Cochin Thread!!!

[I Love Layers]

Wow, that is remarkable. I can certainly see there's a difference between my chunky bums and your hard working girls.

I was extremely impressed as they are both breeders and usually breeders don't lay the best but i was wrong

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I was extremely impressed as they are both breeders and usually breeders don't lay the best but i was wrong

The breeder obviously thought production was an important trait too. Usually breeders work on confirmation and color first. I have had some breeder birds and they were pretty but we're mostly worthless otherwise.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

How many eggs a week do you see out of them?

I have bantam Cochins and my birds average 5 eggs per week. We don't use any artificial lighting and our egg season starts in February and lasts through the beginning of September.

easily adaptable to weather

They handle the cold quite well, but heat is not their cup of tea. Big fluffy feathers, feathered feet, and small combs make for poor heat exchange. Ours can handle the Texas heat fairly well though as long as they have plenty of fresh water and shade. I keep a spot of loose soil damp in their run on really hot days so that they can dig down in the dirt for a cool dust bath, and they seem to like that. You can expect a drop in egg production during a summer heat wave.

Cochins are generally friendly birds and make nice pets. I have encountered very few obnoxious roosters in the breed, and in my experience temperament seems to be a highly heritable trait.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have bantam Cochins and my birds average 5 eggs per week.  We don't use any artificial lighting and our egg season starts in February and lasts through the beginning of September. 


They handle the cold quite well, but heat is not their cup of tea.  Big fluffy feathers, feathered feet, and small combs make for poor heat exchange.  Ours can handle the Texas heat fairly well though as long as they have plenty of fresh water and shade.  I keep a spot of loose soil damp in their run on really hot days so that they can dig down in the dirt for a cool dust bath, and they seem to like that.  You can expect a drop in egg production during a summer heat wave.


Cochins are generally friendly birds and make nice pets.  I have encountered very few obnoxious roosters in the breed, and in my experience temperament seems to be a highly heritable trait.

My bantams do lay better than my standard. Don't yours go broody too. Mine spend half the season broody. I usually put them to work hatching eggs.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

My bantams do lay better than my standard. Don't yours go broody too. Mine spend half the season broody. I usually put them to work hatching eggs.

Some do, and some don't. It seems like my pullets are less apt to go broody until late in the season. Some of my mature hens want to brood early on, and others are content to hatch a single clutch of eggs and move on with life. I had a few older hens who were brooding machines and would set one group of eggs after another, but they have all aged out now and have been rehomed. I don't know who is going to step up to the plate and be my go-to hen for hatching and brooding this year.

 

[I Love Layers]

The breeder obviously thought production was an important trait too. Usually breeders work on confirmation and color first. I have had some breeder birds and they were pretty but we're mostly worthless otherwise.

I don't think so as Jamie breeds to the SOP and for the best birds

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

I don't think so as Jamie breeds to the SOP and for the best birds

I kind of doubt he would tolerate a poor layer though. It doesn't matter how correct a bird is, if it is a poor producer it's pretty darn useless as a breeding animal.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Some do, and some don't.  It seems like my pullets are less apt to go broody until late in the season.  Some of my mature hens want to brood early on, and others are content to hatch a single clutch of eggs and move on with life.  I had a few older hens who were brooding machines and would set one group of eggs after another, but they have all aged out now and have been rehomed.  I don't know who is going to step up to the plate and be my go-to hen for hatching and brooding this year. 

My reliable hens are getting old. Hopefully the younger ones help out a bit as I got some eggs coming that need hatching. Usually by April or May all my bantam hens are broody.

 

[Shadow920]

I kind of doubt he would tolerate a poor layer though. It doesn't matter how correct a bird is, if it is a poor producer it's pretty darn useless as a breeding animal.

my dawn is my best layer and she is not even a year yet. like clockwork in the dead of winter no heated coop she'll lay two ays in a row and then not lay on the third day and so on. i got 15 mixed hens whom i call my "laying flock" yet Dawn is actually laying circles around all of them. if her daughters are anything like her when i get chicks from her and they grow up. i will have more than i need. i'm breeding Dawn in the spring. she's a pure blue but i'm breeding her with an autosmal red blue rooster. i like the color. if she goes broody i'll let her but i'm hoping that she'll focus on laying in her first year while i put her eggs under my other hens who are 2 years old. my rooster is like 7 years old and i've been trying to find a hen for him to breed with for three years before he dies. Shadow is very special to me and i won't be happy without at least one decent batch of his chicks, but i want as many as i can get.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

Usually by April or May all my bantam hens are broody.

I have never been so unlucky to have all my hens go broody at the same time, lol. If I have several hens broody at the same time, I try to split up which ever set of eggs I have going so that everyone gets to hatch at least a few. I let them all scratch and peck around together with the chicks for a few days, and inevitably it seems that one hen will steal all the babies. When that happens I put the kidnapped chicks' mothers back in the coop with everyone else to resume laying. Usually I only have 3 broodies at at time.