The Beautiful Bantam Cochin!

[Poodlemum]

We have a new favourite! Hoping it’s a pullet, she’s definitely not developing like her frizzle brother We’ve called her Dotty and she’s very sweet, especially since she’s had zero handling. Once they left the brooder, the whole group loves to follow me around the yard and I have to be careful where I step lol

 

[Tonyroo]

We have a new favourite! Hoping it’s a pullet, she’s definitely not developing like her frizzle brother We’ve called her Dotty and she’s very sweet, especially since she’s had zero handling. Once they left the brooder, the whole group loves to follow me around the yard and I have to be careful where I step lol

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You know it's a cockerel right? When there combs have that color at that age it indicates there developing into a male bird.

 

[Poodlemum]

You know it's a cockerel right? When there combs have that color at that age it indicates there developing into a male bird.

It’s a favourite, which always means too But at 10 weeks, they’ve always been so obvious! So I’ll be over here in denial til it crows lol

 

[Tonyroo]

It’s a favourite, which always means too But at 10 weeks, they’ve always been so obvious! So I’ll be over here in denial til it crows lol

Lol. Bantam rooster should be easy to handle unlike other breeds.

I have a disabled Swedish flower rooster in my flock that is gentle and friendly. He comes to me when I call his name. And he is a large fowl except because of the disability he is the size of the hens. He is very pet friendly despite living in a flock including his father the king of the roost.

 

[Poodlemum]

Lol. Bantam rooster should be easy to handle unlike other breeds.

I have a disabled Swedish flower rooster in my flock that is gentle and friendly. He comes to me when I call his name. And he is a large fowl except because of the disability he is the size of the hens. He is very pet friendly despite living in a flock including his father the king of the roost.

I’ve already got 7 mature roos and several keepers from this year, I just don’t need anymore unfortunately. Our other bantam Cochin roo is such a love to us and all the chickens hate him lol. If egg sales suddenly pick up, I’ll keep him, but right now I’m needing to sell pullets too

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I disagree, I think that's a pullet. It's been pretty often that some of my Cochin pullets get a bit of color like that early, in fact I have several now around the same age as yours that I'm confident are pullets even with their little pink combs. The boys have consistently gotten much larger combs and wattles in before 10 weeks of age in my experience, usually pretty obvious by 5-6 weeks and often as early as 3-4 weeks. I also don't see any of the color patches I expect to see on a laced cockerel. From what I can see in those pictures, she has even coloring overall as is typical of a pullet.

Anyway, I hear you on being careful where you step! I swear my crew wants to do me in, running under my feet as I'm trying to walk so I scramble not to step on them!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It occurs to me that I haven't posted my birds here in quite a long time, so here's an assortment of pictures I posted on my thread for my silkied Cochins a day or two ago. I did just a little bit of hatching this year (ahem, I hatched 70 chicks from April to July ).

One of my April pullets with a lot of potential so far:

Very excited that I finally was able to hatch some Splash babies, too! Hoping to put at least one of the pullets back into the breeding program. Both look pretty good so far, so barring any major defects showing up as they grow I should be able to do just that!

I had several not-Cochin hens hatch Cochin chicks for me. One mixed hen decided to wean her babes at 6 weeks old, so my old Dorking hen with a bad leg adopted them and is taking care of them now.

Also, this sweet little baby hatched on my birthday last month under one of my Cochin hens

 

[Poodlemum]

It occurs to me that I haven't posted my birds here in quite a long time, so here's an assortment of pictures I posted on my thread for my silkied Cochins a day or two ago. I did just a little bit of hatching this year (ahem, I hatched 70 chicks from April to July ).

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One of my April pullets with a lot of potential so far:

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Very excited that I finally was able to hatch some Splash babies, too! Hoping to put at least one of the pullets back into the breeding program. Both look pretty good so far, so barring any major defects showing up as they grow I should be able to do just that!

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I had several not-Cochin hens hatch Cochin chicks for me. One mixed hen decided to wean her babes at 6 weeks old, so my old Dorking hen with a bad leg adopted them and is taking care of them now.

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Also, this sweet little baby hatched on my birthday last month under one of my Cochin hens

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Oh my goodness, look at all those cuties!!! So exciting to be getting some splash Still waiting for any splash to hatch here too, they’re so pretty. How can you decide who to keep???

Also, I’m dying at your “just a few” hatched this year Right there with you! I “only” did 4 or 5 hatchlings, but my new incubator holds 30 lol. It wasn’t always full, but it’s been a lot of chicks and I always want to keep them all…

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh my goodness, look at all those cuties!!! So exciting to be getting some splash Still waiting for any splash to hatch here too, they’re so pretty. How can you decide who to keep???

Ugh, that's the hard part! I'm trying to be picky about them and go off of what I understand to be the ideal appearance for the standard, so anyone not typey or with defects or disqualifications for the breed should go. But the pullets are so sweet, and thus far I already have one Blue pullet named that shouldn't be a keeper because she was from a test hatch I did before I had fully separated my birds into their appropriate pens. So we'll see how that goes.

The cockerels are already driving me nuts, though, so I don't have a problem seeing them go, it's just hard to find anyone to take them.

Also, I’m dying at your “just a few” hatched this year Right there with you! I “only” did 4 or 5 hatchlings, but my new incubator holds 30 lol. It wasn’t always full, but it’s been a lot of chicks and I always want to keep them all…

Haha, yeah, I think the most chicks I'd had at once before this year was like 22 or something? This year, I had smaller batches that I staggered so that they hatched almost weekly, so my brooder has pretty much been running solid since the beginning of April with like a week's break here and there. And part of picking the best ones to breed is keeping them long enough to fill out to the point where I have a good idea of how their type will be at adulthood, so I've got birds stashed everywhere right now!

 

[Poodlemum]

Betty and the last of her babies! The two Olive eggers she stole were both roos and she was getting tired of their shit starting lol. They weren’t very respectful to her and bigger than she was, but she kicked their tiny booties out yesterday. I had someone come get all my problem and extra roos, off they went! We only have two big roos now and 3 bantam, with a few I’m growing out from this year