Large Fowl Cochins

[emrya]

Bo,

I am new to Cochins, and supposedly have a small flock of five that are from quality parents. Blues and blacks. Is it better to have a lighter, paler blue with good lacing or a darker color with an almost black head and good lacing?

 

[Bo Garrett]

The latter conforms to the Standard as written but the lighter can still be used for breeding, just breed her to black.

Blessings,

Bo

 

[emrya]

Thanks!

 

[PLwarped59]

Hey Bo, I have been reading all over this site about breeding brown red cochins. Are you still working on those? I love that color. I'd really like to do brown red, lemon blue, and lemon blue splash LF for my first dive into chicken breeding. Head first. I enjoy a challenge. But man, those colors hard to find information on, much less find any, even in bantams. I've learned a lot from your posts.

 

[Bo Garrett]

Thank you for your kind words. Brown Red Cochins of true type and color are hard to find, most are a cross of black and buff and have near solid colored breast feathers which is not the standard for brown red color. I have found that breeding black males with a rich green sheen to white females will, if the whites possess the right genetics, a brown red colored bird that when the F1 generation are mated back to each other will produce males of near perfect color and females with color in the hackle but will still need a couple more generations to produce the appropriate breast lacing and skull cap color needed to show or even appear brown red. I don't have any brown reds anymore, they were a means to an end, the production of Large Brown Cochins. There is a breeder of brown reds in Kansas City, MO but I can't remember the name right now, the breeder is predominately known for Peafowl so you may be able to look him up that way. He has over 20 varieties of large cochins listed on his website.

Blessings,

Bo

 

[PLwarped59]

I have been researching color genes all day trying to figure out what genes a white hen, and black rooster would need to create a brown red. A learning curve for sure. I also looked for informatoin on how the brown red in bantams was created, but have found nothing so far. I know it is the birchen pattern gene, but how to get from one color to the brown red has me lost. I assume silver birchens were crossed with another variety.
I looked up the breeder you mentioned, Legg's Poultry Farm, I believe. Pity they are so far way, I am all the way on the East coast. I inquired about buying shipped eggs from them, sadly they don't do that. I will have to ask about shipping chicks.

 

[PLwarped59]

Thank you for your kind words. Brown Red Cochins of true type and color are hard to find, most are a cross of black and buff and have near solid colored breast feathers which is not the standard for brown red color. I have found that breeding black males with a rich green sheen to white females will, if the whites possess the right genetics, a brown red colored bird that when the F1 generation are mated back to each other will produce males of near perfect color and females with color in the hackle but will still need a couple more generations to produce the appropriate breast lacing and skull cap color needed to show or even appear brown red. I don't have any brown reds anymore, they were a means to an end, the production of Large Brown Cochins. There is a breeder of brown reds in Kansas City, MO but I can't remember the name right now, the breeder is predominately known for Peafowl so you may be able to look him up that way. He has over 20 varieties of large cochins listed on his website.

Blessings,

Bo

Did you ever get silver birchen from those crosses?

 

[Bo Garrett]

No silver birchen only brown red.

 

[LittleRedCoopLady]

I'm so glad I found this post! What a font of knowledge you are! My son shows poultry in 4-H and will be showing a LF blue Cochin rooster in three weeks. I know this is obviously not in the same league as to where you show, but I love getting all this information! And who knows, maybe my son will want to move up to some other shows in the future. My avatar is actually the rooster he'll be taking. Thanks again for all of the great information!

 

[Bo Garrett]

Did you ever get silver birchen from those crosses?

I never did, the red seems to be dominant to silver. Legs poultry advertises birchen on their website, I have never seen them but they would be a beautiful large cochin variety.

Blessings,

Bo