Cochin Thread!!!

[wwmicasa1]

Quote:
Are you sure it was a "rat"??? I've had ground squirrels do exactly the same thing.

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

Last night I think a rat got one of my cochin babies. I have had no luck trapping those things. I feel so bad. Yesterday I was making a stupid joke about it and then last night I went out and found an older chick with its head tore off. How sad. Poor thing.

How old?. Sounds like a coon when you mention head missing. They often find a way to pull the head through the wire and get the head.

 

[tiki244]

Really? I don't know what it is. Last spring something dragged 3 silkie chicks under the coop part way and partially ate them. I put poison out in the winter and something died but when I found it it was just a skeleton and I couldn't identify it. This year 2 chicks got their heads eaten in the spring and then this one last night. There are tunnels by the coop. I destroy the tunnels and put poison out in those trap things where other animals can't get it. I have also tried rat traps that snap and have never caught anything.

 

[tiki244]

BCB~The chick was only about 6 weeks. There has only been some deaths of smaller chicks since last spring.

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Today was picture day. They all hatched between 7/1 and 8/5, and are pictured in order of age. Keep in mind that these are all only 3/4 Golden Laced. But I'm really having difficulty seeing any that I want to keep as breeders, even though they would be bred back to GL. I see a couple of flat (crow) heads, there are a couple with willow legs, neck and hackles should NOT be black. I dont' think Brown Band is going to make it - she has a bum leg and I'll probably have to put her down.
Guess I'll give the rest another month to make my final decisions, once I see if the coloring and pattern improves on any of them.


Pink Band: (Blue)


Yellow Band: (Blue)


Green Band: I think he's been my most promising all along - just have to wait and see if he lightens up more.



Black Band: (Willow legs)


Lavender Band:


Blue Band: Nice, but way too much black. He's maturing faster than the rest.


Brown Band: (Willow Legs)


White Band:


Red Band: (Willow Legs)

 

[Coopa Cabana]

For contrast, I thought I'd show why the development for GL's is so important between the 3rd and 4th month. These are from 2010, and are of the birds I kept:

Goldilocks on 8/22/10:


Goldilocks on 9/25/10:


Calypso on 8/22/10:

Calypso on 9/25/10:

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
Craig, thank you for the invitation. Mandy and I may take you up on it someday if we head out that way for a show. As far as the idea you have for sharing breeder birds, I think it's an excellent plan and I have already been on the receiving end of your generousity with the Columbians. If I could have continued with them, I know I could have counted on you for help and guidance. I feel like I've been extremely lucky to be able to count you as a friend and also John Burgess. John has gone out of his way to help me with the Birchens.

 

[Mr. Ree]

The rooster is definitely a Splash - Not Self-Blue(Lavender). Did he just come out of a molt? Something just doesn't seem/look right with his feathers. Casey is our resident Frizzle expert. He just doesn't look frizzle to me. And just as Casey noted on the Brown Red hen above that we were discussing, his comb/wattles/ear lobes seem all out of proportion.

He looks a little rough for wear, but that could be from a number of things. He looks to just be a frizzle Cochin, something you may find from someone who got birds from a hatchery, doesnt look bad but his feather quality could be much better. That could be why he looks so sraggly too, and he does appear to be in a moult or coming our of one.


~Casey

 

[Mr. Ree]

for frizzle/smooth, or any other non-homozygous breeding, the percentage quoted isn't the actual percentage of what you'll get, it's the probability of getting a chick of a certain color... but you have to factor in any number of things to actually go from the sperm/egg to being fertilized, incubated, hatched, etc... i don't think there's really a reliable way to accurately predict something like genetics.

on my one frizzle/smooth pair i had, i hatched 15 chicks. none were frizz. the new owner of the pair has gotten 5/5. my self blue/black pen has 1 self blue hen, 2 black split hens and a black split roo... the self blue girl should produce 50/50 black/sb chicks, the split girls roughly 75/25 black/sb... overall i've hatched MORE self blues than blacks from that pen so far this year. (and they're still for sale too!)

all you can really say about genetics is the probabilities of what can be produced. not what you'll actually GET.

Breeding frizzles is not difficult, and when you have bred them for years and can see what comes from what its pretty easy to make a percentage guess as to what you will ACTUALLY get. Your not going to get the same conclusion from 1-2 hatchings as you would 50+. And breeding for frizzles is in no way the same as breeding for a certain color or pattern. The big difference is that there is nothing that masks the frizzle gene, when breeding for a certain variety, pattern, leg color, eye color, etc. things of off color can and sometimes do pop up, like willow legs, green eyes, a bird with leakage, etc. When you breed a frizzles you get two results, smooth birds or frizzled ones. And a smooth bird from frizzle breeding is indeed a frizzle, it just has to recessive copies of the frizzling gene.


~Casey

 

[davony's chicks]

Quote:
It's good to have friends! That looks like it was a huge job to move! Looks like a cool set up.