How do I create colors?

[RetroRanch]

Ok here’s my dilemma….I love large fowl Cochins…but I really want more colors! I have a bunch of bantam Cochins in neat colors (calico, lemon blue, etc) and I’m wondering how I can use the bantams to make LF Cochins in these fun colors. Does that even make sense?? Can someone explain it to me like I’m 5??

 

[CascadiaRiver]

You need a LOT of space! That was my bigger issue, having a smaller yard limited how many pens I could set up for breeding groups. You'll want to figure out what color(s) you'd want to do and find a compatible male/female of Standard Cochin and start breeding.

It'll be a few generations, most people will opt to breed & cull for color first then work on type/standard aka how good they look. If you just want some bigger birds this step may not take you that long, since well you probably won't be showing them at the state fair (unless you want, which will take more time & more generations & more birds)

What color standard cochins do you have access to, either to order or nearby, will effect what color may be easiest to start with. If you say what colors you have of bantams, I could suggest possible pairings!

Example: Brown Red is the same pattern as Lemon Blue, except LB's have the added "dilute" gene. The easiest way to breed this would be:
- bantam lemon blues X standard brown red
= 50% brown red, 50% lemon blue (choose the biggest blues, breed those back, choose biggest, etc)

 

[RetroRanch]

Ok that makes sense! I have a lot of space and I really want to give this a try! I would love to do lemon blue, Mille or calico and bobtail to start. I need to look into what other colors the bantams come in. Also, could I do this with Brahmas? I have some Isabel Brahmas I thought would be a fun project color! And my next question is…how do I get them back to being “pure” LF Cochin? If I start with a bantam roo over LF hens, would I then cross the F1 offspring together to make F2? Or backcross to the parents? Or cross with another LF Cochin? This is the part that confuses me the most

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Ok that makes sense! I have a lot of space and I really want to give this a try! I would love to do lemon blue, Mille or calico and bobtail to start. I need to look into what other colors the bantams come in. Also, could I do this with Brahmas? I have some Isabel Brahmas I thought would be a fun project color! And my next question is…how do I get them back to being “pure” LF Cochin? If I start with a bantam roo over LF hens, would I then cross the F1 offspring together to make F2? Or backcross to the parents? Or cross with another LF Cochin? This is the part that confuses me the most

I won't lie, I am not a huge expert or anything and I am a bit rusty! I haven't done a big breeding project in probably 7 years at this point, and it was a lot of color breeding within the same breed so I didn't have to breed them back to the correct standard (ie how they looked shape wise)

So someone else will likely chime in and say "Nah that's totally wrong do this instead" but what I would think of would be to start bantam roo with LF hens. I'd keep the biggest that have the color (or some of the desired genes), goal being to replace the rooster with a bigger roo of the desired color. I haven't bred bantams to LF in any large capacity so I do not know how many generations it would take to get back to a LF size that you're happy with (but the LF/B mixes I have had were middle-sized erring on the smaller half)

I did a little search and it seems unclear what genes go into play for Bobtail, some say albinism, white genes, mottling, birchen, lavender, blue, etc. It SEEMS like it would be recessive genes overall. So if you did Bobtail X Black, in theory you'd get chicks who are Black, but carry Bobtail genes. Breed those back to Bobtail and in theory get chicks displaying Bobtail. (maybe someone else can chime in if they know the genes!)

Like I said before Lemon Blue is just brown red plus some dilution genes! The easiest cross would be by breeding bantam Lemon Blues with LF Brown Reds. This would result in half of your chicks being Lemon and half Brown Reds (and you can then focus on getting the size right since you get your color quicker!)

Mille Fleur may be a longer project as theres a few genes that make up a good Mille. If I recall correctly it's made up of (gold) Partridge + Columbian + Mottled (and Db & Mahogany genes). If starting with a Bantam Mille roo I'd probably pair with LF Black Mottled but it would likely be a complicated or at least a longer project to get all of the genes and shades of gold/red and the mottling back to exactly how you want. I'd keep the biggest pullets and try to get the biggest cockerel with the best mille, but you'll likely need to back cross back to the bantams and the original LF to get all of the size and color (but again others may have other ideas, and it can change depending on what color LF cochin you have access to!)