Mottled cochin - Development of color pattern?

[janinepeters]

I have 2 hatchery bantam mottled cochin pullets, almost 4 months old. Their backs are solid black, but they have a lot of white on the head and breast, and the butt fuzz is all white. I am not planning to show or breed them, just curious about how the color pattern develops.

Will the coloring tend to even out with each molt, or is it likely that they will always be mostly white on head/breast/butt, and mostly black on the back? Or do they just get more white everywhere, with each molt?

 

[Narragansett]

That pattern is very difficult to work with even for those who do focus on it and breed standard bred birds. Most mottled hatchery birds, in any breed which the variety occurs, are more like a pied pattern, not mottled. The white tends to increase for the life of the bird. White patches generally do not reduce in size, they only increase. Even good quality standard bred mottles tend to be overdone as older adults. I recommend that you forget about hatchery birds if you like that pattern. There are a few good Cochin breeders who are working with that variety who have excellent birds. There is no comparison between their birds and hatchery birds. Even if you have no desire to show, the pride of ownership in such a quality bird is much greater than for some fugly hatchery junk.

 

[janinepeters]

Thanks -- I just found this thread, though, showing a mottled ancona which started out with a lot of white on breast and matured to a more solid black with white specks. See post #6 on this thread, with pics of mottled ancona at immature and mature ages:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/691730/anyone-know-what-this-is

The black/white pattern on my cochins look much the same as that on the young ancona, though perhaps mine have a little more black on head and breast. So at least sometimes the pattern becomes more even with age within the first year or two?