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Lisa,
If you have specific questions you can post here, or you could certainly send me an email if you wanted. I do not raise poultry as pets. Breeding poultry is very much a hobby to me, for the betterment of whichever breed it happens to be, and I promote the hobby and poultry fancy, as well as preserving said breeds as close to the standard as possible. Saying that, you will always get a straight answer from me. I don't believe in keeping birds just because I hatched them and can't get rid of them. If I determine a bird to be a cull, that's exactly what action is taken. It is culled, either by taking it to the auction, or by adding it to the compost pile. Inferior birds that do not meet breed specfications or birds that do not fit my breeding program do not have a lengthy stay at my place. I hatched close to 1000 chicks in 2010 and there is no way I want to keep that many chickens long term, let alone feed them. The culling process is part of any breeding program.
As to your question regarding what varieties to breed to the Whites and Partridge should you have a successful hatch...the answer is White and Partridge. Any other variety bred to those birds will produce a mixed variety of Cochin that does not fit any variety description in the standards. Since this is a 4-H project for your daughter, (BTW it's great to see another young person interested in the hobby), no doubt the intent is to raise these chicks and show them at least at the county fair level. You'll want to be able to enter a recognized variety. The Cochins International website is a good place to start to locate some basic breed information (cochinsinternational.cochinsrule.com). As far as breeding information goes, there isn't really a wealth of information on any one breed and the particulars for a given breed are usually best investigated by asking someone that's been doing it a while. Generally speaking poultry husbandry is the same breed to breed. Depending on your area, I'd suggest attending a spring show, and talking to some of the exhibitors. Most of them are more than happy to talk chicken with newcomers to the fancy.
Tom
