Standard Cochin pullets, dos and don'ts?

[angeldoxie1]

We recently bought blue cochins! 7 girls and a roo. Well actually the roo is white, and 2 of the girls are black.
They are a bit skiddish and afraid of us. How long will it take for them to warm up to us?
Also we keep them seperated from our other hens. The other hens are about 5 months old while the chicks are 5-6 weeks old... I think... The roo is bigger than the girls, so maybe he is 7 weeks? The girls can be picked up with one hand, while the roo takes 2... If that helps any with age.
I hear you keep them away from mud, correct? I would assume mud would mat up their gorgeous feathers. Anything else they should stay away from, to keep their feathers in tact?
Oh how loud is a cochin roo when it crows? Very loud? Sorta loud?
We just don't want neighbor complaints. Are cochins good egg layers? One of the reasons my mom got them was because of cochins making brown eggs.
If not good egg layers... Then what about meat? We don't actually eat our chickens, but we had to, once before. Our dogs got into the area where the chickens were and took our previous
roo and our 2 RIRs. :-(
That's a different story though...
Answers would be very much appreciated

 

[Matt A NC]

The foot feathers are going to get broken/trashed unless kept in cages or a house on shavings. If not showing I would not worry about that. My Big show Cochins get to freerange. Not that they range more then 50-100 feet from their house.

The fastest way to tame a cochin is through treats. They are big eaters.

A cochin roo is as loud as any rooster. Before the heat took down Jerry he was sounding off at 4:30 am every morning.

Check often for mites and lice. Their thick fully feathers are perfect breeding grounds for those pests.

Cochins are decent layers while they are laying through the winter. They hate the heat and don't lay much in the summer. They are a broody breed and a broody(setting) hen will not lay. Also they don't lay while molting and they take longer then usual to complete a molt. Noel took 3 months to finish her's last year and another month to start laying again. After 14 eggs she went broody until I managed to break her a month later. That was the total of her eggs for that 6 month stretch.

They make decent meat birds, but they take 10-14 months to fill out. Big Show Cochins can take a full 3 years to reach their maximum size and "fluff".

This is all for show cochins. Hatchery Cochins are better for production then the big show birds I have. I do have 3 buff hatchery birds that lay fairly well and don't go broody as often. I love my cochins and will always have some, but they are not a bird for production. They are for show, pets, and raising babies.

Matt

 

[UGAchick]

Good questions, and thanks for the response Matt. I just received 7 baby cochins and hadn't really considered the special care they would need. Good to know!!

 

[Matt A NC]

Other notes.

Roosting. Cochins normally prefer to be lower then most breeds on the roosting poles. Some will go on up, but most will not.

If you don't have roosting poles and just let them sleep in the shavings then you need to check at least every other day for and poo that is in the fluff. If flies find it they will lay eggs, then you get maggots. When the maggots contact the skin it will cause infection. As the infection progressed in so will the maggots. I lost Smutt to this several years ago. By the time I realized what I was smelling it was too late. The infection and maggots had made it into her abdomen and around her organs and she had to be put down.

Also check the feet every now and then. If they roost a little high then they will likely get a bumble from time to time on the pads of their feet. As long as you catch it early it is easily treated with simple removal and some neosporin. The more friendly a pet they are the easier it is to keep up on their health.

Matt

 

[HeritageHens]

OP, great questions! (And helpful answers. Matt!) I never considered the extra care that my blue cochin (Gibbs) will require. I'm assuming this will also apply to my drop dead gorgeous Dark Brahma as well. Stevie is ultra friendly so the maintenance won't be a problem with her.

 

[angeldoxie1]

Quote:
Shavings eh? Where do you buy that at? Petsmart? Van Dam Farms?
Right now the little cochins are playing in the run where we would normally keep the big ones. In there we have some hay/barley and dirt... Not good?
Are shavings expensive? My mom will not buy them if they are 50$ a pound or something...
Also the bigger girls don't really like the little ones. A few of them are actually afraid of the little ones, and try to avoid them. But my EE and RIR blend peck at them and make these weird hiss
like noises at them.
We should wait, till they're bigger right? We don't want them having any problems when they will be living together.
Since we keep the little ones in the run that the bigger girls would normally be in, the hens refuse to sleep in the other roosts and run we set up for them.
Instead they sleep on our porch :|
And what kind of treats can we give them? So far we have seedless hybrid grapes and the big hens love those. But the little ones show no intrest.