40 



THE ASIATICS. 



Feed for growth, feed for bone, feed for size and trust 

 to add the flesh and fat when necessary for exhibition pur- 

 poses when the time for finishing for the show arrives. 

 While I have never kept the increased weight month by 

 month in the growing chicks, I experience no trouble what- 

 ever in having full grown Cochins ready for the fall fairs 

 in September and October. One «of the largest Cochins that 

 I ever saw I raised in 1901, at eleven months old. This cock- 

 erel weighed fourteen and a half pounds. I have known 

 some Partridge Cochin hens in show condition to weigh 

 twelve and a half pounds. 



Never have experienced much trouble in leg weakness. 

 This I have avoided by feeding plenty of bone forming 

 foods. When Cochins are grown on a soil that has the nat- 

 ural influence that comes from a limestone sub-soil, they 

 do not need so much care and attention in the feeding of 

 bone forming material. Bone meal, green cut bone and any 

 good food material that adds the proper element for bone 

 forming and strong growth may be used to advantage to 

 keep away the trouble of leg weakness. There is another 

 kind of leg weakness which comes as the result of attempt- 

 ing to raise poultry in low, damp places. The Leghorns are 

 quite as apt to be affected by these conditions as are the 

 Cochins. 



During the summer months and up to the time that 



is far better not to waste time and money in trying to im- 

 prove the condition of such as will not grow and feather 

 properly on solid, wholesome grain, cut green bone, bone 

 meal and beef scrap. 



My growing chicks have all the wheat, hulled oats and 

 cracked corn that they will eat. In addition to this they are 

 fed once a day with a rich mash food composed of ground 

 meal, ground oats., wheat bran and beef scrap. A self-sup- 

 plying feed box full of bran is aways at hand where they 

 can help themselves. One hundred young chicks will eat 

 up one-half bushel of bran from a feed hopper jn about two 

 weeks. If the feed hopper is kept perfectly, sheltered from 

 rain and a little catch box kept under the feed hopper there 

 will be very little of it wasted. That which falls into the 

 catch box can be either put back into the hopper or made 

 use of in the mash feed. Statements above as to the feed- 

 ing of the old fowls may be considered. To make it more 

 plain, the absolute rule for feeding Cochins with me is to 

 feed them strongly on egg forming foods throughout the 

 entire year, except when in molt, when they are fed more 

 fattening foods to assist in renewing their coat of feathers. 

 You must watch the Cochins continually or they will get too 

 fat to be useful. 



POINTS ON MATING COCHINS. 



In mating your Cochins perfect Cochin type must have 





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A Group of Colony Houses and Yards, occupied by J. D. Nevius' White Cochins. 



orf.ii, frosty weather is at hand, my growing stock is left 

 oul in the orchard :n open or slatted colony houses. When 

 the cold weather necessitates removing them indoors, they 

 are housed in colony houses, made as plain as they can pos- 

 sibly be, that stand in the center of large sized enclosures, 

 great attention being paid to have them perfectly dry, free 

 from damp or drafts and constructed so that they may have 

 proper ventilation, with plenty of floor space and roosts, the 

 latter being hung very close to the floor. These may be easily 

 removed for cleaning and quite accessible to the heavy 

 Cochin, leaving the floor space free for the poultry and the 

 nests. I prefer cheese boxes for my Cochin hens to lay in. 

 Around these colony houses are four feet wire fences, which 

 seem to be all that is needed for the confinement of Coch- 

 ins, either young or old. 



There is very little trouble in our section of the country 

 with the young growing Cochins being bare of feathers for 

 many weeks, or even months, as in some localities. From 

 experience I can say but little as to this, but my informa- 

 tion is that it is caused largely through the lack of having 

 plenty of feather forming foods. Usually young Cochins 

 that do not feather out for several months never amount 

 to anything and it would be money saved, as well as time 

 and trouble, to destroy such as soon as you notice their in- 

 clination not to grow a coat of feathers. We have seen the 

 recommendation of many who advocate feeding a mixture 

 of pulverized bone, beef scrap and iron. We believe that it 



the first cons, .'oration. Mate together the very finest 

 shaped Cochics .-ou can possibly select and remember that 

 you cannot hope in have good colored offspring unless you 

 have the finest possiole color in the parent birds. Do not 

 hope to grow good colored Buff Cochins from poorly colored 

 parents. This is equally true of the Whites and Blacks. 

 When selecting your matings for Partridge Cochins, in ad- 

 dition to the very finest of form, you must have absolutely 

 the very best of color and marking in the females from which 

 you hope to grow your pullets, and they must be mated to 

 males that are strong and rich in the blood lines of the 

 females that are the best producers. It is a well known 

 and established fact that the rich mahogany color of the 

 female with a distinctive pencilling is the only thing that 

 can win at the present time. You must have this color and 

 this pencilling of the highest character upon females of the 

 most exclusive Cochin form and feather or you need no! 

 hopo to win in Partridge Cochin alley. 



In mating Partridge Cochins many follow the doubU 

 mating system. In using this system you would mate for 

 females as above described. For males choose the -very 

 darkest colored specimens, both males and females, the 

 males having a very dark red top color, very heavily stripe! 

 with metallic black. Such matings when followed up year 

 after year produce the richest colored males. I have, how- 

 ever, always followed the single mating plan, mating the 

 very highest character and type of form and color for fe- 



