Cochin Thread!!!

[smoothmule]

Cool! Mine are mature but I didn't ask if they were laying right now when I got them. Hopefully, we'll have some eggs here soon too

Mine are for pets and I planned to eat the eggs and if the hen is broody, let her set Araucana eggs for me but I may offer a few or trade some if anyone is interested. These are a nice pair but I'm sure not perfect.

 

[Jacklynn]

Woot! Country Heart's luck has bounced over here ! I got my first egg today ! Light brown egg !

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Woohoo! That's so great!

 

[mjgigax]

Must be spreading because my Buff layed her first egg today!
Now I have Mille Fleur, Partridge and Buff laying. I have hatched Mille and Partridge chicks but I doubt the Buff egg is fertile. The Buff cockerel is only about 3 mo. old. I wasn't going to raise buffs but they are so cute!

 

[mjgigax]

Who was it that had a cockerel that had a hip deformity? My Mottled cockerel is lame and I am afraid that one leg might be weaker and thinner than the other. He has an excellent type, so I thought, such a round tail and low, wide sillouette. I'd hate to loose him. He is a sweetheart and I wanted to breed him to my Milles to improve their type. But he has a defect I sure wouldn't want to pass that on or for him to suffer. I need a chicken Doctor.

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Quote:

Lots of layers!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Probably me.
I had a few roos and one pullet that had this problem. The roos would limp or not be able to stand well at all. The socket on the hip was almost nonexistent. There wasn't enough muscle there to help with the wide body. The pullet was really bad as she had it in both hips. They all developed it around 3 mths, I think but I thought it was other childhood problems and not until I worked with them a bit did I realize what was going on was not curable.
I had a vet friend check one of them and he thought it was a bone problem but I just went ahead and did a necropsy on them later and found the problem. Then I was able to tell on the next one what was going on. Sorta hard for me to feel as I hated doing birds when I worked in the clinic but parrots are a bit different than chickens. I like my chickens!

You can do an x-ray to see if that is what is causing the problem. Some birds just do not produce well together. I never repeated those breedings and of course, I am glad I did not get chicks from those birds with the problems.

 

[mjgigax]

Quote:
Probably me.
I had a few roos and one pullet that had this problem. The roos would limp or not be able to stand well at all. The socket on the hip was almost nonexistent. There wasn't enough muscle there to help with the wide body. The pullet was really bad as she had it in both hips. They all developed it around 3 mths, I think but I thought it was other childhood problems and not until I worked with them a bit did I realize what was going on was not curable.
I had a vet friend check one of them and he thought it was a bone problem but I just went ahead and did a necropsy on them later and found the problem. Then I was able to tell on the next one what was going on. Sorta hard for me to feel as I hated doing birds when I worked in the clinic but parrots are a bit different than chickens. I like my chickens!

You can do an x-ray to see if that is what is causing the problem. Some birds just do not produce well together. I never repeated those breedings and of course, I am glad I did not get chicks from those birds with the problems.

My cockerel is 3 mo. old. I thought maybe he hurt it because he has such heavy foot feathers and could have "tripped'" on bedding. I have a Mille Fleur rooster ( 7 mo.old) that sometimes limps too and he has heavy foot feathers too. They are not related. The Mille is from a local breeder and the Mottled is from eggs I got from Georgia.
Bummer, the cockerel is such a fun chicken. I call him Max, for maximum because he started trying to crow at 6 weeks and when I put him out near the "big" roos he would crow at all hours, 3:30 a.m. for example, to compete with them.
When I pick him up he holds the weak leg out straight. Did yours?
Thanks for the helpful info. Nadine

 

[Funky Feathers]

Quote:
Probably me.
I had a few roos and one pullet that had this problem. The roos would limp or not be able to stand well at all. The socket on the hip was almost nonexistent. There wasn't enough muscle there to help with the wide body. The pullet was really bad as she had it in both hips. They all developed it around 3 mths, I think but I thought it was other childhood problems and not until I worked with them a bit did I realize what was going on was not curable.
I had a vet friend check one of them and he thought it was a bone problem but I just went ahead and did a necropsy on them later and found the problem. Then I was able to tell on the next one what was going on. Sorta hard for me to feel as I hated doing birds when I worked in the clinic but parrots are a bit different than chickens. I like my chickens!

You can do an x-ray to see if that is what is causing the problem. Some birds just do not produce well together. I never repeated those breedings and of course, I am glad I did not get chicks from those birds with the problems.

Wow, very interesting. So was it a genetic hip dysplasia thing like in large dogs?

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Yup, just around the age mine had it. But that does not mean that yours has the same thing! Please don't think I am saying that.

Yes, I remember one of mine held his leg out when I picked him up.
At first I thought luxated patella and worked with that a bit but once I discovered that was not the problem I called in my friend. He comes over for fresh eggs anyhow and we used to work together so I "force" him on occasion to do a bit of chicken work. He hates that, he prefers cats and dogs to vet on. He says if something is wrong with a chicken to put it down and get another but I want to know what is wrong so I can avoid a mistake in the future. Breeders need to be responsible so I try.

The pullet was so bad that she tried to get around like she was standing on tip toes and trying not to fall off a cliff. At this point she was isolated so no one flame me for being mean. Any bird here showing any problems is taken out of flocks to recuperate or at least watch. I tried some therapy to see if it would help, like muscle building. She was such a sweetie! But after a few weeks had to put her down. I could not stand the life she was leading and she hated not being able to run with the flocks.

Fattie, I am not sure it is genetic. I do believe it is a problem with this breed as we try to get rounder birds. I am now focusing on making sure my birds have enough leg and a good pelvis before breeding. There have been a few ladies that I have sold due to being concerned over their conformation. Gorgeous birds! (Ain't that always the way?) But in pet homes where they are yard pretties and broody hens for the LF.

As you all know, I try to breed typy bantam Cochins and I will tell when I have problems. I questioned quite a few Cochin breeders about this but as in the dog world I was met with a bit of hostility so I stopped questioning and just announce my findings. Just like when we bred show dogs, there are problems and will continue to be problems unless we work together and try to solve them. I hope in the chicken world we are nicer folks and can show more responsibility and friendliness with trying to improve our breed.

Please keep me updated on how your fella does.
I would be interested to know if others are experiencing it since so far no one has admitted it to me. I really see no reason for it to be hush hush when we only need to check birds over before just breeding them. I have plenty of wonderful typy birds with no problems at all. I wish I had been more informed before I started with this breed.
Funny, though that my whites have not had this problem, though I did have one lady I was concerned about and did not hatch eggs from her. She was fine but her pelvis was wide, her legs short and I could feel her ball joint in that socket. It was scary enough that I never bred her.
I have bred many more chicks in the MFC project than in my whites though. With close to 200 chicks in a year a few to learn from was in some ways too many but very few from what it could have been.