White Cochin hens at one year, bred in England in 2020

The Cochin is a

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of large domestic

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

. It derives from large feather-legged chickens brought from China to Europe and North America in the 1840s and 1850s. It is reared principally for

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

. It was formerly known as Cochin-China.

History

Like the

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...

, the Cochin derives from very large feather-legged chickens brought from China to Europe and North America in the 1840s and 1850s. These were at first known as "Shanghai" birds, and later as "Cochin-Chinas". The large size and striking appearance of these birds contributed to a sudden large increase of interest in

poultry-breeding Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises poultry, domesticated birds such as chickens, Domestic duck, ducks, turkey (domesticated), turkeys and domesticated goose, geese to produce chicken meat, meat or Egg as food, eggs for f ...

in Western countries, sometimes described as "hen fever". The Cochin was included in the first edition of the ''Standard of Excellence in Exhibition Poultry'', prepared by

William Bernhardt Tegetmeier William Bernhardt Tegetmeier FZS (4 November 1816 – 19 November 1912) was an English naturalist, a founding member of the Savage Club, a popular writer and journalist of domestic science. A correspondent and friend of Charles Darwin, Tegetme ...

for the first

Poultry Club of Great Britain The Poultry Club of Great Britain is a registered charity founded in 1877. Its stated purpose is to "safeguard the interests of all pure and traditional breeds of poultry including chickens, bantams, ducks, geese and turkeys". The club maint ...

in 1865. The colours described are buff, black, cinnamon, grouse, lemon, partridge, silver buff, silver cinnamon, and white. Bantam Cochins were not listed. The Cochin, both full-sized and bantam, was included in the first edition of the '' Standard of Excellence'' of the

American Poultry Association The American Poultry Association (APA) is the oldest poultry organization in the North America. It was founded in 1873, and incorporated in Indiana in 1932. The first American poultry show was held in 1849, and the APA was later formed in respo ...

in 1874. The original colours were white, partridge, buff and black; other colours were later added.

Characteristics

The most distinctive feature of the Cochin is the excessive plumage that covers leg and foot. The skin beneath the feathers is yellow. In the United Kingdom the recognised colour varieties, for large fowl only, are black, blue, buff, cuckoo, partridge and grouse, and white; Cochin bantams are not recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. However, the

Entente Européenne Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements: History * Entente (alliance), a type of treaty or military alliance where the signatories promise to consult each other or to cooperate with each other in case o ...

treats the

Pekin Bantam The Pekin Bantam is a British breed of bantam chicken. It derives from birds brought to Europe from China in the nineteenth century, and is named for the city of Peking where it was believed to have originated. It is a true bantam, with no co ...

as equivalent to the bantam Cochin. The

lists the same nine colours for full-sized Cochins, and twenty-four for the bantam; any of the bantam varieties may be

frizzled Frizzled is a family of atypical G protein-coupled receptors that serve as receptors in the Wnt signaling pathway and other signaling pathways. When activated, Frizzled leads to activation of Dishevelled in the cytosol. Species distribution Fri ...

, with the feathers curling outwards. The American Poultry Association recognises nine colours for the full-sized bird – barred, black, blue, brown, buff, golden-laced, partridge, silver-laced, and white; the same colours are recognised for the bantam, with the addition of four more: birchen, Columbian, mottled, and red.

Use

The Cochin has been bred principally for

, at the expense of productive characteristics. It is a good layer of very large tinted eggs, and lays well in winter. The hens are good sitters and good mothers, and may be used to hatch the eggs of turkeys and ducks. The meat tends to be coarse in texture and excessively dark;

capon A capon (from la, cāpō, genitive ''cāpōnis'') is a cockerel (rooster) that has been castrated or neutered, either physically or chemically, to improve the quality of its flesh for food, and, in some countries like Spain, fattened by force ...

s slaughtered at an age of 12–16 months provide a good large table bird.

Gallery

File:Blue Cochin Chicken.jpg, Blue Cochin hen File:Imposing chicken.jpg, Cochin Bantam cock

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochin (Chicken) Chicken breeds Chicken breeds originating in China Animal breeds on the RBST Watchlist