Mille Cochin Info

[georgialee]

Oh my goodness, you poor thing.

I thought I had some rough days with my boys but nothing compared to that! How old are your boys?


I haven't noticed and mired or lice on my birds but I guess I better look close if so many of you are having problems. One good thing is this is the first summer with birds on our land so maybe it will take the buggies longer to find us (fingers crossed).

 

[ShysCreations]

to you MsBear!! you deserve a spa day all right!! The BYC site kinda works like journaling to get all the frustration & fever out. You will get thru those days of busy little boys & sure have the stories to look back on......mine is now 15. It totally hit me he's really gonna drive after half a day at DMV, we're waiting in line for the permit photo & he asks, "So can I drive back to the house"????? what?!?!?!? you're really gonna operate the vehicle I'm still making payments on....you're gonna drive 55 mph.....

 

[WestKnollAmy]

LOL
My 16 yr old DD loves to drive the farm truck and swears she is going to take her driving test in it! I have pushed her to drive since she was 12, as I did. She hates my car and won't drive DH's car either.
I would think she is pretty good kid except she doesn't care for my chickens.........

 

[Msbear]

I know it's no harder than anyone else's life with young kids.. thankfully, y'all understand.

 

[ChickcrazyCharlie]

Erin, sorry you have had such a rough time. When your boys are older you will look back at these days and laugh. My 2 boys just graduated from high school last week. We are always talking about things that they did when they were little. Now they are both taller than I am. Your chickens are beautiful. Nice pictures. Thanks for the advice about my chickens. Take care.

Charlie

 

[ChickcrazyCharlie]

Hi Nadine, thanks for the advice. I wasn't planning on using the white cockerel for the mille project. I'm going to hang on to him for awhile and then find him a new home. I have several people who like yard orniments of all shapes and sizes. Your right though, its hard to let them go. But I will try to be strong and cull ruthlessly. LOL

Do you know if there is a mottled cochin thread? I am so proud of the trio, I want to post some pictures. I love them, the have become my favorites. I have spoiled them rotten. Thanks again.

Charlie

 

[mjgigax]

Finally a few updates on my Millies - I think my 5 mo. cockerel,Karl, may even be nicer that his late father, He has alot more black in his chevrons on his breast. He has the two errant tail feathers that his father had till his first molt. He definately needs to fill out more. This cockerel was a wheaton chick with a dusting of orange.

His "sisters" were also wheaton but so far don't have enough pattern.

Here are some younger ones of various ages, I have hatched nearly 50 Millie chicks and am going to have to do some hard culling.

This pic is Karl with his "Mother" and "Aunts"

You breeders with more experience than I do please advise me on the type and color.
These are picks of my SQ Blacks that I got to improve the type of my Self-blues and I study them alot to "will" that type onto my Mille Fleurs.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
I have not ever seen a Mottled Cochin thread here on BYC. You could start one though!

Most of us just use the regular Cochin thread but so many have Mottleds we could probably have plenty to talk about on it and that way so much stuff doesn't get lost among the varieties.

I am sure yours are beauties as the sisters I still have of the boy and girls you have are turning out so very nice! I am itching to put them in breeding but haven't the time, energy or room to hatch out more so for now they can stay in my grow up pen and enjoy the summer.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

mjgigax, your birds are very impressive. Karl may very well out do his dad. Can't wait to see him in another 6 months! I like that his coloring is so varied, that gives you plenty to work with. Focus on that type since you have so much great color going for you. It is hard as the dickens to cull out the beautiful but we must close our eyes and feel for conformation. With all you hatched I bet you will have a fantastic flock left to continue the building of magnificent MFCs! I really like what you are working with.

Those darn tails get me too. I want them to look great at 6 months and sometimes the boys just don't have it til later. And my girls always want to have a pom pom stuck on their rears until about 14-16 months old. It's enough to make us all crazy. So I try to keep them for more than a year if they are nice enough to contemplate over. It was only after selling ones I thought would be crap and then seeing them at my friend's house many months later that I realized my mistakes. They may mature late!

That little black roo is looking very nice! He has it all together and knows it! I certainly would love to see him in another 6-8 months too. If he looks that good at this age I could only expect him to balance out well and be stunning when older. That is what I look for on my kids and try to keep around. Why are roos always so beautiful? We can only keep so many and the darn things are often so near perfect!

 

[mjgigax]

Quote:
Yes, that black roo is only 8 mo. old. I was very fortunate to get some Bo Garret lines from Grace ?, a local breeder with great success in showing. She is getting married and wants to get out of chikens for a while so she was parting with her beautiful birds!
It would be a shame for these blacks not to continue showning and for me to just use them for a project. I could introduce myself to showing with these and practice for the day when Mille Fleurs will be well represented at shows.
"Pom poms" is a good way to describe the buns for tails of the pullets.
I sold my second Mille Fleur cockerel when I saw that I had good young roos coming along, now the one hatch of his chicks is coming along with very nice pullets.

But he is from the same flock as my first hens and I wanted more genetic variety. He is living just on the other side of OKC and that breeder and I together really want to work hard on Millies.
I often just sit in the grow-out pen and watch them all. They seem to change so quickly and not fast enough at the same time.