Several people are wanting to “make” some Frizzled Silkied Seramas, so here is my story of how they came to be…
My first Frizzled Silkied Serama came about purely by accident, even though it was “on my mental list” of serama projects! I crossed a smooth roo with a frizzled hen, and Voila!, my first Frizzled Silkied appeared, which was Blue Boy, currently owned by “muddyhorse” of BYC.
As a youngster…
Here he is full grown…
Without my knowing it, both parents were carrying the recessive silkied gene, and the moon-and-the-stars just happened to align correctly, and Blue Boy magically appeared. He has been the basis for all my silkieds and frizzled silkieds since. So, that's the easy way to start your project, just have one smooth and one frizzled bird (one male, one female, of course!) that are both carrying the silkied gene.
Smooth (carrier) x Frizzled (carrier) = Possible frizzled silkied + 50% Smooth + 50% Frizzled (%'s will vary)
Another way is to cross a silkied with a frizzle, which will give you half smoothes and half frizzleds, but they will be carrying the silkied gene. You can then cross one smooth and one frizzle from these chicks, and they should give you some frizzled silkieds, since they will carry the silkied gene! After that, crossing one of these frizzled silkieds to a regular silkied will give you half silkied and half frizzled silkieds. The frizzle gene is not carried, so you can always return to producing “regular” silkieds just by not breeding any more frizzled silkied seramas.
Silkied x Frizzled = 50% Smooth (carrier), 50% Frizzled (carrier)
Smooth (carrier) x Frizzled (carrier) = Possible frizzled silkied + 50% Smooth + 50% Frizzled (%'s will vary)
Frizzled Silkied x Silkied = 50% Silkied, 50% Frizzled Silkied
You can see some examples of frizzled silkieds here…Chrissy (a mottled frizzled silkied), Blue Boy, and Tony.
My observation has been that the feathers on the frizzled silkied seramas, when full grown, look and feel more like “fur”, and the bird in general seems “fluffier” and “fuller”…Not very technical terms, but an apt description, I think! (Imagine soft like a featherduster!)
I purchased Jimmy from you awhile back and I have a question. I know you’ve probably been answering all kinds of questions about the silkied serama, but I hope you can help me with this one. I bred a gray silkie to Jimmy and have some very cute offspring. Now, is this the first step towards getting the silkie gene?? The offspring are 2 smooth feathered and 1 frizzle. Then if I take the smooth offspring and breed it to the frizzled offspring, will that be a frizzled silkied serama?? The offspring has 5 toes, feathered feet and a small poof on top of their head. Or do I have to breed them back to a Serama to get the furry serama look and the 4 toes?? I’m selling the offspring (not for a lot because I don’t know what I’m doing yet)but I want to give the buyer the right info. Thank you.
Deneen-
I apologize, I just found this comment now in my spam folder, have no idea why…!
To begin with, Jimmy carries the “silkied” gene, not the “silkie” gene, they are two different breeds and genes. If you breed Jimmy to another silkied serama, such as Dagger (currently up for auction), you will get some smoothes, some regular frizzleds, and some silkieds…you could even get a frizzled silkied serama, such as Joule (also currently up for auction), because he has the dominant frizzled gene. Breeding him to another smooth serama that also carries the silkied gene ( including his smooth daughters) will also get you some silkieds…the odds increase the more you hatch, of course.
I have no experience with crossing seramas with silkies (the breed), so I really can’t help you out on that score. Once again, I do apologize for not finding this sooner! If you have any other questions, feel free to write again, I promise to check for you name…:)
I am interested, very, very interested in getting a frizzle silkied serama, does not matter color, size, or sex. Can you let me know if you will have any??
Stephanie-
I currently have two babies in the brooder that are both silkied, and perhaps frizzled silkied, it’s too early to tell yet. One is a black & white mottled, the other is chocolate…They will both be available in March or April at auction here when they’re old enough. If you sign up here – http://www.pixiechickens.com/seramas-for-sale/ , I’ll send you an email when my next auction will take place.