Blue barred bantam Cochin boys....which to keep?

[cochin123]

#2... looks to have more of a blue color , and hes younger ...
i would try to keep them for a nother 4 / 6 weeks to see if the cockerl fills out any more
and does the cockel have alot of pin feathers/ not full grown in feathers ?
was his mom good type ? if she was good type i would keep him cuz more than likely he will have better type ...... but that is just my $0.02
LMK if i can help u anymore !!

-- cochin123

 

[cochin123]

was his mom a solid color ?? his barring looks like my B/B/S barred project birds ( im breeding a barred roo to solid hens to get better type )

 

[shelleyb1969]

Quote:
My thoughts exactly. The cockerel's type is much better than it appears in the photo. He was not happy about being caught for picture day...so his cushion got mashed and his feathers in general were in disarray. He does still have a lot of pin feathers coming in. His mother is pretty good type...not the best, but not bad enough to cull. Here's a pic of the older rooster at 6 months. Since the cockerel is only about 4 mths old, I'm hoping that by this same age he will exceed his father (rooster #1) in type. The cockerel IS a lighter blue than his dad was at this same age...so I am somewhat favoring him for that fact. But regardless, one of them is going to be sold. I just want to make the right choice...if there is one.

I'm going to eventually cross the rooster I keep with black barred hens to improve the barring and type on the offspring. Right now, I'm doing a lot of line breeding until I can get chicks hatched from excellent quality stock...hopefully this spring.

It's a fun project, though...it energizes my enthusiasm for the Cochin breed.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Quote:
Yes, BOTH of these roosters' mothers are solid color. My next step is to breed back to black barred hens to improve type and barring.

 

[usschicago1]

Okay well since more people are going for #2 I am going to have to explain myself more.
What are your breeding goals? If you have the original rooster (which is #1 right? ) you should really be breeding him AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, you want to get as many combination as he is hiding from his breeding's, you may have a show winner in there. You don't want to be breeding SonX Mothers quite yet. Right now you really want to be breeding your original birds until they stop producing. Then decide what offspring to keep...

 

[usschicago1]

Quote:
Edited to add: You really need to keep both

 

[JustAChickenLittle&More]

I agree with Chicago, keep both.

 

[shelleyb1969]

I need to get rid of one of these roosters due to pen space. They will not tolerate being together, and I'm setting up another pen to do an "opposite" barred breeding project. My goal for this project is to have 2 pens...one with a black barred rooster over solid hens, and another with one of these roosters over barred hens. I will take the offspring from both of those pens and make culls accordingly. If these 2 roos could share the same pen with hens, I would keep them both. But alas...boys will be boys.

So one will need to be sold.