ARDJAN PARTRIDGE COCHINS

I am Ardjan Warnshuis, a Dutchman who lives and works in Germany. I am a physiotherapist, acupuncturist and I do osteopathy on horses and dogs.

In 1973 I started breeding Cochin bantams. First in black; then buff, white, mottled, cuckoo, wheaten and partridge came into my stables. In 1994 I started breeding Cochins too. First in black, buff and cuckoo. In 1995 I got partridge, which had nearly died out, from different countries, to make a flock of my own. Since then I only breed partridge and familiar colours. I bred them in blue-partridge, crele, wheaten and blue-wheaten.

In all these years I also kept other breeds, but I always had Cochin bantams in my stables. I had Booted bantam, Silkies and Silkie bantams, Brahma and Brahma bantams, Croad Langshan, Langshan, Ko Shamo, Indian Game - both large and bantam. I have had Old English bantams for quite some years as well.

Since 2008 I have been breeding Cochin bantams in different colours. Because I have little spare time I stopped breeding ducks, sheep and Cochins. I usually keep colours that are getting rare. This is the reason why I have started breeding the partridge again. I am trying to re-breed the blue mottled. I have them in blue and columbian too.

I have been breeding Cochin bantams for 35 years and Large Cochins for 14 years. I have also been active in different boards. I was a board member of the Dutch Cochin Club for 13 years, from which 11 years as president. Since 2005 I am on the board again and since 2006 I am president again. I still have different jobs in local clubs as well. I have brought several new colours in Cochin bantams to the Netherlands.

Together with a friend, Gerrit Bosch, I have organised an annual international Cochin Day, on the second Saturday of September since 2004.