Large Fowl Cochin Thread

[poularde]

Looks like a rooster.

 

[LarissaSlates98]

Thats a rooster.

 

[Spoof]

Thanks! That's what I figured. He is going to a new home.

 

[Ashdoes]

Well we just added Cochins to our flock. Went and picked up 2 1/2 week old yesterday, and the parents were beautiful, I had no idea the roosters got so big. Anyways I have a couple questions for you experts. As they get older the males combs will get darker red, right? And the pullets will stay lighter?
The lady we bought them from had four 6 week olds and two had redder combs and she was pretty sure they were roosters.
I'm very excited to watch them grow and to see what colors they'll be.

 

[mrheinz77]

What color were the parents? Were they Blue? I'm geussing you have 2 Blue and 2 Splash. I'm also guessing that you have 2 cockerels at least. Notice the comb is bigger on the light one up front and the dark one on the left. I can't see the comb on the other dark one. Comb and wattle development are 2 ways to determine gender on younger chickens in most breeds.

 

[Ashdoes]

She had all different colors. 2 roosters with maybe 12 pullets. I know for sure I saw blue, black and splash...her one roosters had the red/orange head and darker down the body. He was what made me want the chicks.
Wow, can you really tell this young? I'll be keeping an eye on them, but we aren't worried about roosters, since we're allowed to have them. And the roosters the breeder had were just beautiful, so I wouldn't mind one or two of them. We have 5 pullets already for eggs, so the Cochins and Silkies were mostly just our wish list chickens that we got lucky to find.

 

[Ashdoes]

Took another pic...I really thought it was too early to decide sex.

 

[Ashdoes]

3 of my new 3 week old chicks have vulture hocks. Do they ever go away?

 

[jayjay123]

new to cohcins have 15 all hens

 

[rtroxel]

The question really is: How bad are they? Usually to get good foot feathering, most birds have some degree of vulture hocking. If it doesn't feel too hard or stand out too much, most judges let it go. It does make that foot feathering look much fuller as adults.