Donald Shaver search widely for diversified breeding stock. Local breeders, knowing his reputation were reluctant to sell to him for fear of competition. In 1946, there were 256 registered chicken breeders in Canada. Shaver Poultry became the 257th. By 1958, only Shaver remained, along with seven other major poultry breeders worldwide. The principle of hybrid vigour had been well established for corn, but the costs and time required to test chicken crosses were higher. Small breeders (as Shaver was at the time) could not afford permanent scientific staff, so Shaver obtained assistance from geneticists conducting research at universities and government institutions. Shaver
Cochin chicken 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. The Entente Européenne lists the same nine colours for full-sized Cochins, and twenty-four for the bantam; any of the bantam varieties may be frizzled, 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,