Cochin Thread!!!

[Lunar]

Are there any lavender cochin breeders in here? I got a new set of 4 chicks recently and one is the most awesome lavender chick...2 are blue and one is probably mottled. I got lucky and one blue is going to be a frizzle. I am looking for a brain to pick about the genetics of this lavender so that I can make more. I have fallen in love with it. I have a trio of adults in a pen already of Black roo over a splash hen and a mottled hen, hoping to make some nice blue's. But when I heard lavender, I had to have it. All are bantams. The chicks range from 2 weeks to 5 weeks for my little Purple Haze. I will try to get some pix and you experts can tell me gender maybe.

So any advice anyone might part with will be much appreciated, in here or in a PM.

Thanks!

These aren't the best, but maybe you can see enough to give me some guidance.


I am guessing boy


again, boy? Definately, frizzle. Blue?


Too young to really tell gender, but am I seeing a curl in those feathers...blue? This one has more yellow down than the older one.


yes blurry,

mottled? This one runs to my hand every time I do food and water.

 

[annewandering]

Are there any lavender cochin breeders in here? I got a new set of 4 chicks recently and one is the most awesome lavender chick...2 are blue and one is probably mottled. I got lucky and one blue is going to be a frizzle. I am looking for a brain to pick about the genetics of this lavender so that I can make more. I have fallen in love with it. I have a trio of adults in a pen already of Black roo over a splash hen and a mottled hen, hoping to make some nice blue's. But when I heard lavender, I had to have it. All are bantams. The chicks range from 2 weeks to 5 weeks for my little Purple Haze. I will try to get some pix and you experts can tell me gender maybe.

So any advice anyone might part with will be much appreciated, in here or in a PM.

Thanks!

These aren't the best, but maybe you can see enough to give me some guidance.


I am guessing boy


again, boy? Definately, frizzle. Blue?


Too young to really tell gender, but am I seeing a curl in those feathers...blue? This one has more yellow down than the older one.


yes blurry,

mottled? This one runs to my hand every time I do food and water.

Those are so pretty! I am jealous!

 

[CaptainStumpy]

Lavender is a Homozygous colour, (doesn't show in single gene form) So you need to hunt down another lavender to go with your one to breed, or spend 2 years breeding and inbreeding to get the lavender colour back up to Homozygous state.






Sorry my first post in the thread ^_^ so I wanna share my Cochin, I've Got Black Blue-Splash, White and Chocolate.
Having a breeding experiment to see what Chocolate-Blue look like, I'm hoping the chicks will be lighter chocolate. (and boys will be pure blue)

 

[Lunar]

Thank you annewandering. I was thrilled when I went to pick them up. A friend found them and got them for me. So I wasn't sure what I would end up with, but I am pleased.

CaptainStumpy = pretty birds, and an interesting project. I love blues. And especially with the frizzle tossed in. But I am in love with the lavender. I will have to check back with this breeder and see if she has more she will part with. Thank you.

 

[thecochincoop]

I have my low pressure waterers installed and working. Gravity fed with max of 5 ft above waterers.

1 They work well after fine tuning. Several leaked-dripped and needed to get parts swapped out.

2. Do not over tighten. I read the instructions and knew not to over tighten but still broke 2 cage brackets that caused leaks. No fixing that so consider them fragile while installing. No bird will damage them after installation.

3. Trying to figure out best way to keep algae growth down in the tank.

4. Birds picked up how to use it very quickly

5. Made all tubing go down hill so will be easy to drain for winter.

6. I used a 35 gallon tank I had for water. I only keep 10 gallons in it max until I know I will be gone for a while. Then I will fill it. Want to keep water fresh. So far no birds have crapped in the water cups so it is much more sanitary than my old waterers. Cups come off easily for cleaning.

I ran all waterers off of one trunk line. Quite easy to do but is not a fast process.

1 waterer would be enough for any pen. I chose to put 2 in each pen so that there would always be 1 working. Easiest way to insure no deaths in heat due to no water source working was to install a redundant system.

looks good! I have the nipples instead of the cups on mine. The only problem I have is algae growing in the lines and clogging it up (even indoors with no sunlight) be careful that they don't get clogged. I had a bird look sick and realized that she had no water

 

[Jharper]

Are there any lavender cochin breeders in here? I got a new set of 4 chicks recently and one is the most awesome lavender chick...2 are blue and one is probably mottled. I got lucky and one blue is going to be a frizzle. I am looking for a brain to pick about the genetics of this lavender so that I can make more. I have fallen in love with it. I have a trio of adults in a pen already of Black roo over a splash hen and a mottled hen, hoping to make some nice blue's. But when I heard lavender, I had to have it. All are bantams. The chicks range from 2 weeks to 5 weeks for my little Purple Haze. I will try to get some pix and you experts can tell me gender maybe. So any advice anyone might part with will be much appreciated, in here or in a PM.

Thanks! These aren't the best, but maybe you can see enough to give me some guidance. I am guessing boy again, boy? Definately, frizzle. Blue? Too young to really tell gender, but am I seeing a curl in those feathers...blue? This one has more yellow down than the older one. yes blurry,

mottled? This one runs to my hand every time I do food and water.

They look like all boys. That's how mine did.

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: I think one and two MIGHT be cockerels, but three and four, hard to say! Maybe you will end up with two pairs!

 

[ki4got]

I have my low pressure waterers installed and working. Gravity fed with max of 5 ft above waterers.

1 They work well after fine tuning. Several leaked-dripped and needed to get parts swapped out.

2. Do not over tighten. I read the instructions and knew not to over tighten but still broke 2 cage brackets that caused leaks. No fixing that so consider them fragile while installing. No bird will damage them after installation.

3. Trying to figure out best way to keep algae growth down in the tank.

4. Birds picked up how to use it very quickly

5. Made all tubing go down hill so will be easy to drain for winter.

6. I used a 35 gallon tank I had for water. I only keep 10 gallons in it max until I know I will be gone for a while. Then I will fill it. Want to keep water fresh. So far no birds have crapped in the water cups so it is much more sanitary than my old waterers. Cups come off easily for cleaning.

I ran all waterers off of one trunk line. Quite easy to do but is not a fast process.

1 waterer would be enough for any pen. I chose to put 2 in each pen so that there would always be 1 working. Easiest way to insure no deaths in heat due to no water source working was to install a redundant system.

I have a system similar to that now.

I have an above-ground pond with lots of live (true aquatic) plants in it, and a small group of comet (aka feeder) goldfish. once the pond stabilized and the plants were growing well, it's a natural biologically sound system that does not easily grow algae. fish 'urine' is essentially amonia. there is a beneficial bacteria that sets up in the substrate (gravel/sand on the bottom) that converts the waste to nitrates, and another that converts nitrates to nitrites, which become biologically available form of nitrogen for plants to utilize for growth.

so it's a fairly self-contained system when balanced properly (not too many fish or plants, or the system gets out of whack). the fish eat chick crumbles (when i think to feed them at all) and whatever bugs decide to land on the water and/or breed in the water (mosquitoes too!). the plants are an assortment of java moss (fast growing nitrogen loving weed) and an assortment of anubias, apongeton and cryptocoryne. leafy plants that form a bulb or rhyzome-type root system, capable of wintering over when kept above 50 degrees or so. the rooted plants are planted in cat litter pans and moved indoors to the inside pond for the winter.

the java moss grows so fast and furiously that i end up pulling huge clumps out and throwing it away every couple weeks, or it would clog the entire pond.

for the watering system, i use a pond pump to move water up to the reservoir that feeds the pens and a spout that lets the overflow back into the pond. this way only clean water is going to the waterers (same style with the catch bowls). and yes, it IS clean water. i would drink it in a heartbeat over many city water systems...

my reservoir is a 35 gallon plastic water barrel with static level (if the power goes off) of about 20 gallons, which should be enough for everyone for at least several days.

currently it's only feeding my baby pens (3), and providing accessible water for the free ranging birds too (bowls also on the outsides of the existing pens) since i'm rebuilding my entire breeding pen setup right now, but should have 8-12 more breeding pens and 1 or 2 more grow out pens added on by fall.

 

[suncatcher]

So I have been doing some research on the best way to fight algae, one is to paint the container a dark color, as light is what makes the algae grow. Another suggestion was to cover the container with either carpet or linoleum. Not sure how to do the linoleum. And another was to add bleach, but you would have to be careful to only add enough bleach to kill the algae, and not the chickens! No, easy answer....

 

[sillycmoy]

Just wondering if you guys think that my little Roo is a Cochin or a Cochin Mix. I'm going to have to re-home him since I can't have Roos where I live, but I figured it would be better for the new owners to know what he is. He is 9 weeks old. Got him with a bunch of mystery chicks from a preschool hatching. He does have black feathers coming in under his wings, on the tail, and on his legs.