Mille fleur bantam cochin spangled pekin project

[Willawong Hill]

Adding the blue will be a long process, as all the blues will be solid and just split MF. If you breed them back to MF you should get some blue MF, but you'll also get some missing genes so some will just be blue mottle with leakage and things like that ie a big mess. Would be interesting but you're looking at a lot of generations to get back to where you want. May be a fun project though. I think little red's tail angle in that photo is mostly because I have literally just taken her off her broody nest and dumped her on the grass- she is telling me she hates me for being mean, you can see her hackle feathers are raised too. Looking back at other photos though she does have quite a high tail angle. It's a fine line isn't it to get a lady with a good bustle but not squirrel tail.

 

[Birdie2019]

Okay. So I have only 4 Millie Fleur Cochin (Pekin) Bantams. I don’t have any SQ chicks yet, but I will be getting some soon, most likely in September or October. However, it got me thinking about type. I will show you some of the best photos I’ve seen, and none are mine. I’m just showing these for y’all to see what I’m after. Then y’all could do the same if you’d like. So here is what I’m after in particular:
Round, wide, short, big tails, round heads, small combs, high wing carriage.
And here are the pics (I know there’s a lot ):
Most of these are from Australia, one is from US I assume, and another from a country I don’t recall.

And from Cochinsint:

sorry for so many pics. Which would be the most ideal for good type (on the MFCB of course)?

 

[Willawong Hill]

Lovely photos! This bird (not mine) won best in show of our local agricultural show earlier in the year, so I guess this is what I'm aiming for- basically a nice round volleyball shape with a head. It's a long way off, but who knows in 10, 20, 30 years I might be getting close! In other news I brought an incubator (just a little Janoel 24 so I don't have to borrow one anymore) and I've also organised to get some hatching eggs from a breeder who has frizzle mille fleur. Can't wait to see what I get at the end of Sept.

 

[Birdie2019]

Lovely photos! This bird (not mine) won best in show of our local agricultural show earlier in the year, so I guess this is what I'm aiming for- basically a nice round volleyball shape with a head. It's a long way off, but who knows in 10, 20, 30 years I might be getting close! In other news I brought an incubator (just a little Janoel 24 so I don't have to borrow one anymore) and I've also organised to get some hatching eggs from a breeder who has frizzle mille fleur. Can't wait to see what I get at the end of Sept.

That’s great to hear! Be careful mixing MFs, and good luck!

 

[Birdie2019]

Mira weeks 1-5
She’s actually almost 6 weeks, so need to get new photos for that soon. After she changes some.

 

[Willawong Hill]

It's amazing how much the mille fleurs change over time, its so great that you're documenting them. Yes, I know what you mean with a few different lines to start with it's going to take a while to get anything consistent happening, but I wanted to start this way so there's good genetic diversity in my flock. After this year I will probably keep a closed flock to work on consistency. I'm glad you've found somewhere to get SQ MFCs as they're so rare it's hard to get people to part from them (and fair enough!).

 

[Birdie2019]

It's amazing how much the mille fleurs change over time, its so great that you're documenting them. Yes, I know what you mean with a few different lines to start with it's going to take a while to get anything consistent happening, but I wanted to start this way so there's good genetic diversity in my flock. After this year I will probably keep a closed flock to work on consistency. I'm glad you've found somewhere to get SQ MFCs as they're so rare it's hard to get people to part from them (and fair enough!).

Genetic diversity is always good. You have soo many options to choose from, which is always good. However, when I said SQ birds (I reread my post), I didn’t make a clear definition between MF and just any Cochin Bantams. I’m looking to get some Black, White or Mottled SQ Cochin Bantams so I can compare to my current MF. I’ve never seen a good quality Cochin Bantam before; Cashew is the best I have. I would love a great typed MF, though. It’d be fantastic. But I’ve no breeders anywhere close to me. The closest is 4.5 hours away, but it will be worth it.

 

[Willawong Hill]

Would you breed the other colours into your MF flock to improve type, or work on a few colours at once? In Australia, the best types I have seen have all been blacks, I think they've just had so much longer to work on shape. I would probably avoid using white in an MF program personally as it might pop up down the line later on as it's recessive but I think black or mottle could help with shape. 4.5hrs is a pretty long drive, hopefully you can find some other things to do in the area and maybe stay overnight to make it worthwhile. You may even be able to find some hatching eggs you can have posted though that's a real gamble as to what you'll get (I'm hoping for one nice one out of my 12, but I've previously only hatched 1 out of 23- thankfully Peggy is quite nice).

 

[Birdie2019]

Would you breed the other colours into your MF flock to improve type, or work on a few colours at once? In Australia, the best types I have seen have all been blacks, I think they've just had so much longer to work on shape. I would probably avoid using white in an MF program personally as it might pop up down the line later on as it's recessive but I think black or mottle could help with shape. 4.5hrs is a pretty long drive, hopefully you can find some other things to do in the area and maybe stay overnight to make it worthwhile. You may even be able to find some hatching eggs you can have posted though that's a real gamble as to what you'll get (I'm hoping for one nice one out of my 12, but I've previously only hatched 1 out of 23- thankfully Peggy is quite nice).

I am thinking of adding black Mottled in. This is the breeding in I have gathered from other breeders:

Mottled x MF = F1 (Select best typed, then color.)
F1 x MF = F2 (Select best type, then color)
F2 x MF = F3 (Select those with best type, then color)
Line breed.

 

[Birdie2019]

Took me forever to find this thread, but here I am! Have y’all’s chickens started back laying once again? I have purchased 6 Whites to breed for type and compare to my MFs and I was quite surprised by the difference between the type of both varieties. My breeding cock, Cashew, is not too terrible compared to the others, just a little small and needing a few improvements. Casey, on the other hand, looks nothing like those hens. She barely looks like the breed. But I will improve one day. Miracle is still looking like a rooster, but I am hoping so bad for a hen. Cashew is just so good, I don’t think his son would be better than him. I’m continuing to try to hatch every egg we get. Thing is, Casey still isn’t laying good eggs. So yeah, that’s my little rant and update. Hope things are going well over there in Australia (I’m in FL in the USA, by the way). Good luck!