I did raise these chicks myself, however, they were in a batch of 16 fry-pan bargain chicks that I was planning on processing so I did not pay any attention to the chicks other than keeping them healthy. I did not even try to determine what breeds I had gotten. I'll probably just put both of these guys in the pen with the 14 pullets.
That makes sense (not noticing feathering.) That will probably work (putting both with the pullets.)
If you have time, please help me with another question.
In another pen I have:
Two cockerels:
Ten pullets, but only two that this question pertains to:
(these pictures may be of the same bird, I can't tell them apart.)

So, if I collect eggs from these two pullets and hatch say 16 chicks.
Is it an equal chance to get chicks from each cockerel?
Equal chance of chicks from each cockerel, maybe.
Most likely one will be dominant and do more of the mating, so you will probably get more chicks from him. Each male may have certain favorite females, that he mates with more frequently than others. If they have different favorites, you may get chicks from one pullet with just one father, and chicks from another pullet with just the other father.
Until you know what they actually do, figuring an equal chance for each is probably better than any other way of doing the numbers.
If so, I'm thinking all the chicks sired by the cochin will have feathered feet and be 50% blue of each sex, and 50% black of each sex.
And all the chicks sired by the orpington will have clean feet and be 50% blue of each sex, 25% splash of each sex, and 25% black of each sex.
I agree about what chicks should come from each male.
So out of 16 chicks, using these assumed percentages I might get:
From Cochin | From Orpington |
- 2 blue feather footed females
- 2 blue feather footed males
- 2 black feather footed females
- 2 black feather footed males
|
- 2 blue clean foot females
- 2 blue clean foot males
- 1 splash clean foot male
- 1 splash clean foot female
- 1 black clean foot male
- 1 black clean foot female
|
I agree the percentages work out like that. I assume you already know that small numbers of chicks will not give exactly the right distribution. If you hatched 1600 chicks you would get close to 100 for each "one" in your list, but hatching just 16 will probably miss some and give you double of some others, or thirds of some of the 2s.
What other characteristics might the chicks from the cochin x orpington cross show, such as body type, broodiness, etc.?
Is my thinking sound?
Yes, I think your thinking is sound.
Many traits will be in between what the two parents have. The genetics of those traits have not really been worked out, which probably means there are quite a few genes involved and they do not have simple dominant/recessive relationships with clearly distinct groups of offspring. (Not nearly as easy as black/blue/splash feather colors.)
Hybrid vigor might cause them to grow a bit bigger and faster than either parent breed.
For broodiness, if you cross two broody breeds, you would typically expect broody offspring. But I have read of broody x not-broody giving broody hens, and even crosses of two not-broody breeds that gave broody offspring. Of course "broodiness" has various degrees, which also complicates the matter (the range includes hens that go broody repeatedly all year long, and ones that go broody once in the spring and not otherwise, and ones that don't go broody at all.)
Orpingtons and Cochins are both known as somewhat broody breeds, so I might expect at least some daughters to also go broody, but since you are working with hatchery birds they will all have been selected in the direction of less-broody (relative to wherever their ancestors started.) Hatcheries end up selecting that way even if they don't try, because they can only hatch eggs from the ones that are laying, which means they get more offspring from the best layers and less offspring from the ones that spend the most time broody.
I don't know how familiar you are with which parts already, but I get the feeling I'm mostly saying things you already figured out. Hopefully some of it is helpful. (I know that reading the "same" thing in different words can help me catch bits I have missed in other explanations, so my new explanations have a chance of helping you that way too.)