Color of Bantam Cochin ~Cuckoo or Barred?~

[mrsmayo]

Cuckoo is not an apa recognized variety in Cochins. This does not mean you won't find them as people experiment with colors in all breeds.

 

[mdrake1984]

Cuckoo is what they call a slow feathering bird which causes the feathers to be blurred where as a barred is fast feathering causing the bars to be crisp and clean. Also Cuckoo colored birds have white legs where as barred have yellow legs.

 

[mdrake1984]

Hi there,

I have a query, is it okay to breed my hen barred Cochin to my black roo Cochin? As of now barred Cochin are very rare at our country (most breeders keep their barred, I just got lucky a breeder traded her hen for my vintage bicycle). Any suggestion which colour is appropriate to pair with her.

Thanks.

Barred is sexlinked in hens. Color is passed on the Z chromosome. Males are ZZ & female are ZW they can only pass it on to male offspring so you'd get barred males and black females. Breed her son back to her to get 100% barred.

 

[mdrake1984]

This is my 1  year old cochin rooster. I thought that he was a barred cochin, but now im thinking cuckoo cochin. Is he cuckoo?

Your roo is a barred. I work exclusively with barred birds and he looks like a roo I recently lost...

 

[kissofcrimson]

I know this is an old post but I was curious about my birds coloring. We bought him not knowing he was fully Cochin and his "barring" is odd. It's not exactly complete all over his body and he's starting to get a yellow/gold leakage over the barred. He also has the wrong tail. What color hens would be best to breed him to, to continue the blue barring? I know the tail would need to be bred out. Right now we have a blue, paint, and calico hen. I'm going to find barred hens in the next month.

 

[donrae]

I know this is an old post but I was curious about my birds coloring. We bought him not knowing he was fully Cochin and his "barring" is odd. It's not exactly complete all over his body and he's starting to get a yellow/gold leakage over the barred. He also has the wrong tail. What color hens would be best to breed him to, to continue the blue barring? I know the tail would need to be bred out. Right now we have a blue, paint, and calico hen. I'm going to find barred hens in the next month.

His "odd' barring is from having only one barring gene. Pure barred (or cuckoo, genetically they're identical) males carry two copies of the barring gene. This boy only has one, hence the messy barring. So, he'll give a barring gene to half his offspring, regardless of gender.

If you're wanting blue barred birds, starting with this male...

breed him to the blue female. You'll need to hatch a lot of eggs. You'll get....

25% each solid males, single barred males, solid females and barred females.

Do you have an understanding of how black/blue/splash works? If you're wanting blue birds only, you're going to have to hatch more, or pray you hit the color gene lotto with smaller hatches.

So, from those first birds, you can either do sibling pairings or put the barred females back under this cock bird. Doing so would give you...

25% each double barred males, single barred males, single barred females, and solid females.

At that point you'd have a "pure", ie double barred, male to work with. Retire this bird unless you want to keep him for another reason or project. Pick the best double barred blue male and mate him to the barred females. That will give you all barred offspring and you can then concentrate more on type, etc.

 

[kissofcrimson]

His "odd' barring is from having only one barring gene. Pure barred (or cuckoo, genetically they're identical) males carry two copies of the barring gene. This boy only has one, hence the messy barring. So, he'll give a barring gene to half his offspring, regardless of gender. 

If you're wanting blue barred birds, starting with this male...

breed him to the blue female. You'll need to hatch a lot of eggs. You'll get....

25% each solid males, single barred males, solid females and barred females. 

Do you have an understanding of how black/blue/splash works? If you're wanting blue birds only, you're going to have to hatch more, or pray you hit the color gene lotto with smaller hatches. 

So, from those first birds, you can either do sibling pairings or put the barred females back under this cock bird. Doing so would give you...

25% each double barred males, single barred males, single barred females, and solid females. 

At that point you'd have a "pure", ie double barred, male to work with. Retire this bird unless you want to keep him for another reason or project. Pick the best double barred blue male and mate him to the barred females. That will give you all barred offspring and you can then concentrate more on type, etc. 

Thanks for taking the time to break it down for me. I wasn't sure how well he would do. He was an oddball bird in a bunch of chicks we hatched and kept him because of his coloring thinking the only thing to breed out would be the tail and I was wrong. I do want a project but not that much of one, so I will probably find him a home.

 

[donrae]

Thanks for taking the time to break it down for me. I wasn't sure how well he would do. He was an oddball bird in a bunch of chicks we hatched and kept him because of his coloring thinking the only thing to breed out would be the tail and I was wrong. I do want a project but not that much of one, so I will probably find him a home.

Yeah, it would be a multi-generational kind of thing, to get consistency.

If you're just wanting to hatch some cuties, go ahead and put him over the blue hen. That first generation will give you some diversity of color and barring.

I got some (black) barred Cochins from a hatchery that are about 18 weeks now. I have two barred cockerels who also have bad tails for Cochins. I didn't get any surviving barred hens, so my plan is to put him over by black and blue females and go basically down the path I outlined above. The hens look to have much better type than the cockerels, so we'll see what the first generation holds.

 

[kissofcrimson]

Yeah, it would be a multi-generational kind of thing, to get consistency. 

If you're just wanting to hatch some cuties, go ahead and put him over the blue hen. That first generation will give you some diversity of color and barring. 

I got some (black) barred Cochins from a hatchery that are about 18 weeks now. I have two barred cockerels who also have bad tails for Cochins. I didn't get any surviving barred hens, so my plan is to put him over by black and blue females and go basically down the path I outlined above. The hens look to have much better type than the cockerels, so we'll see what the first generation holds. 

Sounds like a good plan and were still considering it. Just sounds like so much work but he's basically the only project bird we have. He's a great rooster but we still might find him a home. The blue barring is not common in our area and so we figured he would be something cool to work with. Barred Cochins don't come around often either and a friend of mine actually got a pair of young ones to breed, so I could get some of those later on too. I'm still thinking about it. lol