Cochin breeding, genetics, and showing

[QueenMisha]

If you use a buff cock, the hens are predominantly black at hatch but then turn mostly buff with some black leakage as they mature.

Oh yeah, a BSL made using Buff is always a pretty bird. Buff is definitely easier to get ahold of, that's for sure.

 

[curious chickee]

Yes, buff is common now trying to find standard barred cochin as I want fluffier than my barred rock cross

 

[lilcrow]

I don't have any pics but it would basically look like a a very fluffy version of a normal BSL - hens would be majority black with some red-orange coming in through the hackle and breast; males would be barred with some red/gold leakage. Unless you're going with a backwards sex-link cross - Barred male and red female. In which case you could expect to see both males and females Barred with red/gold leakage. Hope you're intending on working with bantams though - I've been seeking out a Standard Red Cochin for a while, with no luck. They exist - I've seen the pictures! - but nobody is talking and nobody is selling.
Sex Linkage isn't strictly for egg-production. The common high-production BSLs and RSLs available from hatcheries are only high-production because they have been bred for it for many generations. Assuming you had access to the correct colors, you could breed a sex-linked Oriental Gamefowl that laid 10 eggs a year. The benefit of a sex-linked Cochin would be to guarantee the sex of standards and enable the easy sexing of bantams. Sex-linked chicks also sell more easily (or, the hens do, anyways).

I'm curious, what would be the benefit in producing a sex linked Cochin, LF or Bantam? I've been breeding Cochins for quite some time now, I also show and belong to the only Cochin club in the US. I've never heard of or seen this in show quality Cochins. The Standard of Perfection does not recognize a sex linked variety.

 

[Shadow920]

i'm trying to recreate my current cochin rooster and i thought maybe a cochins like sexlinks would do it since they were a different breed. i figured it wouldn't be the same.

this is what i am trying to replicate.

 

[QueenMisha]

I'm curious, what would be the benefit in producing a sex linked Cochin, LF or Bantam? I've been breeding Cochins for quite some time now, I also show and belong to the only Cochin club in the US. I've never heard of or seen this in show quality Cochins. The Standard of Perfection does not recognize a sex linked variety.

In show birds, no benefit since it's not a standard color and there's just not way to standardize a hybrid. Well, actually, in some combinations SQ females could be produced - for example, if you could cross a show quality Barred Cochin hen with a show quality Black Cochin cock, you could produce show quality Black females. Males would be too dark Barred, though.

Mostly it would be beneficial for backyard keepers who want a cute ornamental that's a definite female. It also would make it easier for backyard breeders to identity roosters at an early age (and therefore begin rehoming or culling them earlier, as well as being able to sell guaranteed female chicks).

 

[Shadow920]

Shadow is my favorite Rooster. i want to replicate him because he is my favorite rooster and i don't know if i will ever get chicks from him. i also would like to know how to replicate him because i would really like to have a bantam that looks like him. replicating Shadow is purely sentimental. he is my favorite rooster and he is my first. and everyone who has seen him has loved him. but he is old. probably 4 or 5 years. i've had him for two summers, two winters two autunms and one spring. but he had two inch long spurs the day i got him. which tells me he was a decent age then.

 

[QueenMisha]

i'm trying to recreate my current cochin rooster and i thought maybe a cochins like sexlinks would do it since they were a different breed. i figured it wouldn't be the same. this is what i am trying to replicate.

That looks like a Blue with autosomal red hanging around. You might be able to replicate him by breeding Blue x Red. You'd get some black, some blue offspring and they should all have a good chance of red leakage in the wing bow, saddle, and hackle. If the offspring didn't have much red you could probably breed the blue offspring back to a red and get more red that way.

 

[Shadow920]

thanks i'll try that. does it matter which colors are rooster and hen?

 

[LemonMeringue]

I Hope you're intending on working with bantams though - I've been seeking out a Standard Red Cochin for a while, with no luck. They exist - I've seen the pictures! - but nobody is talking and nobody is selling.

Your right that they are not common. But there has been some discussion about large fowl reds on the Cochin fb pages. Ideal does have them listed for next spring. But in sure they will go fast. http://www.idealpoultry.com/assortment.html

 

[LemonMeringue]

They are listed under Standard Brown Egg Layers.