Mille Cochin Info

[Fancy Feathers]

Here are today's photo's of Sunshine Roo. His type is really coming along. I'm very happy Nancy sold him to me!

I'm happy I sold them to you too! I love to see their pictures

 

[Msbear]

Funky Feathers, I am so glad you sold your hen.. and for more money.. that's great. I felt so bad I couldn't take her. I just culled down to my keepers and wound up culling birds I would've kept over her. As for her type, If you compare her to your splashes (which are very lovely) the difference is obvious. I tried explaining this to you in a message as well. Mellie is nice but, definitely no where near "nicely typed." A nicely typed cochin will be as round as it is wide as it is long as it is tall... like a basketball. You can see she's missing width, is tightly feathered (a nice cochin will be loosely feathered with lots of fluff.. including lots of underfluff which Mellie doesn't have). Her head is a whole other issue.

Here's a better view of your girl and a "nicely typed" cochin side by side to help see the differences.


I hate to knit pick but, I think it would help a lot breeders see how important type is.. and what to look for. Mille fleur has triggered a widespread new interest in this breed and I hope that these new folks can see how far we gotta go to get these birds right. It is still a project right now. Well patterned birds are not nicely typed and nicely typed are not well patterned.. just hasn't happened yet... not on here anyway. Someone may be holding out somewhere.

Most layer breeds are tightly feathered birds as are d'uccles and rosecombs.. their feathers lay tight against the body. A cochin will have fluff and bounce to their feathers. Mellie's tail carriage is awkward in this photo but, that is only a portion of her issues. She lacking a LOT of underfluff , width and height in her tail... and underfluff everywhere else. She has really nice markings.. and that's why I was drooling over her but, I think I can tackle that in a few years. I would lose those marking by breeding her to an excellent typed cochin and, by the time I bred those offspring back for type, I would lose what I was trying to gain anyway. She also looks to have split breast in this pic.. which was a terrible problem for me a few years ago. A cochins breast should be wide and full and free of vertical creases. see how there is a line running up her breast separating it into two portions.

Another thing about show typed cochins that often goes unconsidered is the HEAD. Everyone's obsessed with fluff but, a bantam cochin's head is very distinguishable from other breeds. Here is a black cochin bred by Tom. Her beak is short, curved and her comb is even and positioned well on her head. Her eyes are prominent and there is even more fluff around the eyes and lobes. This is where I can spot a bird related to Tom's right away. His heads are gorgeous!!!


I am in no way and expert and am still learning but, hope I can teach too. Good Luck with whatever you do, Funky Feathers. I hope you make room for something that you love. I have three pens of breeder mille fleurs and it's still not enough to really do this right. It takes a lot of room, lots of patience and a good eye.

Nancy, these boys look very nice.

MrsChickenDad - LOVE those frizzles! I have one frizzle cockerel who has been very busy with the girls, and his favorite girl is "Special", buff based pullet, and she's been laying long enough now her eggs are about adult hen sized. Eggs are in the 'bator now, I'm hoping for some nice frizzle Mille Cochin chicks

I'll be estatic if they look like yours!


Stephanie I think we all have have "extra" cockerels, I currently have 2 for sale too


Lindsey glad the black-band/was-blue-mark boy

is doing well now. (That is kind of a long name) I was browsing this weekend about probiotics - some list I'm on somewhere was talking about them - one breeder gives them before shipping as a boost to the bird's immune system and overall well-being. I think that's something I'm going to start doing, especially because we're so much colder then most everyone else up here in South Dakota, and shipping itself is hard on chicks, and going through a temperature change on top of it is just added stress; then when they get to their new home they're so much more susceptible to getting sick over something that wouldn't have distressed them before .. You know you worry when shipping the whole time the birds are in transit, every little bit we can do to make the trip better for them is only going to help.
I'm SO glad your Mille hen came home! So good to hear good news

& your Great Pyr is recovering well?

 

[Funky Feathers]

That was a very old pic of Mellie, when she was just a pullet. These are more recent. Does she look fluffier/better cushion in these? Does her head look better? Her sister "Swirly" is next to her. Do you think Swirly was better?

 

[Msbear]

she's better in these pics but, not what I would call typey. You shouldn't be able to see her feet because they should be covered with feathers and underfluff and she's taller and longer than she is wide, etc.. (4th pic down) Her head is not what I described previously either. Swirley is very similar to Mellie. I think you really wanted to believe that she was a very typey example of a mille fleur cochin hen and that's why you wanted her to be shown. I tried to explain this to you via PM when we were discussing her price and why I couldn't show her. I took the time to do it again with side by side comparisons and pulling wording from the SOP to help you understand that she isn't and so you can see what is but, I don't think there's anything I can say that would convince you. Be very happy with the $75 you got from her.

 

[Funky Feathers]

I'm not being stubborn, just trying to learn/understand. I want to see what a really good MFC hen looks like. Do you have (or can you find) a pic of the ideal MFC hen? There must be one somewhere, yes? Please show me the best typed (and patterned) MFC hen you have seen. Thanks.

 

[ShysCreations]

He does appear to have nice type!!

 

[Funky Feathers]

He does appear to have nice type!!

Who does?

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I'm not being stubborn, just trying to learn/understand. I want to see what a really good MFC hen looks like. Do you have (or can you find) a pic of the ideal MFC hen? There must be one somewhere, yes? Please show me the best typed (and patterned) MFC hen you have seen. Thanks.

There have been quite a few posted on this thread. I have seen some extraordinary girls and yes, they all have faults but they are getting closer every year to what we want to see.
What may help you, Stephanie, is to to take the profile of your bird and take out all color and the same with one of the other 2 photos MsBear put with her and you can see shape. That is the first thing I noticed was shape. Don't look at just color and pattern, it isn't as important right now. Type is important. I have heard you have some really good Splash so that should help with knowing what you need as far as shape. But feathering is another factor and another reason why I bred in Mottled.
It just seems you are looking at her coloring and I don't fault that. I would love to have that pattern in my flocks. If she had hatched here I would have tried to work with her. I am sure there would have been a boy that I could have placed with her to see what chicks I would get. But then, I am the crazy chicken lady that usually runs about 8 breeding pens of MFC with about 6-8 in each pen and has about 60 more in the wings to use, if needed.

 

[Mrshollywood]

OK I took a couple pictures tonight, and taking them of moving chicks wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be LOL!



Oldest Mille Pair

Here they are at 5 months..... Lots to work on in type...

 

[Funky Feathers]

Quote:
Can you tell me what page s # post #'s they are on? I'd like to look at them again.