Cochin (chicken) - Quick Facts

Quick Facts

Cochin ancestors first originated in the United States after the Chinese chicken, which was tight-feathered and had moderate to no feathers on their legs, was brought to the eastern coast around 1845. They soon became a hit, and Shanghai lovers took the fluffiest and most feather legged chickens to breed them for those traits exactly. Their result was vey nice, with the fully feather-legged and fluffy chicken we now call the Cochin. This began what was known as the “hen craze,” which stretched from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, when people around the world bred chickens purely for their looks, rather than to create a better egg layer and such. The Cochin today is a very large, fluffy feathered bird with fully feathered legs and feet. Their very fluffy cushion and short, fluffy tail give them a unique look, with their short, curved-looking back as a result. The cochin is a hardy, friendly, and docile chicken. Cochins also will adapt very easily to confined spaces or open range. Cochin hens are fairly broody and good mothers, and are known to be good surrogate incubating birds in even falcon breeding. However, they are slow to mature. This breed was admitted into the APA in 1874. There are 18 colors of the cochin chicken, nine of them being birchen, blue, buff, gold laced, silver laced, barred, black, red, and white. The standard-sized cochin is of the Asiatic class, and the roosters weight 11 pounds, while the hens weight 8.5 pounds. The bantam version of the cochin is of the feather legged class. The bantam rooster weighs on average 32 oz, while the hen weighs a smaller 28 oz. A male’s comb should be of medium size, with five points that stick straight into the air. He should also have round and long wattles and earlobes. The female has a rather small comb, which conforms to their head. Their wattles and earlobes are small as well.