This little blue Cochin hen is Bailey's showmanship bird. When it came to breed show, though, the judge found a broken feather in a critical spot, but told her that the hen had a perfect tail which she should strive to breed for selectively in the offspring.
This is the little black Cochin roo. Bailey purchased him as a pullet- ops. But you always know that is possible. So the project director laughed, and noting the age, wasn't bothered by the change in the paperwork from January's filing deadline. He has excellent body structure, according to the judge, but needs the tail to be improved in breeding. He has been picking on the Sicilian Buttercup hens, so when they came home, they moved to a new pen by themselves. They need that for the breeding project, anyway. Funny, we hadn't planned on any breeding for them, but after the judge discussed it all with Bailey, and the part coming next, she decided to try to work on perfecting her little flock of this breed.
So the little one on the right doesn't have the perfect tail of the little blue one. But after handling all of the birds, narrowing the field and repeating several times, Bailey's little black hen won Best of Breed of the fifteen or so Cochin bantams there. And the fourth of this grouping, which Bailey had sold off to another youth to use her raise for auction bird in her final year, also earned a blue. And after fetching a really nice sum at auction ( the auction was Very generous to the senior this year- it was wonderful to see) the folks kept it- we may see it at another show!
All in all, pretty exciting! Bailey had begun these because she thought it would be nice to have a little bantam Cochin for a showmanship bird, and purchased extras in case anyone from the club needed one- which they did. And she knows better than to only have one. So now, she is looking to breed a few more show birds. (They began appearing in the incubator today, so watch for those to be available, or let us know if you want to reserve one.) We are looking forward to seeing how the next generation come out!
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