I definitely have to agree with the previous posts. Weather plays a huge role. Eggs freezing enroute, getting held up by holiday traffic, etc. The fact that most people would have to brood chicks in their houses for the next few months is quite a deterrant too.
I'm going to bring up another factor that no one else seemed to mention yet. Mille fleur in cochins is one of those 'fad' colors that became really popular about 3-4 years ago. If the gene pool would have stayed fairly concentrated, I can see how prices would remain high. There are now literally thousands of people that have these in their backyard flocks now though and they aren't so 'special' anymore. They are not yet in the APA or ABA standard of perfection and can go no further than best AOV. So you basically have 2 markets you are selling to. First is those still working on perfecting this color and need new bloodlines. For this group, your birds had better have outstanding conformation and color to interest them. I'm not a cochin expert by any means so can't comment on your birds here. If you have top quality birds and something they want, they will pay. Once they get their hands on some they will use them in their own breeding program and probably not need more though. Your second market is the people wanting fancy pets for backyard flocks and broodies. They are the fad-jumpers that want the pretty colors and really don't care about type. This group isn't the type to pay huge money just for pets though. You might get a few, but they aren't going to be regular customers. This isn't just your cochins....its every other pet fad out there.... pot belly pigs, lionhead rabbits, chickens (BLR wyndottes, lavendar anything, coronation sussex). If you get enough of them out there and flood the market, prices will fall out eventually.
