Hypothetical Cochin Breeding Questions

[black_cat]

I don't sell birds for shows because I don't have shows in my state.

Do you mean calm enough for APA shows or 4H shows?

Uh......shows where you show....birds??????? I think APA? I mean calm enough to be put in one of those little show cages and brought to a show with a bunch of other birds, and you're like 'this is my chicken' and the judge is like 'ok cool lemme judge her' and then handles the chicken n stuff, then you find out which chicken wins (I know that this isn't the most accurate description of what goes on at shows and yes I understand how they actually work)

 

[black_cat]

Uh......shows where you show....birds??????? I think APA? I mean calm enough to be put in one of those little show cages and brought to a show with a bunch of other birds, and you're like 'this is my chicken' and the judge is like 'ok cool lemme judge her' and then handles the chicken n stuff, then you find out which chicken wins (I know that this isn't the most accurate description of what goes on at shows and yes I understand how they actually work)

Good lord, this is a previous conversation all over again. "What size are the bullets?" "Bullet...sized?" "Which shows? "The....chicken...ones???"

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Uh......shows where you show....birds??????? I think APA? I mean calm enough to be put in one of those little show cages and brought to a show with a bunch of other birds, and you're like 'this is my chicken' and the judge is like 'ok cool lemme judge her' and then handles the chicken n stuff, then you find out which chicken wins (I know that this isn't the most accurate description of what goes on at shows and yes I understand how they actually work)

Well usually those birds aren't handled too much. 4H shows, at least mine, you have to be able to have the bird stand still for a long time and be carried and flipped and have wings touched and spread out and all that without getting too stressed

 

[JacinLarkwell]

And broody raised chicks act like their mom. If the mom is skittish, they are too

 

[black_cat]

And broody raised chicks act like their mom. If the mom is skittish, they are too

Ookee. I had heard about broody raised chicks being less tame than brooder babies, so that was where the question came from.

 

[NatJ]

Do you vent sex your chicks or sell straight run?

Most people do not vent-sex their chicks. It's apparently quite fiddly to do, and takes a lot of skill to be accurate while also not hurting the chick.

If you aren't dealing with sexlinks, or with autosexing breeds, then you can sell eggs, sell straight-run chicks, sell started chicks that are old enough to sex by sight, or sell mature birds.

You can always do blacks and blues and just sell the resulting splashes as pets.

If you set up black/blue and black/black breeding pens, there would never be any splashes.

Or you can deliberately use splashes in breeding, because splash x black = blue. Even if the splash isn't showable, its chicks are. (And whether splash is a showable color may change, too.)

How do you get your birds to the point where they're calm enough to show?

Probably pick them up and handle them regularly, put them in a show-sized cage so they get used to it, bring the chicken & cage into the house so they get used to weird things moving around and making noise, invite your friends over for a party while the chicken cage is inside so they get used to crowds of people... Just think of what is likely to happen at the show, and find a way for the chicken to get used to those things.

 

[HappyClucker7]

Ookee. I had heard about broody raised chicks being less tame than brooder babies, so that was where the question came from.

I'm not going to be any help with the cochin breeding (though I think it's a great idea since cochins are the best) but I just wanted to say something about the broody hen raising the chicks.
I have a BA that raised 4 chicks. My BA is quite friendly, she trusts me, but isn't the kind of chicken that will cuddle. Of the 4 chicks, 2 are absolute lap chickens (they both happen to be cochins ) and they are a lot more cuddly than their mom. My third chick will cuddle, but it's not his favorite thing to do. He prefers to be pet. The 4th one hates people and will scream if you try to touch her, which isn't like her mom at all. So, in my experience, the way the mom acts will not always determine how the babies will act. Of course, I'm sure it does in sometimes, but not all the time.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I

Most people do not vent-sex their chicks. It's apparently quite fiddly to do, and takes a lot of skill to be accurate while also not hurting the chick.

If you aren't dealing with sexlinks, or with autosexing breeds, then you can sell eggs, sell straight-run chicks, sell started chicks that are old enough to sex by sight, or sell mature birds.



If you set up black/blue and black/black breeding pens, there would never be any splashes.

Or you can deliberately use splashes in breeding, because splash x black = blue. Even if the splash isn't showable, its chicks are. (And whether splash is a showable color may change, too.)



Probably pick them up and handle them regularly, put them in a show-sized cage so they get used to it, bring the chicken & cage into the house so they get used to weird things moving around and making noise, invite your friends over for a party while the chicken cage is inside so they get used to crowds of people... Just think of what is likely to happen at the show, and find a way for the chicken to get used to those things.

I Did not know those crosses wouldn't make splashes. Cool

 

[FuzzyCritters]

So....I think that sometime in the future I would like to breed cochins to the SOP. This would happen in a setting where roosters are legal, and I have enough space/funds to set up a breeding setup. I think that the easiest would be blue, black, and splash, because when bred together, no matter the color of the hen or the roo, you'll always get some combination of blue, black, or splash chicks. The problem with this is that splash is not a recognized color for cochins. Would I just want to focus on one color, instead of the three? Would I want to pick colors that breed true, and just keep them seperate? How many different sources do you have to use for birds to prevent over inbreeding? How many eggs do you usually hatch at once? How many do you cull down to? For cochins, who are a broody breed, would you let the birds hatch their own eggs, or no?

If you don't want splash chicks, you could breed black to blue. You will get half black chicks and half blue chicks, never any splash. Focusing on one color would be easiest, but black and blue would be pretty doable.

Inbreeding is not a bad thing if done properly. Always choose healthy chicks and never cross full siblings, and inbreeding is great. Inbreeding can reinforce all the good traits of your line. Some genetic diversity is also important, because inbreeding also reinforces bad qualities. Too much genetic diversity is bad because you will never get consistent type. A good balance is 2-4 sources of stock.

You can hatch as many eggs as you want, but more is better because you have to cull a lot. If you follow the rule of 10, you get one good chick out of 10, one great chick out of 100, and one exceptional chick out of 1000. It's a good rule to follow, because choosing the best chick out of 10 will improve your birds much faster than if you choose, maybe 5 okay chicks out of 10.

I personally do not let hens raise my chicks. Chicks need to be monitered as they grow, so you can track heath, rate of growth, and sort out early culls. This is much, much easier when you raise the chicks.

Also questions on selling chicks, eggs, and birds:
Do you ever sell unwanted cockerels and pullets as 'show quality xyz', or do you cull all of them?
Do you vent sex your chicks or sell straight run?
How do you get your birds to the point where they're calm enough to show?
Are there some traits that are easier to breed out than others? (e.g. if a bird is great everywhere else but has poorly feathered feet, is it easier to fix the feathered feet, than, say, wrong eye color?)

I'm not sure why you would sell unwanted show quality? Seems like they would be better for breeding. If they need to be culled form your program, you can sell them as pets or layers.

If you are doing bantam cochins, vent sexing would be dangerous and could kill the small chicks. You could learn how to vent sex them if you are breeding LF cochins. Most breeders sell chicks as straight run, or grow them out to six weeks and sex them. Cochins can be sexed pretty accurately at 6 weeks, so you could do that.

Handling the birds a lot throughout their life will make them calmer.

Some traits are easier to breed out than others. For your feathered feed example, I imagine feathered feed would be easier to breed in since it's a dominant gene. I don't know for sure.

That's a good point about the genetics side of things- I know that birds can be 'split' for some things? What does that mean?

It means a chicken only carries one copy of a gene. A chicken can be split for any gene.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Calling the cochin queen @Overo Mare (cochin talk )