Cochin Thread!!!

[Reyvaughn]

SOP is on the agenda. I just got my birds tested which cost way more than I thought it would (and wasted an entire day). I am trying to get established - one thing at a time. I went from backyard pets to wanting to do this chicken thing for real and it's not easy on the wallet...

 

[cochinman2005]

Hi Tom!! Thank you for the clarification on the willow legs, and also how to breed away from them. I think to this day I would have missed it in my one female GL if you hadn't pointed it out. I still have her, but she's not in the breeding cages, because she also ended up being the smuttiest.

Tom, do you have a specific culling calender that works for you, other than willow legs at hatch? i.e. what gets culled at hatch, one week, one month, etc. Just talking about general faults and confirmation, not color/pattern (unless there is something specific).

Also, what supplier do you use for your 1 x 1 vinyl-coated wire?

~Gail

Gail,
I can't remember where I got the last roll I ordered, but I did have to have it shipped. I believe it was from Texas. Normally you have to call them to get a price quote because prices change frequently I guess. Here's a couple links to two different companies. I may have gotten wire from C.E. Shepherd. For adult bird cage bottoms I'd go with the 14 guage wire. 12 guage would be pretty heavy duty and shipping would be more expensive since it would be heavier. And of course 12 guage is more expensive than 14 guage.
http://www.louispage.com/welded-wire-mesh/vinyl-coated---vc/
http://www.ceshepherd.com/index.html
http://www.ceshepherd.com/pdf/Shepherd_Aviary_Cage_Poultry.pdf

Tom

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Thanx Tom! I know those links will be beneficial to many of us.

Something else you mentioned yesterday caught my eye and I was wondering about. You said you keep your males on wire, and your females on shavings. Why the difference? Does it have to do with the feather conditioning, or the production level from the females? Doesn't keeping the females on shavings incentivise them to go broody more than if they were on wire?

 

[PoultryPower]

I'm showing two bantam birds of mine at a local fair and was wondering what I should do to let their feet and leg feathering grow out properly.

Also my frizzled cochin has pulled her breast feathers out.

She did this last year right before fair, but she was brooding at that time.

Do they pull their breast feathers out when it gets hot? Thanks!

 

[TexasChick09]

I let the youngsters pasture this weekend and they loved it, so I took a few new pics of my white bantam roo. The mottled still looks moth-eaten, it's horrible. She's like a yearling, you just hide her behind the barn until the neck fairy comes and the uglies are over.

As you can see, he had fun playing in the dirt, so looks a bit discoloured, and the "dirt" may have been horse poop. >.> Whitey (needs a real name if anyone has suggestions) was a mean little guy, but he seems to have turned the corner and follows me around chatting and lets me pick him up now without biting.

 

[cochinman2005]

Thanx Tom! I know those links will be beneficial to many of us.

Something else you mentioned yesterday caught my eye and I was wondering about. You said you keep your males on wire, and your females on shavings. Why the difference? Does it have to do with the feather conditioning, or the production level from the females? Doesn't keeping the females on shavings incentivise them to go broody more than if they were on wire?

Mainly because I keep my females in group pens. Some of them 10 - 12 females per pen. If I individually penned the females, I'd need a bunch more wire bottomed pens. During breeding season I have 24 2'x2' solid bottomed pens that I use to individually pen the bantam females so that I can stud mate the birds. In one of my 12 x 24 buildings I built them on one wall, double stacked. The wire bottome cages allows me to keep the males in pretty good shape as far as condition and it's easy to clean the drop boards.

Certainly the females go broody more readily than if they were on wire, but it's built into them to lay X number of eggs before they do so, so assuming good management practices, a breeder should be able to get plenty of chicks out of any one female before they decide to go broody. I bred from primarily 4 Black Cochin females this year, and a couple are still laying. The other two are broody, but from the 4 I'd say a conservative estimate of eggs set would be at least 100. Fertility was good and hatch rate was good. I have a bunch of Black Bantams out.

 

[cochinman2005]

I'm showing two bantam birds of mine at a local fair and was wondering what I should do to let their feet and leg feathering grow out properly.

Also my frizzled cochin has pulled her breast feathers out.

She did this last year right before fair, but she was brooding at that time.

Do they pull their breast feathers out when it gets hot? Thanks!

Only way to get the foot feathers to grow out properly is wait until they molt. Not uncommon for them to shed the feathers along their breastbone during brooding. I don't think they can figure out to pull feathers because they are hot, but it's possible she may have been broody or if she's in with other females, they can have a bad habit of pulling each other's feathers out. They get bored I think and it gives them something to do. Although if you are talking about the feathers along her breast between her legs I doubt another hen pulled those. Also common for hens to pick the hackle feathers of the males.

 

[Chickengirl47]

Well, how about some cute Cochin chick pictures?

How old are they? Are they in a cage? Or your just letting them free range.

 

[Fancy Feathers]

They're all under 2 weeks. They're in a brooder. It was just so nice outside that day I brought them out to get a little fresh air and sunshine.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

I have a Buff that is the SWEETEST thing ever. She has had some encounters with my Barred Rock Roo. Should I pop her eggs into the incubator??