Cochin Thread!!!

[americana-chick]

Here are my 2 cochin chicks i will have to post pics of their mom who went broody and hatched them out (she is a partridge), my 2 buff cochins, and my blackbantam cochin later on.

 

[cochinman2005]

2009 Buff Columbian Pullet

She has good type and nice even color. Faults include shafting in hackle, and she needs better marking in the tail. She does have good slate undercolor, and wing marking is pretty good. We are making some good progress with this variety.

 

[speckledhen]

I have just one Cochin, a banty lavender (self blue) girl, who is hatchery stock, but a sweetheart and great broody hen. Here is Shadow. Was thinking about getting her some little pals since she is in with the standard BRs now-the rooster doesn't bother her. I think she's small even for a banty, considering the bantam Cochins I've seen for sale at the feedstore. Cochinman, that Buff Columbian is just gorgeous! You can tell the quality.

 

[seminolewind]

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And she has a nice big puff

 

[seminolewind]

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What a cutie!!! I'm suprised that you don't have any mega giant cochins

 

[Coopa Cabana]

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Tom, she's looking great! As a general rule, would you say it is easier (if you can call it easy!) to maintain the type in the Buff or White Columbians? And what about the markings in the white vs buff?

It seems to me that certain color varieties of Cochins maintain type better than others. When crossing different color varieties, why is good type lost?

 

[cochinman2005]

Without a doubt, the wing color in both varieties is problematic. There isn't a Columbian or Buff Columbian Cochin in existence with perfect wings. The reason I say this is that, when I've gotten close to having decent wing pattern, inevitably the males are overmarked in the saddle and the females will have smutty cushions. Additionally, for whatever reason, these two varieties have issues with weak wings with a tendency to be split although they will have the axial feather. Males tend to be too long in the wing feathers which drives the poor wings across the board. I am finally producing some fairly clear cushioned females, and of the group of pullets that I raised this year, I kept 2. I'll try to get a photo of the one (better type and color) and post later. When I first got into the Columbians the males trended toward being very brassy no matter how much or little sun they were exposed to. I still get brassy ckls but not near as many, so there is still some genetic issues with red in the background. However, that helped me in the Buff Columbian department I think. I started the Buff Columbians a couple years ago with only 2 females and no males. I used a Buff male across the Buff Columbian females to produce a couple cockerels that carried 50% of the pattern genetics. I then crossed the best of those to a regular Columbian and produced some fairly nice Buff Columbian pullets. All ckls from that cross were discarded since they were nothing more than brassy Columbians. I've done some backcrossing and also picked up an outside BC male 2 breedings ago that seemed to help out in the pattern department. So to answer your question, I find the pattern/color of both to be equally challenging. You are dealing with not only pattern, but different undercolor vs surface color. I would say that of my patterned varieties the Columbian and Buff Columbian are probably the best typed birds. I have a couple Columbian hens that are as good typed birds as the Blacks. They just wont' get a second look in a show because the wings are junk. All is not lost though, as the wing structure and pattern is getting a bit better each year. I'd say in 3 or 4 years the wings will be better for color and not as loose.

 

[cochinman2005]

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Tom, she's looking great! As a general rule, would you say it is easier (if you can call it easy!) to maintain the type in the Buff or White Columbians? And what about the markings in the white vs buff?

It seems to me that certain color varieties of Cochins maintain type better than others. When crossing different color varieties, why is good type lost?

Forgot the last question. I think it depends on what varieties you cross. I am also working on Self-Blue (Lavender) and crossed the original pair with my Blacks. f1's were much improved as far as type and the f2 pure Self-Blue's are even better. Not across the board, but compared to the original starting pair they are 500% better. I will also post some pics of those in the future. The other factor I think that lends to crazy outcomes when crossing varieties, is that while you can predict the color outcomes (generally speaking), you can't really predict the conformation, especially mixing unrelated genes. One would think that two well typed Cochins mated together would produce like offspring at least from a type perpective, no matter what color they were. I've seen first hand that isn't how it works, and there in lies the challenge of improving patterned (or even non-patterned) breeds.

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Tom, Thanx for being so generous with such a wealth of information! If you don't mind, I'd ask a couple more questions:

1) Does good type pass better from the male or female, or does it matter?

2) What is the difference between blue and self-blue (lavender)? Is it in the lacing or the shade of blue?

 

[Msbear]

Hey Gail, there are a couple differences between regular blue (andalusian blue) and lavender (self-blue)

A bird who is self-blue will be all one shade of blue. A bird who is andalusian blue with have darker hackles and saddle and may have lacing on the feathers.

Another difference is that when a self-blue bird is bred to another self-blue bird, the offspring will be all self-blue. Then there is split lavender which has something to do w/ carry black or a black bird carrying lavendar.

An andalusian based blue when bred to blue will give you some blues but also splash

I hope this helps. AND I hope Im right

As for the other question, Im interested in hearing from Tom as well. From what I've witnessed breeding mfc, it seems like better typed hens throw better typed pullets while the cockerels are still weak in type if the father was weak.