Bearded Cochin Breeding Idea?

[black_cat]

I'm not entirely familiar with chicken genetics but I know a little bit! and I dont think this would take 30 years at all I think selecting specific starting parents would aid immensely! I think if you started with silkies (probably black) you'd be better off then maybe with cochins, while still retaining a similar shape! I've found that my silkie crosses (which honestly are usually silkie x cochin) are pretty damn cochin shaped! even one of our hens we used to have that was a silkie who's 7th grandfather was a chocolate orpington (and she was smooth feathered) she was very cochin shaped just a little taller, she even had a crest similar to a polish I'd say! I think blue eggs would be your most difficult part, since I think blue eggs are recessive but I dont know a lot about egg genetics ^^" but at the very least to just breed a black skinned, black feathered, 'teapot shaped' crested bird, totally possible!!

I made this photoshop monstrosity a while ago:

I forgot to mention that I wanted a long tail.

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

I have an EE with a Beard you'll absolutely adore.

ooo post a picture! I love all of the beards on my EE's, and the pitiful beards on our EE/Cochin crosses haha, they've for sure only got one gene for that haha

 

[MysteryChicken]

ooo post a picture! I love all of the beards on my EE's, and the pitiful beards on our EE/Cochin crosses haha, they've for sure only got one gene for that haha

 

[black_cat]

View attachment 2302285View attachment 2302287

This chicken is santa claus but his beard hasn't turned white yet.

 

[MysteryChicken]

This chicken is santa claus but his beard hasn't turned white yet.

That'll be funny if it did turn white.

 

[black_cat]

That'll be funny if it did turn white.

He brings me presents in december, his beard color doesn't count that much tho lol. He brings me my chickeny presents. This is santa chicken

 

[MysteryChicken]

He brings me presents in december, his beard color doesn't count that much tho lol. He brings me my chickeny presents. This is santa chicken

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

I've found a huge issue in my plan... I went googling and can't seem to find Anyone who really has bantam Faverolles... Major bummer but hopefully when it's time for me to do this project they'll be more common? I don't want to imagine how many more generations it'd take to bring size down haha, if I remember correctly Standard Faverolles are pretty big!

I don't need a tiny tiny bantam but something manageable to hold, maybe be able to fit two in your lap rather than one (which I find extra large fowl like my late Welsummer who was 9lb+ would take up my whole lap for snuggles haha)

 

[black_cat]

I've found a huge issue in my plan... I went googling and can't seem to find Anyone who really has bantam Faverolles... Major bummer but hopefully when it's time for me to do this project they'll be more common? I don't want to imagine how many more generations it'd take to bring size down haha, if I remember correctly Standard Faverolles are pretty big!

I don't need a tiny tiny bantam but something manageable to hold, maybe be able to fit two in your lap rather than one (which I find extra large fowl like my late Welsummer who was 9lb+ would take up my whole lap for snuggles haha)

Whoops, I might have missed it, but did you want this breed to be a bantam or do you just have bantam cochins? I know that bantam easter eggers are a thing, and EEs can have magnificent beards as demonstrated by @MysteryChicken 's santa chicken.

 

[NatJ]

My mom (and I as well) always loved Cochins but ADORED the beard on Easter Eggers! But when we had Cochin x EE crosses F1 (bantams) had a Lot of EE traits ("hawk face", not soft tail, lightly or clean legs, etc) and only a few Cochin genes (low to the ground, small feet, being/brown/cream eggs) so I think I'm going to go in a different direction with these hypotheticals and plans!

Just cross back to the cochin for a few generations--be sure to use ones with beard each time, because that's the trait you want. Each time you cross the hybrid back to a pure cochin, you should get chicks that look more like cochins.

You could also do it with d'Uccle bantams: single comb, feather legs, beard.

If you're using Easter Eggers, you will probably lose the blue eggs at the same time you lose the pea comb. (Unless you make a point of keeping the pea comb, in which case you can probably keep the blue eggs.)

The gene for pea comb and the one for blue egg are close together on the chromosome, so they usually get inherited together.

You can have pea with blue (Ameraucana, Easter Egger.)
You can have pea with not-blue (Brahma.)
You can have not-pea with blue (Cream Legbar.)
You can have not-pea with not-blue (Cochin.)
So any pairing is possible, but they usually stay paired whichever way they started.