Cochin Thread!!!

[ki4got]

Quote:

If they are eating the eggs, I would put some wooden eggs in the nest - some people just use golf balls. It will usually break them of the eating habit.

wooden balls/eggs, golf balls, etc are great, but for a broody, i'd say chances are if she were an egg eater she'd have eaten them all already. so my guess is something happenned to the chicks.

has she hatched chicks before? my other thought would be, they started breathing and cheeping and she freaked maybe.

 

[TinyBirds]

Question...does anyone with experience with broodie Cochins have any that cannabalized their own eggs? Delilah is sitting on eggs due to begin hatching tomorrow. She is a meticulous nest fussy and cleans her nest every day. She started out with 16 eggs. I removed three when I candled lase week. Now 3 OEGB eggs are gone and one of the Blue Wyandotte eggs.
Can the hen know when a chick has died in the shell or stopped growing?

Are there other hens in the pen with her, or just her by herself? I have had the same thing happen (another breed), but didn't figure out if it was her doing it or the other hens in her pen. I think sometimes the eggs would break from all the activity if other hens come in and try to use the same nest, and then once that happens, the hens eat the egg contents (attracted to the blood and everything). My friend had seramas that hatched out babies and then after the babies fluffed up and everything, they ate the babies! Yikes! So if it's just the eggs before they hatched, I think that's more normal.

 

[mjgigax]

This is some of the females that come out of these birds

peaches and cream

 

[mjgigax]

This incubator thing is dangerous. I have 44 chicks so far! - (some of them are from broodies)
Got only 33% from the first tray,
Yesterday, I got 50% from the second tray'
That is 28 from my artificial hen. - Self-blue F2s, Mille Fleurs, Black Mottled and Mille Fleur x Black Mottled crosses and 1 little Buff.
That is not as good as when my neighbor, an expert with 3 Sportsmen, hatched for me last year. But I am new at this and my young roos don't seem to be as fertile as my roos last year. My beautiful Mottled roo that I bought at auction is so far leading the pack in the Mille Fleur chick race. Since he isn't a young roo I worried that he might have been sold because he wasn't fertile. Can't imagine why someone would let such a pretty boy go. I am just glad to have him, such a sweet personality too.

My little F1 Self-blue/Black pullet is a laying machine - 6 to 7 eggs a week and 95% fertile. I was disappointed when I got 5 roos and only 1 girl in my F1 hatch last Summer. Guess she is showing me I didn't need to worry.
Of the F1s, only 25% are Self-Blue. The rest are 25% Black, and 50% are Black but carry the Self-blue gene. So far I have 6 Self-blue chicks - not bad! I sure am learning allot with this project and there are some very knowledgeable and kind Master Breeders out there.

Speaking of knowledge - I have 2 trios of Mille Fleur Cochin in breeding pens where one hen/pullet went broody and the other girl in each pen quit laying -
Is this common? I couldn't seem to catch the eggs and move them out in time and the two broodys are sooooo determined so I left them with their eggs and marked them so I could grab any eggs their coopmates layed but those girls stopped laying. Maybe I should move the roosters and the non-broody girls to other pens?

 

[ki4got]

Of the F1s, only 25% are Self-Blue. The rest are 25% Black, and 50% are Black but carry the Self-blue gene. So far I have 6 Self-blue chicks - not bad! I sure am learning allot with this project and there are some very knowledgeable and kind Master Breeders out there.

Speaking of knowledge - I have 2 trios of Mille Fleur Cochin in breeding pens where one hen/pullet went broody and the other girl in each pen quit laying -
Is this common? I couldn't seem to catch the eggs and move them out in time and the two broodys are sooooo determined so I left them with their eggs and marked them so I could grab any eggs their coopmates layed but those girls stopped laying. Maybe I should move the roosters and the non-broody girls to other pens?

ok i'm curious. can you tell the black splits from non-splits? the 3 blacks i have are supposely split but only time will tell at this point. unless there's a way to tell.

and i'd move someone. either the broody or the non-broodies... maybe 2 broodies could share a pen. i've heard of broodies being co-mommas.

 

[NanaKat]

If they are eating the eggs, I would put some wooden eggs in the nest - some people just use golf balls. It will usually break them of the eating habit.

Quote:

Quote:
wooden balls/eggs, golf balls, etc are great, but for a broody, i'd say chances are if she were an egg eater she'd have eaten them all already. so my guess is something happenned to the chicks.

has she hatched chicks before? my other thought would be, they started breathing and cheeping and she freaked maybe.

Are there other hens in the pen with her, or just her by herself? I have had the same thing happen (another breed), but didn't figure out if it was her doing it or the other hens in her pen. I think sometimes the eggs would break from all the activity if other hens come in and try to use the same nest, and then once that happens, the hens eat the egg contents (attracted to the blood and everything). My friend had seramas that hatched out babies and then after the babies fluffed up and everything, they ate the babies! Yikes! So if it's just the eggs before they hatched, I think that's more normal.

I have used ceramic eggs and golf balls before but not with a broodie...
This is Delilah's first clutch. She started with 16 eggs and is down to 11 now. They are pipping and zipping right now.
She is in a cage hanging on the wall inside the hen house. The other hens cant get to the cage.
I did this so when she got off the nest while I was in the hen house, I could set her down on the ground to run for a few minutes....and that has been pretty much the routine. She sees me in the hen house...stands up, clucks to get out, runs around and then comes back in to let me put her back in the cage.

I have a Minorca sitting on her first clutch and caught her eatting a shell today. She has 11 of 12 eggs left...one chick fully hatched and fluffed and several more pipped.

I'm going to keep an eye on the chicks zipping and if necessary, will remove them to the incubator to dry off. I have it set up and ready just in case.

 

[sheena85]

I have a Cochin and Wyandotte mix and her name is Pretty Girl

 

[BunnyMomma]

Tinybirds! What beautiful birds! Also that is the cutest picture of him with the chicks.
They are adorable.

 

[Funky Feathers]

I have a Cochin and Wyandotte mix and her name is Pretty Girl

I have a cat named Fifi.

 

[jbwells30]

i have a trio of MF. when i got them there was an egg in the cage they had laid.since i have gotten them home they have not laid 1 egg! they have a limo set up and i have given them everything they could possible need. good feed, oyster hell, egg shells, granite, sand you name it. they have a gret nest box with plenty of bedding etc. i put a blue hen in with them that has been laying every day to try to stimulate them to lay. the trio is young but like i said before they had laid an egg before. they have been in their new home about a month now. the guy i got them from is very respected in the chicken community around here so i dont suspect any trickery from him like putting an egg in the cage when i went to look at them. what can i do to help get them going?