Large Fowl Cochin Thread

[ArtLady1]

My LF partridge and LF blue... Will be 4 weeks on Monday... Any guesses on gender?

 

[annewandering]

For a hatchery chick I think she is really pretty!

 

[Our Roost]

I purchases 4 hens from hatchery 3 years ago and have 1 left. I was surprised at how nice they grew out. Enjoyable birds!

 

[yellowherb]

Out of the hatchery chicks I got from Ideal the barred is the best looking so far. They are a little smaller than the partridges, silver laced and gold laced but have much fluffier feathers so far. Out of that age group of 3month olds I'd rate them #1barred(best feather and form), #2 gold/silver laced(nice size and feathering, lacing should grow in better than it is now), #3 partridge. The partridges are really terrible looking. Long legs, poofed feathers in 2-3 spots on their legs giving them a poodle esque appearance. Their body feathers are even slower growing. while the barred look like mini chickens right now the partridges look like some weird dino throwback with fuzz and thin feathering. The partridges are the largest body size or leg length.

I also have 2 self blues and 2 blues which are now about 1month old. Both of those are nice looking so far. Nice feathered feet and feathers are growing better and thicker than the partridges who are older.

I'm really loving the standard cochins. I wasn't sure if I would ultimately keep and enjoy them or not, but I do! I've worked more with the blues and they come up to me already for mealworms and are friendly. The older ones I haven't worked with enough yet but they are super nice and not flighty and I think they will come around. Some are starting to visit me on the deck.

 

[I Love Layers]

2 chicks hatched last night. I'm very impressed with the foot feathering on the 2 so far.
The 4 other eggs are pipped

 

[I Love Layers]

Here's pictures of the chicks. All 6 hatched and were living when I last checked about 3 hours ago.

 

[GeorgeN]

What I learned about Cochins. This is our first Cochin, and he's turned into a real bully. He's the size of a small turkey, and nobody dares turn their back on him. Cochin hens are supposedly very broody. Our supplier uses them to hatch turkey and duck eggs, but the downside of that is they tend to get very protective. It seems that applies to the roos as well. This guy is the master of a flock of 6 layers, and he's not going to let anyone near him. We got him at 10 months, so by that time he was pretty well set in his ways.
Not to be deterred, we have a dozen eggs coming from some nice pale blues, and we are getting pretty excited to see what we have. You can bet, though, that the chicks will get a lot of handling and imprinting before they are fledged to see if we can prevent another one like this.

 

[I Love Layers]

What I learned about Cochins. This is our first Cochin, and he's turned into a real bully. He's the size of a small turkey, and nobody dares turn their back on him. Cochin hens are supposedly very broody. Our supplier uses them to hatch turkey and duck eggs, but the downside of that is they tend to get very protective. It seems that applies to the roos as well. This guy is the master of a flock of 6 layers, and he's not going to let anyone near him. We got him at 10 months, so by that time he was pretty well set in his ways. Not to be deterred, we have a dozen eggs coming from some nice pale blues, and we are getting pretty excited to see what we have. You can bet, though, that the chicks will get a lot of handling and imprinting before they are fledged to see if we can prevent another one like this.

I've noticed that birds that are handled a lot act like that

 

[chickcrack]

Blue, black and barred babies hatched from my flocks...took forever to get fertility up!

 

[LouisianaFowl]

Hi I have a question what hatcheries have the best cochins and what variety are the best formed I'm just getting into pure breeds as we all ways had barnyard mutts ,thanks for the help