Meet the Coch'Anvers, A New "Designer" Bantam Chicken

speckledhen

Intentional Solitude
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17 Years
Feb 3, 2007
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Blue Ridge Mtns. of North Georgia
Maybe I should say "Diva" rather than Designer, LOL. Until the recent addition of Belgian D'Anvers in mille fleur and porcelain colors, thanks to Boggy Bottom Bantams, here at the Chicken Asylum, my only bantam chicken was my hatchery lavender banty Cochin we lovingly refer to as the "Purple Princess" or Diva Princess, our Shadow. She lived with the main standard size flock until the D'Anvers grew large enough and then, she was added to their numbers. After she got over having a few pint-sized hubbies and began to allow them to mate her, her eggs were added to the mix since she is now over 4 years old and we thought we'd like one of her daughters.

So, we have hatched Mille Fleur D'Anver x Lav Cochin (chicks are black with red or silverish color in hackles/chest) and Porcelain D'Anver x Lav Cochin babies (chicks are lavender). If you are familiar with porcelain, it is just mille fleur with the addition of the lavender gene.

D'Anvers are clean legged and rose combed while Cochins are, of course, feather legged and single combed. Out of this experimental cross, Cetawin and I have discovered that we really like our new "Coch'Anvers"! Most are feather legged, in varying degrees. All except one so far has been rose combed, as rose comb is dominant.

I kept only two lavender pullets, who are sired by one of the porcelain roosters, Aubrey or Angus (recently we lost Angus). Cetawin has a black pair, sired by the Mille Fleur rooster, Rufus, over the lav Cochin.

We don't know exactly how the Coch'Anvers will reproduce with each other, how true they will breed, especially the blacks, but we are going to find out soon. We just really like this particular fun cross and wanted to share them with you so please, no breeders have a coronary. The Coch'Anvers are larger than the pure D'Anvers, for sure.

Cetawin will add her photos of the ones she kept to this thread soon, but first the parents:






Now, the Coch'Anver pullets I kept, Opal and Misty, who are now 16 weeks old. Opal has more foot feathering than her Cochin mama, Misty less so. Both have rose combs and are lavender. The Mille Fleur D'Anver on the left is the same age, so you can see the size gap.


 
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Actually, Cetawin will probably do more with it than I can since I don't have an male right now. I was just loving their looks--wait till you see the Coch'Anver cockerels. They are so handome! I like the rose combs and the colors we got from both the mille fleur x lav and the porcelain x lav.


Forgive all the feathers in that pen. I cleaned every one out last night, but Shadow is molting heavily.
 
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Here my babies....


This is the Lavender pair Beau and Bonnie in the background



The Split pair Raven and Shadow (named in honor of her mother)







Sapphire, lavender pullet



Sam, lavender cockerel




The changes in the cockerels has been amazing to watch...they just seem to get more beautiful with each passing day. This cross also calms the d'Anver temperament somewhat. The girls are prone to being drama queens but the little boys are docile and friendly in contrast to the d'Anver little man syndrome attitude. hahahahaha
 
The youngest Coch'anver is a little split male...at present he is still all black and has not begun to get his markings yet, he is the only one to have a single comb at this point. My plan is to breed him to a Mille Fleur d'Anver and/or a Mille Split d'Anver. As he himself carries the lavender gene, there is the possibility for a porcelain from him. The genetics of this project will be interesting but I am really excited for them to reach breeding age and to discover what they will produce.



Sunbathing...LOL





There is also the possibility of breeding Batman to Porcelain d'Uccle, a Lavender Split d'Uccle or a lavender d'Uccle. I really have a lot to consider with what to produce and how.

I would like to avoid the hard feathering on the feet of the d'Uccle and maintain a softer feathering of the cochin but the d'Uccle could give me heavier foor feathering in the babies.
 
He has very faint silver starting under his throat, in his beard. Foot feathering is real good. gosh what a sweetie pie he is.
 
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Adding that I'd love more Coch'Anvers since I currently own one Buff bantam Cochin pullet and two Splash Cochin pullets, however my remaining Belgian D'Anver rooster, Aubrey, a porcelain, is almost 11 years old and I'm not even sure he's fertile now. And the bantam Cochins have four of their own guys with them (there are 3 bantam Cochin girls and 6 large fowl EE girls in the group).
 

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