The huge buff Cochin caused a sensation when the public first saw them at Birmingham in 1850. Queen Victoria had the first (also known as the Shanghai and Cochin China fowl) a few years earlier. They set of a competitive spirit amongst breeders, though they fetched enormous prices at first. One sold for £2,587 in 1853 (Punch magazine). The original birds were unlike those today, being longer in the back and taller with exposed, lightly feathered legs.

Today, the Cochin is a large, rounded mass of feathers. The body is broad, as is the saddle, the back short and small wings. The head is also small with a single upright comb. The legs are hidden under thick, fluffy feathers. They are round birds with a tendency to idleness, slow to mature and laying perhaps 100 smaller tinted eggs a year. They are very docile and come in several varieties.

We have four varieties: the Black, Blue, Buff and Cuckoo.

Black: A rich glossy black with a green sheen all over which shows off the large red wattles, ear lobes and comb well in the cock. Legs (when you can see them) are yellow.

Blue: Hens are an even, slightly grey shade of blue with a dark head. The cocks have the same shade of blue on the body, but much darker on the head, tail and back. They look quite magnificent.

Buff: The largest variety lays the smallest egg a bantam would be proud of. They are a uniform bright ginger in the hen. The cock birds are paler below and a rich colour above.

Cuckoo: These are grey birds, the feathers having alternate bands of dark and light.

There is no bantam form, though old books. Americans and some Continentals refer to the Pekin bantam as Cochin bantams.