You can also check your local Craigs List, I have found several nice quality birds this way. It's also great when you don't have to pay shipping fees and can view the bird(s) and possibly their living conditions before you purchase.
i was wondering if anyone could recommend any breeders of bantam barred cochins? i know i need to contact Tom Robuck to see what he has. i wish i got a chance to ask him yesterday at the Poultry Congress but he was busy judging all day! i did see Jamie Matts there but i didn't get to talk with him either, others seemed to have his ear all day every time i saw him. i got to meet his daughter though and she had a pretty frizzled splash boy who unfortunately got his color miss-marked on his cage tag so he didn't place.
Well, I finally found a way to post pictures, but I think it's really weird. Anyway, here they are, my brags.
This is my Birchen pullet that I took to Crossroads (got slammed there) and the National (took BV with nice competition). Ha! Go figure.
This is a cockerel that is developing to possibly take the place of his father.
This is a nice cockerel that I think is going to work well for me to use on my over marked females. He's a bit on the understated side.
Here are my Columbians that are still very immature, but I'm thrilled with how they are coming along. Please excuse the stains.
This is a fellow I just couldn't resist showing to you. I found him one morning on the floor of his run, nearly unable to walk. When he did try, he was obviously in pain and couldn't bear any weight on his left leg. I brought him in, checked him over and guessed that he had broken his leg. It pretty much just hung there and there was no muscle tension or resistance in it at all. I couldn't determine where the break was located, so I decided to splint the leg, even up past the hock joint. Why I fell in love with this little guy, was that he allowed me to lay him down on his side and work on him without fighting me or struggling at all. I kept him in for about 2 wks. Every day I would get him out and place him on a towel on the kitchen table, clean his behind, check his foot to make sure it was warm and fed him yogurt and moistened dog food in addition to his regular feed. He quickly became a very sweet "pet" and "talked" more like a hen then a roo. I swear he appeared to enjoy being held, cooed to and scratched around his neck and face. Initially I wasn't very optomistic that he would be able to regain use of his leg, but eventually I noticed he would try to use it to scratch with and that he might be trying to put weight on it. I finally decided to take the splint off and the long and the short of it is, I can't even notice a limp any longer. He's out with the other birds and has fit in perfectly.
During all of this he became one of the house residents and was quite happy sitting or standing on his towel on the table. I was able to leave him there, unconcerned that he'd try to take off or freak out about any of the other animals in house (I have 4 dogs and a cat that live in the house with me). One day Lilly the cat even jumped up to say hello and see what was going on and he didn't even flinch.
He is a very unusual and remarkable little boy.
Mandy (the Cochin Coop) was with me on one of the weekends and she saw what a cute little guy he is. It was he creative idea to take these pictures with the flowers. I think they are great.
Hope I didn't bore you guys too much.
Thanks for letting me crow a bit.
Well I am back from Congress and got to see some amazing Bantam Cochins! I entered four of my birds. My blues did very well but, my poor black babies did not
. I hope to get them filled in more since they are both only 7 months old and need to finish filling in their cushion and type.
I was also lucky enough to pick up two pairs from Tom.