the idea of creating a coat for your chicken, matching or not, is deadly serious...  read more

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© 2016 Sue Cross

Chicks in cold weather Part 4 - Finding some extra warmth from a cuddly Cochin broody.

There are some amazing kindnesses that chickens perform, without seemingly any profit to themselves, other than perhaps to fulfil a need and maybe not even then.

Sometimes people comment in surprise that hens will raise anything but their own eggs but that isn't even half the story. Not only will they raise other species from eggs but some hens will even take on and adopt chicks and other baby birds. In my experience though, as with anything to do with poultry, there are no written rules and it is very much up to the individual hen as to what she will and won't do.

Snow Kitten and 3 of her adopted chicks

If you have been following my blog you will know that this year, I have had several hatches of very late chicks, including some frizzles and fine feathered Sebright crosses. In an attempt to keep everyone in the best possible environment I decided to try to get one of my young Cochin hens (Snow Kitten), who had recently gone broody to adopt some of the chicks. These were to include all but one of the blue feathered chicks, who seemed particularly vulnerable to our recent spell of horrid cold and wet weather. 

A very full and sleepy (note the messy beak) happy chick

My light blue/porcelain chicks (two plain and one mottled with grey) seem to have come to me through two very fine and sybaritic ancestors, a Barbu de Watermael called Gabrielle, who was definitely a house hen and Aramis a beautiful Blue Polish, again a lover of creature comforts, who unlike my other robust and fearless Polish shunned cold weather. These three blue chicks, in many senses of the word, were my core group in need of warmth, although as the weather deteriorated, we gathered a few more along the way. I must also tell you that the chick above is two months old but has still been adopted by my Cochin. The object of this exercise was also to allow the other more hardy chicks to free-range as much as possible, whereas the three babies would be able to rejoin their original groups when the weather permitted. That was my hope anyway and to do so without causing stress to Snow Kitten.

Something I had not reckoned on was that my mother hens, who came from my tree roosting group would attempt to return to roost in the bay tree before their chicks were capable of climbing. Therefore Snow Kitten was on demand as a sort of Night Nurse as well as a Day Mother. One thing that absolutely amazed me was that after doing this for just one night she would ever afterwards come down the garden to the bay tree in the evening just to see if she was needed to supply this function! One particularly wet evening one of the older chicks, the sibling of one of the blue chicks in my group of three, actually slipped down to a lower branch, so he had to be scooped up and added to Snow Kitten's charges. As this chick is so large and cuckoo coloured and thus completely different to the rest, I thought my Cochin might protest but after a couple of light pecks, which just got him into place at the front of the nest box and with her chin resting on him, everything settled down.

I did have a plan on one particularly horrible day to put six more chicks with her in the run with the 3 blues and to which I had also added a light coloured buff frizzle but with the exception of the latter, this didn't work, I think it was just too much.

Snow Kitten gets a time-share in 3 of Cuckoodora's 12 chicks

I also followed through with my plan of letting the chicks with Snow Kitten out of the run to rejoin their original mothers and free-range and forage. I later found that Snow Kitten was following one of the mothers around and actually sitting down and covering a couple of her adopted chicks whilst the other mother carried on scratching for food. I would say that the other mother, Cuckoodora, tolerated Snow Kitten rather than saw her as an asset, which she certainly was to me.

In conclusion I could not believe my luck that this has worked out so well and again I stress that every hen is an individual and may react in a different way but if she trusts you, I believe she thus has confidence in what you are asking her to do. Today the three blue chicks and the buff frizzle are out free-ranging with Snow Kitten, who ideally despite their differing ages, regards them all as new babies and in need of covering-on-demand. There is seemingly no limit to the kindness of Cochins and other hen mothers-in-waiting.

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

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Until next time, all the very best from Normandie! Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2015