Large Fowl Cochin Thread

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Could I ask some opinions on whether you think this 16 wk old LF Cochin is a male or female? I've always been so positive "Lillith" was a female but all that red coming out is making me re-think. She (or he) is out of a Brown Red boy and Brown Red hen-but the hen has such faint Birchen markings she almost looks black. The 2nd picture is her parents if that helps.
I just can't wrap my mind around the possibility that Lillith is a boy. What do you all think? In the picture she's got tons of pin feathers coming in (gold) almost like she's molting but she's only 16 wks.
Please tell me my baby Lillith is a girl! lol

Nice Birds!

 

[Ksane]

Nice Birds!

Thank you. I can't take credit for them though, all I did was fall in love with how pretty they were and buy them

 

[dak]

Man, I've really closed my eyes to this, huh? In the back of my head I kept thinking she (he) couldn't be a BOY because her name was Lillith! lol
Thank you for your help. I'll go mourn the loss of my baby girl now and celebrate my new baby boy :-D

It will soon become easy to you. Give it a hatching season or two. Even as chicks, the males tend to have a more upright stance, and feather in at a different rate/pattern than females.

These are project Brahmas, but you can see the difference. Cochins will just be fluffier.

Male



Female

 

[mjgigax]

I love my bantam cochins too

But I did add LF cochins for the larger eggs. Plus Mainers seem to want large birds at the swaps.

I really love my Ameraucanas but keep wishing they were as calm as my Cochins.

As far as egg size-
I only have one LF Cochins and her eggs aren't very big compared to my neighbor's Marans' eggs. Though they are bigger than my bantams'.

 

[Bo Garrett]

Oh my :-( Can you tell because of the color? My LF Silver Laced Cochin boys had huge red combs by the time they were 6 wks old. This one is 16 wks so I was really thinking girl.

Yep he is a cockerel no doubt about it. He is just immature and still growing, different breeds/varieties mature at different rates and he looks as if he will take some time to mature out and reach full size. When they are chicks it is fairly easy to tell cockerels from pullets early on by looking at the body shape as they grow. The cockerels will feather slowly in comparison to the pullets and have a larger more distended abdominal area. Cochin large fowl are notoriously slow to feather but the cockerels are the worst, seemingly naked for weeks.

Bo

 

[Ksane]

Thanks, Bo. Another reason I kept thinking this one was female was because his secondary wing feathers came in so fast, by 2 wks he had nice long ones. My Silver Laced boys were 2 months old and still only had nubs where their secondary wing feathers should be, they looked so funny. But you're right-different varieties are going to be different. I just didn't see this one coming until all that red started coming out

 

[Scott H]

Man, I've really closed my eyes to this, huh? In the back of my head I kept thinking she (he) couldn't be a BOY because her name was Lillith! lol
Thank you for your help. I'll go mourn the loss of my baby girl now and celebrate my new baby boy :-D

I would stick with the name Lillith though.

Got character.

 

[dak]

Anyone working on LF Buff Columbian? He is growing his tail back.

Cockerel hatched this spring.

 

[Bo Garrett]

There were some columbians out there at one time bred by MacHarp Poultry in Canada but when they sold out I do not know where their columbians went. I saw a picture of a large cockerel that was pretty nice the color needed to be a bit darker in the hackle and saddle but he was very nice. From what I understand he came from their whites. I have heard of others trying to produce columbians from light brahmas which will work but you have to deal with the dominant pea comb issue and the side sprigs that result for a few generations. The buff cockerel looks pretty good Clare, did he result from buff brahma crosses?

Bo

 

[dak]

There were some columbians out there at one time bred by MacHarp Poultry in Canada but when they sold out I do not know where their columbians went. I saw a picture of a large cockerel that was pretty nice the color needed to be a bit darker in the hackle and saddle but he was very nice. From what I understand he came from their whites. I have heard of others trying to produce columbians from light brahmas which will work but you have to deal with the dominant pea comb issue and the side sprigs that result for a few generations. The buff cockerel looks pretty good Clare, did he result from buff brahma crosses?

Bo

No Bo, he came from the GLC split x split breedings. He is pure Cochin. Just didn't get the pattern genes, only the columbian. I shouldn't even be feeding him, but I've enjoyed watching him grow out.

p.s NICE avatar!!!