Mille Cochin Info

[Mattlime]

Those are so cute I want some..I had a blue splash cochin but the dogs killed her...she was sitting on four eggs and I lost them all due to the dogs...

 

[tiki244]

I dont like the 'downer' tails either. My old rooster does it sometimes but not all the time. It absolutely drives me nuts. When I see it in the young ones and know it is going to stay I cull them. But that is in my blacks as I am breeding to improve them. If a person wants some pretty millie fleur colored birds they may not care about specific imperfections. Or to them it may be exactly what they are looking for in 'their' program. Each to his own.

 

[Funky Feathers]

I am no expert, but from what I have seen, she seems 'down' in the rear. No high cushion. In the standard it says female bantam Cochin's cushions should be level with the tops of their heads in a natural position. Cockerels cushions are supposed to be level with their eyes. She has some width in the 2nd pic, but at her age, she should have a lot more cushion from what I have seen. At under 6 months old, my dark pullet, Amy has more cushion height and width than I am seeing in Mellie. My partridge based girl has a low tail like your Mellie.

Again, I am no expert, but that's what I see.

As you can see in the second pic, she normally has a very big, wide cushion. In the first pic she was much younger and had not finished filling out yet. In the bottom pics she looks so tiny and "down in the rear" b/c she dropped almost all her feathers and has not grown them back yet. When she does I will bet you she is not "down in the rear" and will have her big cushion back.

 

[JosieChick]

regarding marek's disease, it seems to be one of those diseases that will be next to impossible to eradicate, much like coccidia and some others, since it seems to be everywhere. my strategy isn't to vaccinate for it. I lost a few birds to it last spring/summer. those that didn't get sick are resistant to it, and should, therefore, pass it along to their own chicks. it seems to affect birds usually before they start laying (16-20 weeks old), so if they're healthy enough to lay, they didn't get it and will go on to my breeding flocks.

the only ones that were affected though, were chicks i got in from a hatchery (5 out of 27 received). not any of my own home-grown ones... seems to me vaccinating is prolonging the disease, by not removing the susceptible genes.

I have to disagree with this. I usually pop in and read the latest news on the mille and calico cochin thread but don't post often. You are correct that Mareks is a nasty, nasty disease. I had mareks in a small flock of mille fleur cochins a few years ago. I lost several birds and don't have any remaining birds from that original flock. It was heartbreaking and awful to see the birds waste away and suffer. After that I vaccinated and still do, everything that hatches here as a day old chick for mareks. It costs a fortune but it is worth it to avoid the heartache of losing valuable, precious birds.

Birds that have been exposed to and 'fought' off mareks are still susceptible to becoming ill if they are stressed. They can also shed the disease especially when the weather is damp or cold and they have poor ventilation in their coops. I have had birds that were unvaccinated and laid for a year and then got sick and died of mareks. I have not lost a single vaccinated bird in my flock. I also don't allow very many hens to hatch clutches of eggs to avoid an adult bird "exposing" a day old chick to mareks before vaccination has taken effectiveness. The mareks vaccine is amazingly effective and has saved me the heartbreak of watching my precious babies succumb to a terrible and preventable illness.

 

[tiki244]

I should probably just read more and try to learn from others more experienced than me. I tend to get to typing too much sometimes. I have a question which has probably already been gone through but my computer is very slow paging through the posts. I thought that mottled times buff columbian was the way to go to get millie fleurs but someone mentioned partridge as being a good or excellent way. Is there a page or something where I can read up on this? Or should I just start from the beginning on this thread

 

[WestKnollAmy]

There is actually a page where there are folks that show what they bred and what it produced in the MFC project.
I personally do not care for partridge in my MFC breeding program but Bantyman used it in his lines and I have now introduced it in from his birds, though several generations along. I will continue to try and keep careful records in case I get a head scratching bird later. Meaning, the color confuses me.
I like using the buff Columbian and Mottled because it has given me the awesome vermillion in my birds. But you use what you can find. Some folks can't find anything but partridge and some can't find any partridge.
I feel I was lucky to buy from someone that had bought some excellent birds but then decided to get out of it. They had one generation in and then offered them up for sale. I snatched them up so fast it almost started a cyclone! LOL

 

[tiki244]

Oh thats funny! thanks Amy

 

[WestKnollAmy]

 

[ki4got]

I should probably just read more and try to learn from others more experienced than me. I tend to get to typing too much sometimes.

I have a question which has probably already been gone through but my computer is very slow paging through the posts. I thought that mottled times buff columbian was the way to go to get millie fleurs but someone mentioned partridge as being a good or excellent way. Is there a page or something where I can read up on this? Or should I just start from the beginning on this thread

patridge carries the pattern gene, while mille fleur is columbian plus mottled. IMO, the better mille fleur also carry the melanizing gene. columbian plus the melanizing gene gives nice dark tips to each feather, which then tipped with white from the mottling gene, gives you good chevrons for the mille fleur pattern. without the Ml gene, all you really see is mottled columbians, IMO.
the pattern gene really doesn't have much use with the other mutations for the mille fleur, but combining Co and Ml with Pg gives you the basis for the laced birds (which will only have great lacing when Co/Co, Pg/Pg, Ml/Ml. adding mo to the mix really doesn't help the pattern gene, or give good mille patterning.

but that being said, i have 2 blue partridge girls (heterozygous for pattern gene I think) that carry mottling. i don't think they have the melanizing gene or columbian, but with my mille roo produce mostly mille chicks with some buff columbian and a few mildly marked partridge-ish chicks. I'm hoping for a chick or 2 to show all 4 mutations (blue, Pg, Co, Ml), without mottling, to use towards a blue laced red project. once he's grown up, i'll also be breeding them with a partridge cockerel i hatched out recently, if his type is decent.

 

[Fancy Feathers]

Where does the melanizing gene come from? - Wheaten?
I'm thinking that too much columbian is an inhibitor, which is why we have such a hard time getting the black bands on the breast..

I thought adding partridge would give you the color similar to a Speckled Sussex..