Self-Blue Cochin Bantams

[lillypug]

Quote:
I have a trio (1 roo, 2 pullets) of young bantam lavs but they are not laying yet but should hopefully by the end of the summer. When they start laying, I would be happy to send you some eggs for the cost of shipping if you like? I can pm you when they start to lay?

 

[cochinman2005]

A bit of an update with the F3 group. A couple pullets and ckls split to Black. These are about 4 months old. These are 4 of the group of around 30 that I hatched. These guys are from a Black Male X SB Female mating. My SB Male X Black female chicks are much younger as I wanted to get my pure blacks out first before I bothered hatching any SB splits out of the Black females. Interesting note is that the majority of the chicks from the Black X SB matings (I did 3 separate breedings this way) have yellow legs. However, I got a higher percentage of white/blue legs out of the SB Male X Black females matings, even though the SB ckl that I used had yellow legs.

Type and feather mass is much improved as well as head points. The heads look much more Cochin than the gamey look of the original pair.

Pullet 1:

Pullet 2:

Ckl 1: This guy is molting pretty well in the tail.

Head shot of ckl from previous photo.

Ckl 2: This guy has pretty good width of feather. Also molting in the back and tail area pretty heavily.

Same ckl as previous photo. Width across the back is much improved.

 

[iluvmychicks]

The type looks really good Tom. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing the Lavenders.

Shari

 

[Msbear]

I thought breeding in a recessive gene like lavender would require black X lavender or lavender X SB or SB X SB to retain the lavender gene... so, I thought you would be breeding the splits together? at this point then backcrossing for type.

I am pondering all this stuff with a project of mine and now Im a bit perplexed

 

[cochinman2005]

F1 splits were bred together producing 25% SB chicks. Those chicks were bred back to Blacks producing these F3 split to Blacks. The birds in the photos carry 50% SB genes and will be bred together for F4 and will produce 25% SB, 25% Pure black and 50% splits. The Blacks and splits look like Blacks and you can't tell them apart and will be culled out of the incubator. My plan is to raise about 50 SB chicks next year which means I'll have to hatch around 200 to get the 50 SB's.

 

[dak]

 

[silverbirch]

Here are my girls (I think) at 3 months old

- not the greatest of pics I know LOL

They are my absolute favorites among my chickens, however they are soo small still, nowhere near the size of the adult bantams I've seen. Is it normal for this breed to take a long time to mature? They still cheep like chicks too. I mixed them in with the bigger (mixed group) hens recently but they are so timid that they missed out on food so I've penned them again in the dog crate until they are bigger.

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Quote:
Tom,

Your project birds are really taking nice shape. I am glad you included the last shot. The width accross the back is really nice.

 

[cochinman2005]

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yes, they are both pullets. Cochins in general are pretty slow to develop. Large Fowl even more so. Where did you get these pullets? Just curious. They appear to have good color, although a bit leggy, and the one appears to be a little stiff in the hock feathers. Something to watch for if you are going to breed for type.

 

[silverbirch]

Quote:
yes, they are both pullets. Cochins in general are pretty slow to develop. Large Fowl even more so. Where did you get these pullets? Just curious. They appear to have good color, although a bit leggy, and the one appears to be a little stiff in the hock feathers. Something to watch for if you are going to breed for type.

They are hatchery birds I believe. I bought them as week old chicks from a large garden center - totally on a whim when I saw what they were

I don't have any Cochin cockerels so am not planning on any type breeding just yet anyway. I'll be going to a bird fair later in the year and maybe will get to meet some breeders, so who knows?