Cochin Thread!!!

[wife2abirdman]

I adore my bantam cochins. I had a few large fowl cochin hens that I finally sold last fall so I could just focus on my banties. They are the most comical little birds and you don't really need a special set up for them. Mine have a separate pen for breeding season but they are wintering over with my large fowl orpington flock and they do just fine. In fact my splash hens like to roost in the rafters of the coop which drives me crazy but they love it up there. My cochin roos are ferociously protective of their little ladies and don't let the LF roos near them. In fact my mille fleur cochin roo chased my giant black english orp boy all over the pen the other day because he got too close to the cochin hens! I think you will find you really enjoy them and they aren't difficult to care for at all.

OMG this is why I have already named my little cockerel Napoleon he has already bitten me twice because I got too close to his hens!!! He has been trying to take on my huge Cochin rooster on one side of the fence and a huge Orp hen on the other. This little guy has more testosterone than all my roos put together!! None of my roos have been quite this aggressive when let out of the box. I have already had to put up a solid barrier between him and my rooster pen. At first I was afraid my big roos would hurt them now I am worried Napolean will hurt not only them but himself in the process.

I don't think I will ever feel comfortable with putting the Bantams in with my LFs.

 

[County Boy]

I adore my bantam cochins. I had a few large fowl cochin hens that I finally sold last fall so I could just focus on my banties. They are the most comical little birds and you don't really need a special set up for them. Mine have a separate pen for breeding season but they are wintering over with my large fowl orpington flock and they do just fine. In fact my splash hens like to roost in the rafters of the coop which drives me crazy but they love it up there. My cochin roos are ferociously protective of their little ladies and don't let the LF roos near them. In fact my mille fleur cochin roo chased my giant black english orp boy all over the pen the other day because he got too close to the cochin hens! I think you will find you really enjoy them and they aren't difficult to care for at all.

My Bantam roos chase my LF boys all around the yard as well. I havent had one flog me yet though. I really enjoy them though.

 

[County Boy]

OMG this is why I have already named my little cockerel Napoleon he has already bitten me twice because I got too close to his hens!!! He has been trying to take on my huge Cochin rooster on one side of the fence and a huge Orp hen on the other. This little guy has more testosterone than all my roos put together!! None of my roos have been quite this aggressive when let out of the box. I have already had to put up a solid barrier between him and my rooster pen. At first I was afraid my big roos would hurt them now I am worried Napolean will hurt not only them but himself in the process.

I don't think I will ever feel comfortable with putting the Bantams in with my LFs.

I had a boy named Napoleon as well. He used to stand me off when I went into the brooder room. He was like 2 weeks old at the time but I lost him about a month ago. He turned into a very sweet and gentle boy when he got to be around 4 months old.

 

[destin0709]

I was wondering if someone can tell me which bantam cochins to pair together or what I can mix. I have just separated some of my hens because I read to keep them from other roosters for 3-4 weeks so you don't get the other roosters eggs. Here's what I ended up with in last years hatchings or so the eggs said.
Roosters:
Splash
Partridge
Mottled/Mille
Calico/Mille
Silver Laced
Blue Columbian

Hens:
Splash
2 - Mottled (but barely any white on them less than the Mille that looks mottled that I have pictured)
Mille (but looks mottled to me)
Silver Laced
White (but see a speck of gray on couple feathers)
Lavendar
Buff Columbian (loot calico to me)

Mille to left but looks mottled to me, my 2 mottles have less white than this one and only by feet. To the right was labeled buff columbian but she looks calico??



https://www.backyardchickens.com/image/id/9685533/width/400/flags/LL

 

[JosieChick]

OMG this is why I have already named my little cockerel Napoleon he has already bitten me twice because I got too close to his hens!!! He has been trying to take on my huge Cochin rooster on one side of the fence and a huge Orp hen on the other. This little guy has more testosterone than all my roos put together!! None of my roos have been quite this aggressive when let out of the box. I have already had to put up a solid barrier between him and my rooster pen. At first I was afraid my big roos would hurt them now I am worried Napolean will hurt not only them but himself in the process.

I don't think I will ever feel comfortable with putting the Bantams in with my LFs.

Oh what a naughty little bugger! He needs some corporal cuddling. I scoop up my bantam cochin boys and carry them around and scratch their necks. After a while they come to respect you, some even get to like the attention. I used to have one black that would fall asleep in my arms.

I never would have mixed bantams and standard fowl when I first started but over the winter it is so much easier to have them all running together so they can share heated water bowls. One night I went out and I always do a head count at bed time to make sure everyone made it in. Well I counted and was missing a cochin hen. I looked all over for her and finally started looking on the perches and she was jammed between two LF orp girls and was just gone in the fluff! What a nice place to sleep with two big orp down blankets!

 

[wife2abirdman]

Yeah I was wondering about heat. On really cold days we have a heat lamp in our hen pen and our rooster pen. Our "new chicken" pen is really an offshoot of our rooster pen so there is no water heater and I'll have to add the heat lamp. Do Bantams need more heat than most? I only have 4 so should I put on the heat lamp for days that it is 20 out? I usually only put them on when it gets to 10 or below for my other chickens.

Cottonball

Napoleon

Shortround

Thumbelina

 

[fduncan]

I actually did something similar last summer! I bred a Brown Red/Goldenlaced roo who appeared birchen and bred him to a lemon blue splash hen and a goldenlaced hen. Out of the 30 chicks I hatched I got 4 lemon blue, 5 goldenlaced, 2 buff, 3 silverlaced/columbian, 3 black, 6 birchen and about 7 silver blues. Most weren't pure varieties but I was able to keep a pair of decent goldenlaced Cochin's to breed back to my original goldenlaced hen and a trio of Lemon blues to breed back with my Lemon blue splash hen. So if you ar trying to breed for the colors you already have its possible. The lacing on the hen I hatched is too wide and she has very little lacing but my roo turned out really nice! Perfect hackle and saddle color but the lacing isn't clean. Not peppered but the edges aren't very clean ad crisp. My lemon blues turned out nice though. Very excited about them! I only kept 5 out of about 30 or more chicks which is pretty good but they are all project birds. This year now that I have both male and females of each color I can breed them true and start to improve their color!

Hope that helps. It worked out for me. You don't get the ideal color's you want but you can begin to work on getting better ones in the next generation.

Thanks . I'm mostly looking for an assortment of colors and it's sounds like I might get it These are just hatchery stock from the assortment bin nothing fancy but cute to have around Looking at every ones gorgeous birds is making me want some show quality ones though

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Yeah I was wondering about heat. On really cold days we have a heat lamp in our hen pen and our rooster pen. Our "new chicken" pen is really an offshoot of our rooster pen so there is no water heater and I'll have to add the heat lamp. Do Bantams need more heat than most? I only have 4 so should I put on the heat lamp for days that it is 20 out? I usually only put them on when it gets to 10 or below for my other chickens.

Cottonball

Napoleon

Shortround

Thumbelina

I've been trying to catch up, as I'm still not getting subscription email notifications. Whomever you got these from, even if there was a mixup in size, it looks like you got some great birds. "Shortround" especially!!! They are all fully-feathered out - they shouldn't require any extra heat. Cochins (yes - even the Bantams!) are very cold-hardy. But just like other breeds, you need to make sure their housing is draft-free.

 

[ki4got]

I adore my bantam cochins. I had a few large fowl cochin hens that I finally sold last fall so I could just focus on my banties. They are the most comical little birds and you don't really need a special set up for them. Mine have a separate pen for breeding season but they are wintering over with my large fowl orpington flock and they do just fine. In fact my splash hens like to roost in the rafters of the coop which drives me crazy but they love it up there. My cochin roos are ferociously protective of their little ladies and don't let the LF roos near them. In fact my mille fleur cochin roo chased my giant black english orp boy all over the pen the other day because he got too close to the cochin hens! I think you will find you really enjoy them and they aren't difficult to care for at all.

Quote: yup. they cohabit well with LF, as long as they're introduced properly, as with any chicken regardless of size... here's my flock (the free ranged bunch) as of yesterday...

ages range from 3 years to 3 months...






for those who don't know me, the assortment above consists mostly of dorkings (silver grey and red) a few buff orps and some blrw (bantam and lf), and my bantam cochins.

 

[ki4got]

I was wondering if someone can tell me which bantam cochins to pair together or what I can mix. I have just separated some of my hens because I read to keep them from other roosters for 3-4 weeks so you don't get the other roosters eggs. Here's what I ended up with in last years hatchings or so the eggs said.
Roosters:
Splash
Partridge
Mottled/Mille
Calico/Mille
Silver Laced
Blue Columbian

Hens:
Splash
2 - Mottled (but barely any white on them less than the Mille that looks mottled that I have pictured)
Mille (but looks mottled to me)
Silver Laced
White (but see a speck of gray on couple feathers)
Lavendar
Buff Columbian (loot calico to me)

Mille to left but looks mottled to me, my 2 mottles have less white than this one and only by feet. To the right was labeled buff columbian but she looks calico??



https://www.backyardchickens.com/image/id/9685533/width/400/flags/LL

well, no pic showed up, but the link shows a nice mottled and mille fleur...