Age of chickens?

[PaulaJoAnne]

I have some age related questions, in regards to our chickens.
I posted an intro in case anyone is curious who I am

Just to recap, my husband and I are getting back into chickens as adults, having been around them plenty as children.

Several weeks ago, we posted and ad, looking for layers.
We are not to picky on the breed, so were open to any answers we got.

We are now kicking ourselves big time.
What happened is as follows.
We were offered Cochins by someone local. $10 each was the price, and we were assured they were 4-5 months old.
My husband did the picking up, and when he got home with them, I wish my alarms bells had rung just a wee bit louder.

I had asked this person if these were full size Cochins, and was assured that they were.
As I am taking them out of the van, I was a bit startled at how light they were.
I still did not know the difference between the banties and the full size.

Over the next few days, I kept going over to the pen, and scratching my head, wondering what on earth was different about these birds!
It hit me after a bit.
The combs and wattles were very small!
Well, I figured out the whole Bantam and and age thing pretty quickly, once I did more research on Cochins.
We have Bantams, not full size.
Needless to say, we are not buying from this person again.

One good thing through all this, is that we also bought 3 Americanas, and we will be getting a Roo for those ladies early next year and slowly make the switch over to them.

All of that, to ask if any of you could give me a good guess, as to the age of our birds.
I have a few pics from today, posted on our blog.
I have no idea how to post pics on here, so will go this route for this post.

http://steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com/2009/07/laying-chickens.html

Hmm, I also do not see how to add a link either...oh well, I will get to that later.

 

[nicalandia]

I own cochins too, full size, mine are 3 month old and yet look very very young, yours are 5 month old, when they will start laying? expect them to be around 8 month old or older...sure they are big breed, but they grow so so slow, they don´t make good layer or meat birds as their up bringing costs are so high..good luck

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Ours are Bantams, so I know they are not going to get any bigger.....
They really will not lay until 8 MONTHS!!!??
I think we might sell them and start over if thats true!

 

[Krys109uk]

One cannot tell size from the photos; there is nothing with which their size could be compared.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
thats the sad true...but if you want good size layers go with RIR or Black Australorps, but if you want less meat but more eggs stay with ISA red sex link..they are prolific layers and will start to lay soon, but if you want THE Ultimate egg machine, look no farther, the white Production type legghorns are unbeatables egg layers...

but hey if all you want is to have pet chickens, stay with them, bantanm cochins are a very nice pet breed..good luck

 

[jessithy]

Very pretty Cochins! I just love that partridge one From my experience their comb starts turning pink at about 6-7 months and their comb turns red and they start to lay at 8-9 months old. Yours look like they are about 5-6 months.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Well, I just posted all the Cochins for sale.
I am going to start looking for others.
We live in Alaska, so some breeds do not do well up here.
I wish we had figured all this out right away,
because we would have taken them all back to the previous owner.
They raise a large variety of birds, and sell all the time to others.
Guess we will spread the word to avoid them now.

 

[nicalandia]

alaska?? WOW...forget about Leghorns...I think Buff Orpintons lay well and are large...maybe Wyandottes with their small combs will give you best results...good luck

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

I am looking for more Americana's but will settle for Barred Rocks as well.
They are a popular chicken up here.

Trouble with going for a breed you know nothing about!!
You get took!!

It will be interesting if this person responds to my new wanted ad, LOL!
I will make sure and refer the call to my hubby.

 

[Goose and Fig]

I'd keep the cochins if you have room. They'd probabaly be one of the heartiest breeds to have way up north. Banties are very inexpensive to keep- and thay lay better than big birds- even though the eggs are small. Banty cochins also make excellent broodies- in case you want chicks and you have big bords that aren't the broody type.