Colorado

[Ashdoes]

Really? I think that might be a little inaccurate,. Depends on their upbringings and especially since they get pretty decent sized, i understand if they eat a lot. They may not lay eggs right away but you have other egg layers to help with that. Plus Cochins can be a great economical liablity due to that they are great show birds. Sorry you have a bad experience with them but OMG, your dog is adorable. haha.

Our Cochins are Breeder quality, meaning they are bred for their beauty, not egg laying. They're georgous, but total slackers in the laying department. Whether or not I have other egg layers doesn't matter, as I was giving advice based solely on Cochins, and most people won't have 30 birds like me and will depend on a sole breed or two for eggs. Their feed consumption is much greater then any other breeds we've had, and they're fairly lazy in the foraging department unless flocked with an active breed. Ours move around more because of the Cream Legbars, but our first Cochin only flock stayed in the barn a solid three months during the summer. Lazy, fat bums...but, with all that said, I adore them, and will be hatching as many as possible this year. They are yard candy for me, and their egg diffciancies are overcome by adding more and more and more! While I judge them harshly, I recccomend them as much as I can, when someone is just looking for awesome laid back birds, and I'd choose a Cochin roo over most others any day.

Waffle is my avatar...my little PigDog smile.png

 

[Ashdoes]

We are finally getting two green eggs a day!! This means both mixes, Cream Cochin and Cream SLW are laying green eggs. I've been getting Cochin eggs, one to two a day, and a random blue egg every few days, meaning the four Cream hens are still slacking. But, at least we have eggs on he skelter again
Anyone know what color eggs I would get from the mixed girls green eggs crossed with Cochin brown eggs? Did that question make sense?

 

[Iceman23]

Our Cochins are Breeder quality, meaning they are bred for their beauty, not egg laying. They're georgous, but total slackers in the laying department. Whether or not I have other egg layers doesn't matter, as I was giving advice based solely on Cochins, and most people won't have 30 birds like me and will depend on a sole breed or two for eggs. Their feed consumption is much greater then any other breeds we've had, and they're fairly lazy in the foraging department unless flocked with an active breed. Ours move around more because of the Cream Legbars, but our first Cochin only flock stayed in the barn a solid three months during the summer. Lazy, fat bums...but, with all that said, I adore them, and will be hatching as many as possible this year. They are yard candy for me, and their egg diffciancies are overcome by adding more and more and more! While I judge them harshly, I recccomend them as much as I can, when someone is just looking for awesome laid back birds, and I'd choose a Cochin roo over most others any day.

Waffle is my avatar...my little PigDog smile.png

I see. our are being bred for egg laying, but cochins are also natural show chickens where we are getting them from. thats a cute name for a cute dog.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Maggie,

I did see that the feed stores are going to have chicks soon. I am just so very disappointed with the ones I did get from the feed stores that I am more than reluctant to go that route again.
Why so disappointed?
SS with curled toes. Noticed the toes 2 days after bringing them home, they would have been 6 days old when I noticed it.
Delaware one died on me at only 18 months old the other I need to cull due to the huge eggs causing physical issues.
Bantam cochin dropped dead at 8 months old
Silver Spangled Hamburg also dropped dead at about 19 months.
BO with deformity in the leg causing a bad limp and limited mobility.
EE that died shortly after dealing with a prolapse at 3 years old.
The other death was a BO that had previously had a broken leg from jumping off a roost that was only 33 inches high. She healed and had been getting around well. Then she went off her feed and nothing I could do would fix it.
AND 2 roosters

With each rooster being rehomed I had to let a couple BA go with since the others I had purchased at the same time had other issues and were not wanted.

These deaths were spread out over about a year. No signs of illness in any bird including the ones that died. These birds all did originate from the same hatchery too.
I feed a good quality feed and supply oyster shell and grit. I try to limit the treats and scratch. They get real treats on Sunday only and I give less than 3 cups scratch total for 19 (was 24) birds.

Long and short of it is I needed to find a more reliable source.

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: Thanks! Right now she is in with my mottled bantam cochin boys, so any eggs will be mutts, but I am tempted to hatch out a few, and try for mottled Silkies. Uh oh, sounds like another project!!!

The hatching bug, and buying chicks is in full swing here! lol

 

[suncatcher]

Maggie,

I did see that the feed stores are going to have chicks soon. I am just so very disappointed with the ones I did get from the feed stores that I am more than reluctant to go that route again.
Why so disappointed?
SS with curled toes. Noticed the toes 2 days after bringing them home, they would have been 6 days old when I noticed it.
Delaware one died on me at only 18 months old the other I need to cull due to the huge eggs causing physical issues.
Bantam cochin dropped dead at 8 months old
Silver Spangled Hamburg also dropped dead at about 19 months.
BO with deformity in the leg causing a bad limp and limited mobility.
EE that died shortly after dealing with a prolapse at 3 years old.
The other death was a BO that had previously had a broken leg from jumping off a roost that was only 33 inches high. She healed and had been getting around well. Then she went off her feed and nothing I could do would fix it.
AND 2 roosters

With each rooster being rehomed I had to let a couple BA go with since the others I had purchased at the same time had other issues and were not wanted.

These deaths were spread out over about a year. No signs of illness in any bird including the ones that died. These birds all did originate from the same hatchery too.
I feed a good quality feed and supply oyster shell and grit. I try to limit the treats and scratch. They get real treats on Sunday only and I give less than 3 cups scratch total for 19 (was 24) birds.

Long and short of it is I needed to find a more reliable source.

Yikes that is terrible luck! My first birds were from feed stores, and they did fine, not the best type wise, but they were great egg layers, which is what I wanted them for! I have had a Marans rooster hatched from breeder quality eggs fall over dead in the yard at five months of age. It happens, who knows what is wrong with some of them.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Yes horrible luck.
I just do not want to go through all that again.

 

[maggiemo]

Don't the feed stores get the chicks from the same sources we do, the same hatcheries?

 

[21hens-incharge]

The ones I am trying to avoid use Welp and unfortunately Welp seems to use Privett. That means I need to order my own since they all seem to use both of them around here.

It is really hard to truly know where the chicks are coming from since so many online sources outsource the eggs and even the hatching of them.
It could be a giant waste of time trying to find ones that are truly from a reputable source.
Perhaps what I should do is just get some on order from pretty much anywhere and say a long prayer.

I need to stop reading reviews of hatcheries since it is not helping me at all.

 

[suncatcher]

The ones I am trying to avoid use Welp and unfortunately Welp seems to use Privett. That means I need to order my own since they all seem to use both of them around here.

It is really hard to truly know where the chicks are coming from since so many online sources outsource the eggs and even the hatching of them.
It could be a giant waste of time trying to find ones that are truly from a reputable source.
Perhaps what I should do is just get some on order from pretty much anywhere and say a long prayer.

I need to stop reading reviews of hatcheries since it is not helping me at all.

Is hard to decide, no matter when you order you may have a few fatalities. I think the warmer the weather the easier it is on the chicks to travel. Go with the breeds you really really want, after all you are paying for shipping and it is not cheap!

Kiowa and Elizabeth Country Corner has their list up, not sure how close you are to them. They have most the breeds you want, Brahma, LF Cochin, and BA, would be another way to get only what you want.