Mille Cochin Info

[apc]

Ohhh Nancy......

I just had the best hatch ever! 15 out of 15 mf chicks! Thank you sooooo very much!

 

[BluffCountryShepherdess]

Quote:
Wonderful!

I hope that you get a nice mix of Calicos and Mille Fleurs!

Thanks for the update.

 

[CrystalCoastCochins]

I took some more pictures today of my "strange" colored pullets to share with you guys. As always, I would love your input. I am super excited at the idea that they could be wheaten throwbacks from my MF cochins. This whole time I have been waiting for them to "color up" and now I am hoping they don't. Funny how that works. Here are the pictures I was able to take today. I made sure to take pictures of both pullets instead of just the one. Hopefully you can see color and pattern better in these photos.

This picture shows the blue hue the pullets have at the base of each feather.

Of course, I would love more opinions on them and what color they might be. I am thinking about posting them under a new topic and seeing what other people think. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that they are wheaten. It is one of my favorite colors and I have been wanting some Wheaten Cochins for so very very long. Still hoping there is someone out there with a Wheaten Rooster they need to find a home for!

 

[jbear]

I just wanted to tell you guys that my pair of MF's from Lynne are expecting!

My white cochin went broody, so since she was sitting on NOTHING, I gave her something to do, and began stuffing Marie's (my MF Pullet) eggs under her.. she is sitting on 5 I think. They should be due to hatch in about another week and a half.. eee!

Funny thing is the cochin is one of my sons really good show hens, so I tried THREE times to break the brood to no avail. she was determined to hatch something. lol!

CrystalCoast--your 'strange colored' pullets are so pretty!

I wonder what they will turn out as...

 

[Coopa Cabana]

I found this on one of the other threads (Thanx Chris09!) and found it very interesting reading - Single vs. Double Mating. Possibly with the Mille Fleurs we should be practicing "Double Mating", i.e. in some pens you focus on breeding for males, and in some pens you focus on breeding for females, as the color characteristics of the Mille Fleur variety are different for males and females.

Just putting the thought out there - thought it might make for an interesting discussion.

WHAT IS SINGLE MATING? The A.B.C. of Breeding Poultry for Exhibition, Egg-Production and Table Purposes

1919
In certain breeds the standard decrees that the characteristics
of the male and female should be different, which necessitates
double-mating, explained below. Where the standard for the
two sexes is practically the same, then single mating is sufficient.
By single mating I mean the breeding of both sexes as exhibition
specimens from one mating or single pen of birds.

WHAT IS DOUBLE MATING? The A.B.C. of Breeding Poultry for Exhibition, Egg-Production and Table Purposes

1919
Double-mating means the mating of two pens, one to produce
exhibition cockerels and the other exhibition pullets. This process
of breeding has done much to spoil many good old breeds, for
few little men have accommodation sufficient to keep two pens.
Many poultry fanciers give this double-mating question some
hard knocks, but we have only the Club Standards to blame. When
a new breed comes into being, the first desire of the faddists is to
draw up a standard that is hard to breed to. They contend that
it is better to have a breed that is difficult to obtain high-class
specimens of, than where we can easily breed winners. As things
are at present, double-mating is necessary in many breeds, and
I leave it at that.
In the case of laced varieties, such as the beautiful Gold and
Silver Laced Wyandottes, we have perforce to adopt the double mating
principles. If we mated the Palace winning Cock to the
Palace winning Pullet we should breed birds that were of very
inferior quality. By fitting up a cockerel-breeding pen and a pullet breeding
pen our chances are excellent. In the cockerel-breeding
pen of any variety the male will be a tip-top show specimen and
his mates females that are not show birds, but merely breeders
likely to throw high-class cockerels when mated to the exhibition
male. The pullets from this mating will, of course, be " duds”
and not fit for show purposes. The females in the pullet-breeding
pen will all be first-class exhibition birds and the male not a show
bird, but a breeder most likely to breed tip-top exhibition pullets.
The cockerels from this mating will be " duds " and unfit for the
show bench. The whole modus operandi can be thinned down to
this :—The cockerel-breeding male must possess all the necessary
characteristics to breed exhibition cockerels, whilst the pullet breeding
male must boast of those characteristics that will go to
breed exhibition pullets. The system is not so complicated as it
would appear at first sight and is interesting to follow out, but there
must, of course, be many " wasters " in the progeny—whether
male or female respectively. In many cases fanciers are satisfied
with breeding one sex only and winning honors with same. They
specialize in pullets or cockerels, keeping the pullet-breeders or
cockerel-breeders only as the case may be. This naturally does
not entail so much work as would be necessary if the two sorts
were bred.

 

[La Unica Farms]

Very interesting article. Thank you so much for posting it.

 

[1mommahen]

Moved my week old MFC's to their coop! It's so hot here, I think they'll be plenty warm and I put a light in just for sure!

 

[mjgigax]

Quote:
So cute! Send out more pictures as they grow.

 

[magsrags]

Oh they are so adorable! I just hatched out some sizzle/frizzle cochins this week and cannot WAIT to see how they develop!
Not all MFs ......but all banty cochins have stolen my heart.

 

[hipeatall]

Here's my frizzle BeBe

... about 9 weeks old

edited... because I wanted to add that she's not a mille... black cochin bantam frizzle