Mille Cochin Info

[WestKnollAmy]

Too cool!

Yes, yours look like they may have some MF coloring to them. The first one looks like some of the chicks that we have growing up except for the curly feathers, of course. And some of the others are getting a little pattern on them but they won't be the perfect pattern yet. It would take years of work to get it perfect on the MF Frizzles. We are still working for perfection on just the Cochins!
I think your chicks are absolutely gorgeous though!

 

[MrsChickendad]

Please, can someone give me some guidance?

Earlier this year I only had a partridgey mille girl. Hardly any white. I had a really nice typey white rooster, so hatched some from this combination to see what I'd get with an eye to improving type. Here are two of the cockerels, now almost 5 months old:

One is pretty much columbian with a lot of gold leaking, the other has columbian, mottling and some gold leakage. I have a younger cockerel from this same breeding who is columbian and starting to show a little bit of red from his mille mom. I like the type on these guys, as far as I understand it, I'm still learning.

Now I have a mille pullet and two mille cockerels out of two different roosters, as well as the partridgey mille mama who produced these boys. The milles are pretty well patterned, but type needs improvement.

I also bred the partridgy pullet to my buff cochin and got a bunch of typey buff columbians, mostly incompletely marked, but definitely improved in type with tons of foot feathering.

Any suggestions as to how to proceed?

 

[WestKnollAmy]

What I was doing was crossing my roos (and I have about 6 I think are nice in one way or another) with all my girls. I hatched a few weeks with a trio then move the roos around to get other girls. It takes a while because you don't know how long the girls may still have the other roos sperm so I just don't hatch for a few weeks from them. I move them all in different weeks so I am still always hatching but not a bunch at once and then I also can keep up with whom has hatched from what.

There are certain ones I don't cross up because they won't help each other but this is what I have been doing with all the different roos I have available. I have crossed moms back to sons and I have crossed sisters to brothers and a few girls back to dad. Plus I have other roos from outside sources and I had a hen from another source that I was breeding. It gives me more that I can pick and choose from on conformation and color patterns but lots and lots I have to sell!

Considering I don't know exactly what I am looking for I am keeping as much type as I can and will expect to get color and pattern on down the road. As long as I am careful not to breed that out.

Keep in mind, your girls are going to have better pattern than the boys right now. The challenge is to get nicely patterned boys, I think.

However, I am no expert so my advice is to be taken with a grain of salt. Others have made much more progress than I have and I now have to stop breeding for a while so I will be behind much more than all the others.

 

[xyresicchick]

Quote:
thanks! i love my babies.

my frizzles are cochin frizzles- for clarification. i onlt have 3 frizzles and the rest are normal feathered. i sure hope they end up with any mille coloration, that would be so exciting.

 

[BluffCountryShepherdess]

I was advised by a long time chicken breeder/showman/judge that to lock in type you breed the chicks back to the typy parent. That's what locks the genetics for the good type in the offspring. If you cross that first generation of chicks to some other bird, you are diluting the genetics for the good type.

I'm going to be doing this for the first time, myself. I've got an F1 generation of mille fleur and calico cochins, where the hens were show quality buff columbians, black, and black mottled and I used my best Mille Fleur and Calico roosters. I got some AWESOME chicks from that cross. Not a lot of pattern, of course, but incredible feathering and type. I will cross the F! cockerels back to their mothers to lock in type and then cross those chicks (the F2 generation) back to my Calico lines. I will probably breed two of the very best F1 pullets back to the best F1 cockerel.

This takes longer than just crossing the F1 generation to nicely marked birds but it is the best way to lock good type into your flock.

(or so I have been told by someone who's opinion I respect and value)

 

[MrsChickendad]

Yes, that makes sense to me. It might be interesting to put the columbian/mottled boy back to his partridgy mother and to the (shirt-tail related) mille pullet. The original white and buff roosters are from completely different stock than the milles, so those boys are pretty much of an outcross. Opinions?

 

[Fay at Frizzled Feathers]

Quote:
Yes , I have always heard that myself . Very good advise here ,Thanks for posting that .

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Nancy does explain it much better than I could.

 

[colowyo0809]

Here is our roo, as far as I am aware (and if I remember what I was told correctly!) he is a Mille Fleur Cochin Bantam Roo, which we've named Miles. I believe we got him from someone off of craigslist here in CO, who might also be a byc member (i'm really bad with my memory, thats why I have chick dates written down!) We think he's cute, and i've got a feeling my SO is going to try to start breeding them

Just after I brought him home

and several days ago

I'm going to try and get a better one of his feet, the feathers are so cute!!

 

[jbear]

My one and only MF egg hatched!!! oooooo I am sooo happy!

Will post pics soon, the lil one is only hours old.