In response to random thoughts, because I have a lot of my own....
I would love to exhibit my birds, I don't feel that right now I have anything worth exhibiting but I think maybe in a few years I might! I have a lot of birds who need work and their offspring will hopefully be better.
I think it is fun to take it seriously, but I also really enjoy my cochins that are just backyard pets and that is all they will ever be.
I wish I could work on a color that needs work but I don't have a ton of money to spend on birds and I also prefer to hatch my own chicks. Nobody will sell me hatching eggs except for folks working on project colors so that is how I wound up with mille fleur and splash cochins. I do hope to continue to work on both these colors to improve type. I have purchased black cockerels of decent type to improve my splash color/type and breed for blue. I also have mottled cochins growing up that are of good stock and hopefully will improve my mille fleur cochins type. I would like to see these colors improve in type and eventually be recognized?
I would LOVE to work on silver penciled, buff, buff columbian, partridge or lemon blue. But nobody will sell eggs. I hatch eggs because I want birds that are mareks vaccinated at hatch. I vaccinate all my birds after I lost one of my very dear hens several years ago to mareks and it was heartbreaking. I also handle my birds, A LOT, some folks don't. I have bought birds that were as wild as they come and it is terrible to be out chasing birds around a pen and have them screaming for their lives. My birds are handled from hatch and gentle, easy going and used to being picked up.
Project colors are what made me fall in love with cochins so I don't think they are a bad thing and I really enjoy my project birds. I would absolutely love to email or contact a breeder and request hatching eggs (which I am fully aware are a huge gamble) and actually get a reply and maybe even a yes. Because I would work hard on a variety of cochin that needs work but I think someone else has to willing to help a newbie along. I assume breeders don't want to sell eggs because they can't control for type/color etc. But sometimes you have to trust people. I have two black cochin bantams that I hatched this spring from another persons eggs (she put them in as extras, not what I bought) One has terrible type and doesn't even look like a cochin and the other has terrible gold leakage in the hackles. They are both in the butcher pen. I am serious about the quality of my birds and I won't place a bird with someone that is going to breed a lesser quality cochin.
Thank you Craig, for being thought provoking. I haven't posted on here for quite a while because it saddens me that all the posts are about what color two different varieties of cochins bred to each other would make...If you are going to go through the trouble of breeding cochins and hatching why not at least get two in the same variety?
Good luck with your camper coop, sounds like a fun project!
Random thoughts continued
I often wonder if many or any of you would ever like to do exhibition poultry in the future or is having backyard Cochins enough?
Sometimes I ask myself do I take it too seriously?
Cochins as a breed need more people to work on some of the recognized but lessor known varieties. My projects are to improve existing varieties not create new ones. In my opinion the varieties that need work in Bantams are Silver Laced, Silver Penciled, Columbians, Buff Columbians, Partridge, Birchen, Red, Black Tailed Reds, Barred,Brown Reds, Lemon Blue, and Gold Laced. Large fowl just need more breeders.
I always wish that I knew more about genetics. I supplement my limited knowledge of genetics by asking questions from those who have considerable breeding experience. For what I am trying to do that works better for me than a book.
I would like to see some more Buff Columbians in shows. I have only seen 1 person exhibit them besides me in the last year. I am hoping to put some more in a show or two later this year.
Next year I want to travel to another part of the country and show where I haven't shown before. Perhaps the SE (Florida in Jan/Feb?)or SW.( 4 Corners sounds interesting).
I want more coop space but am running into minor roadblocks with county zoning. Thinking of getting a 18-26 ft camper and gutting that for my secondary coop. As long as I keep it licensed they can't stop me and no building permit is required.
Craig
