Cochin Thread!!!

[atotton]

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.

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

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.

Think I understand but am not sure so this my best attempt to answer. You can cross a Barred male with a Black hen and get Barred. You might be able to do that with a Mottled but it would be a split and you would not know what would pop up the next time those offspring a re bred. A mottled with a birchen will not get you either and the offspring will not be any recognized variety. They WILL be Cochins but not of any recognized variety.

 

[ki4got]

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.

 

[atotton]

Think I understand but am not sure so this my best attempt to answer. You can cross a Barred male with a Black hen and get Barred. You might be able to do that with a Mottled but it would be a split and you would not know what would pop up the next time those offspring a re bred. A mottled with a birchen will not get you either and the offspring will not be any recognized variety. They WILL be Cochins but not of any recognized variety.

Ok I do understand what you are saying. Thank you. Also thanks ki4got that was very helpful too.

 

[Onyx9370]

So glad I found this Cochin thread! I'll get some pics of my 2 Cochin girls.

 

[CyndiChick]

Going to try and upload some pics of my 11 cochins from Ideal, they are all just over 8 weeks. Three black, five blue, two barred and one gold laced. Pics aren't very good sorry! They are from my phone lol

 

[ki4got]

Quote: sorry if I sounded a bit cross on that... it's one of my major pet peeves and sometimes I get a bit ... whatever. LOL can't find the word. glad you understand tho.

I have no problem with people crossing birds, IF all they want are a few backyard pets. but then they try passing it off as something else.

the same people who had the cochins also had "purebred araucana"... leave it to suffice that they had NONE of the araucana qualities. or Ameraucana for that matter. or even qualified as easter eggers. LOL

 

[atotton]

No I did not take it that way at all. Yes that is all I want them for is backyard pets. It is the same with breeding other animals, people trying to get big money for something they are not. More focused on money then bettering the breed. I think I will look around and find a mottled roo for my mottled pullets.

 

[Urchin]

I have a question. We have three cochin chicks, about a month and a half old now. I have no idea if they are bantams or not. Any way to tell at this young age?

 

[ki4got]

I have a question. We have three cochin chicks, about a month and a half old now. I have no idea if they are bantams or not. Any way to tell at this young age?

post a pic of them with something we can gauge for size... at that age it's EASY to tell since the lf will be much larger than the bantams.

here's a pic of some of my mille fleur cochin chicks last fall, with a dorking (LF) the same age... and my blue laced red Wyandotte roo is in the background but you can't really see him well.
these chicks were about 8 weeks or so at that point.