Cochin Thread!!!

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

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She is beautiful!

I love the way the Buff kind of fades into blue ..

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

I drove up to the Portage Wisconsin show ( a Cochin district meet) this weekend. Many good birds at the show. One of the larger junior shows I have seen. Obviously a large emphasis placed on Juniors which I think is wonderful. Best featherleg bantam was a black cochin hen/pullet. Got to see friends and met some new people. I came home with a new Black cockeral that has a good head, leg color,and of good type. Let a Columbian cockeral go to a man that lost his Columbian male to a coon. Didn't win anything but at least all my birds did place in their class. There were a large number of whites and blacks in bantams. Not a large number of Standard cochins at show. Lots of sale row birds of all qualities. A good way to spend a weekend. I always want to see more numbers and varieties of cochins at shows.

 

[luvchicks8]

My poor Stella has Merecks i think

 

[mjgigax]

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Thank you for the info. Where can I find out about what district Oklahoma is in?

 

[mjgigax]

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Poor Stella. Is there anything you can do?

 

[davony's chicks]

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How do you know it is Marecks? Can just one of your flock have Marecks? From what I have read there is no cure for Marecks.

 

[luvchicks8]

davony's chicks :

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How do you know it is Marecks? Can just one of your flock have Marecks? From what I have read there is no cure for Marecks.

Well she shoes all signs of it stumbling falling legs out in front of her. No blisters yet so I hope she can recover. Even if she does she will have to always stay in by herself as she will be a carrier. Trouble is she was in with 4 other show birds, including 8 week old polish and serama's. No sign of them being sick yet so

.​

 

[davony's chicks]

Quote:
How do you know it is Marecks? Can just one of your flock have Marecks? From what I have read there is no cure for Marecks.

Well she shoes all signs of it stumbling falling legs out in front of her. No blisters yet so I hope she can recover. Even if she does she will have to always stay in by herself as she will be a carrier. Trouble is she was in with 4 other show birds, including 8 week old polish and serama's. No sign of them being sick yet so

.

I hope that Stella and all of her friends are ok. I just lost a hen suddenly. I noticed late in the evening she looked sick but thought I would take a look at her the next morning since they were all roosting for the night, but when I went out the next morning she was dead. She had not acted or looked sick until that evening and none of the other birds look sick now. I didn't have a necropsy done though I should have so that is why I was so concerned.
I hope everything is ok in your flock.

 

[Sweetfolly]

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I was asking people who've been doing this longer than you, Mark - I purposely prefaced the question with that.

I was told that some of my birds that originally came from Jamie Matts and Judy Gantt are vaccinated - now, maybe that was incorrect information I was given when I bought them, but if Jamie and Judy are doing it, that's a HUGE recommendation for vaccinating, IMO. And, like I said, I'm not keeping them all - it looks like it's going to be a good hatch, and I only have room for 4 or 5 of them. I have no control over what kind of conditions they might end up in. How would you feel, Mark, if you shipped your birds away into a flock that, unbeknownst to you, had Marek's disease...you could have protected them against it, but you didn't? I mean, have you been breeding them to be resistant in the whole ONE generation you've bred? Food for thought. I get the whole "breed for resistance" thing (really, the only way to truly breed for resistance to a disease is to purposely expose them to the disease and let the "weak" ones die, leaving you with the "strong" ones to breed. You can't just have an un-vaccinated flock that's never been exposed to anything because of super-strict bio-security measures and say you're breeding them to be resistant - they're NOT resistant, they just have never been exposed to anything nasty!), and I know the ABA has some publications that recommend it...it's funny no one ever suggested that humans simply "breed for resistance" to polio or smallpox to keep only the "strongest" of us in the breeding population. Instead, we created a vaccine, and virtually eradicated the diseases...which is why most of use are alive and able to keep birds today.

So, I'm pro-vaccination.

DANNY - my Cochin flock is small, but I have a LOT of ducks on the property too (50+ at the moment, and plans to expand to at least 75+ breeders next year) - they're kept separate, but ducks are SO hardy, they can catch pretty much anything, carry it home from a show, and never show a symptom because it simply doesn't make them sick...I'm always worried that they'll act as a carrier of something and it'll jump species to the chickens. Our bio-security is good...but we also have 3 kids under 10 running around the property.

I got SO mad one day when the neighbor girl was having a birthday party, and I looked outside and there were 6 kids in MY yard, going from one pen to another, TOUCHING all my birds.

LOL, I sicked my German Shepherd on them (he's friendly, but he's a bi-color, marked like a Doberman, so he's scary-looking) - now, half the parents won't let those kids come over anymore.

Anyways, I'm going to be at the UW Veterinary Diagnostic Lab later today anyways, and I'll see the vet I work with again on Friday. I'll ask them what they think - they deal with a LOT of poultry.

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Quote:
I was asking people who've been doing this longer than you, Mark - I purposely prefaced the question with that.

I was told that some of my birds that originally came from Jamie Matts and Judy Gantt are vaccinated - now, maybe that was incorrect information I was given when I bought them, but if Jamie and Judy are doing it, that's a HUGE recommendation for vaccinating, IMO. And, like I said, I'm not keeping them all - it looks like it's going to be a good hatch, and I only have room for 4 or 5 of them. I have no control over what kind of conditions they might end up in. How would you feel, Mark, if you shipped your birds away into a flock that, unbeknownst to you, had Marek's disease...you could have protected them against it, but you didn't? I mean, have you been breeding them to be resistant in the whole ONE generation you've bred? Food for thought. I get the whole "breed for resistance" thing (really, the only way to truly breed for resistance to a disease is to purposely expose them to the disease and let the "weak" ones die, leaving you with the "strong" ones to breed. You can't just have an un-vaccinated flock that's never been exposed to anything because of super-strict bio-security measures and say you're breeding them to be resistant - they're NOT resistant, they just have never been exposed to anything nasty!), and I know the ABA has some publications that recommend it...it's funny no one ever suggested that humans simply "breed for resistance" to polio or smallpox to keep only the "strongest" of us in the breeding population. Instead, we created a vaccine, and virtually eradicated the diseases...which is why most of use are alive and able to keep birds today.

So, I'm pro-vaccination.

DANNY - my Cochin flock is small, but I have a LOT of ducks on the property too (50+ at the moment, and plans to expand to at least 75+ breeders next year) - they're kept separate, but ducks are SO hardy, they can catch pretty much anything, carry it home from a show, and never show a symptom because it simply doesn't make them sick...I'm always worried that they'll act as a carrier of something and it'll jump species to the chickens. Our bio-security is good...but we also have 3 kids under 10 running around the property.

I got SO mad one day when the neighbor girl was having a birthday party, and I looked outside and there were 6 kids in MY yard, going from one pen to another, TOUCHING all my birds.

LOL, I sicked my German Shepherd on them (he's friendly, but he's a bi-color, marked like a Doberman, so he's scary-looking) - now, half the parents won't let those kids come over anymore.

Anyways, I'm going to be at the UW Veterinary Diagnostic Lab later today anyways, and I'll see the vet I work with again on Friday. I'll ask them what they think - they deal with a LOT of poultry.

Annarie, I was trying to find the article for you this weekend that I recently read on vaccinating (for Mareks') - I thought it was either in one of my ABA or CI newsletters. What I found interesting was that she said you don't have to vaccinate when they are just day-old chicks - you can pretty much vaccinate at any time. Which really helps, as the minimum you can buy is for something like 1000 doses. So she just waits until she's done hatching for the year, and does everyone at once. I don't remember her mentioning vaccinating for anything else, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't.