I have a couple breeding colour questions. I want to cross some colours, but I don't want anything offspring to take on oth the parents colours combined.Can you cross a mottled with a birchen and not get a mixed colour between the 2? Can you cross a barred with mottled? Will it still be considered pure cochin if the colours are crossed? Thanks in advance.
When crossing breeds, or even varieties within a breed, there is no predictable way to know for sure WHAT you will get most of the time. Especially when crossing solid-colored birds or solid with pattern or 2 different patterns...
for example solid black and solid white birds may carry a number of other mutations that are masked by the black or white. the same goes for mottled... basically you've got a solid black bird with the recessive mottling gene. but who knows what else is hiding under that black.
And those cross-bred birds are not purebred. Even if the parents are the same breed, but different varieties, usually they are still considered mixed birds.
if you WANT birds that will only be considered colorful backyard chickens that don't resemble any other accepted varieties, go for it. but when you try to sell these birds because you have too many all of a sudden, don't try calling them purebred cochins, because they are not.
at the swap 2 weeks ago, I saw a gorgeous pair of bantam cochins. great type and everything. except that the rooster was black bodied with a deep purple-mahogany-ish hackle and saddle. gorgeous color, but nothing that would likely breed true, nor was it any known color variety the hen was also nearly solid black, but had streaks of gold in her hackles and tail. and NO, I would not pay the $60 she was asking for that pair. LOL she was calling the rooster 'mahogany' and the hen 'gold laced'... and here I was selling a couple extra mille fleur cochins and reds (true mahogany red) for $15 each (pullets) and cockerels for $5.
if they had been a lot less $$ and i'd had the extra space available to quarantine them (roo was coughing some) I *MIGHT* have taken them simply for eye candy and curiosity.
