Are these Blue Mille or Gold Neck d' Uccles?

[Saponaria]

Thanks but I really don't believe they are porcelain. I've raised porcelain before as well as the gold neck. The porcelain are lovely and have a definite porcelain/lavendar sheen and I would have preferred to have to gotten those on accident. Ideal sells Porcelain as well as the Gold, Blue and Mille Fleur. About 10 years ago I ordered Porcelain and Gold Neck from them and they were both very different from the beginning.

Here are some pictures showly newly hatched d' uccle chicks. Mine have none of the porcelain color then or now. :/

http://bugschicks.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-tell-different-colored-duccles.html

https://sites.google.com/site/belgianbantamclub/downcolourofnewlyhatchedchickens

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Millies/BRKMilleFleur.html
This last one show blue mille right next to gold.

They will be well loved birds regardless of their color. My 8 yo girl especially loves and adores all our birds and helps take good care of them. I'll be sure and update their coloring though for those of you interested. I know I've enjoyed reading old threads and getting to read updates people have had on their birds.

 

[JeanR]

Good reference sites--you are well supplied with sources of info. Still would like to see these chicks when they have more mature plumage--part of our all-breed education and always of interest! We get so little info from our brief communications--so good to add more to the collection! Thanks.....

 

[southernhusky]

Interested to know how they turn out, please update with pictures. =)

 

[SkylineFarms]

When you order Blue Mille Fleur d'Uccles from Ideal, you are going to receive not only Blue Milles (blue) but also Mille Fleur (black), and Golden Necks (splash or dominant white).

Your chicks are Golden Necks.

Golden Necks come in different color shades. Your birds are likely going to be a lighter shade of Golden Neck. It is my understanding that the lighter shades of Golden Neck birds come from breeding splash-based birds together over a few generations. Each generation, the chicks will be lighter in color.

These two Golden Necks BOTH came out of the same order of Blue Milles from Ideal. You can see the huge difference in color.



So, no, Ideal did not send you the wrong chicks.

 

[southernhusky]

That would make sense to me. I ordered 14 blue cochin but surprisingly no splash, 2 blk & rest blue.

 

[cruzinTbird]

wish I would of seen this post before I ordered the blue Mille's from Ideal. I purchased 24 chicks they arrived yesterday , only one is a blue Mille
My first time buying from a hatchery, NEVER again!

 

[SilkieGirl011]

Did these grow up golden neck? I raise porcelains and they have a blue tint to them.

 

[cluck101]

I ordered Blue Mille Fleurs and Ideal Poultry sent me these. They look nothing like the pics I can find online of Blue Mille Fleur and look like the Gold Neck D' Uccles I've have had in the past and can identify online. Am I just really off and these will end up looking like Blue Mille Fleurs? Their website states this regarding the coloring of Blue Mille "he blue (Bl) gene only has an effect on black plumage resulting in blue plumage when the blue gene is present in the heterozygous state (Bl bl). Other plumage colors are not affected by the blue gene. When blue (Bl bl) males are mated with blue (Bl bl) females, the ratio of colors produced is as follows: 1 black (bl bl), 2 blue (Bl bl) and 1 splash (Bl Bl) (white with a blue cast). Any blue variety ordered from Ideal Poultry may include chicks with black, blue or splash plumage patterns"

These birds have had neither blue, black or splash coloring! These are pics of the day they arrived and now 3 weeks old. They insisted that they were Blue Mille Fleurs.





And now at 3 weeks old.

I also ordered from ideal. But they do state that they breed BMFxBMF. So the chances of getting a splash is pretty good or at least in your and my case. That seems to be all I got. Confusion part comes from some people saying that these are Called Golden Necks aka Splash and that others are saying that no they are totally genetically different and are not. I am trying to figure this out myself right now. Guessing since I was told to breed my Splash to my Mille and I will get 100% Blue MF. So my thinking is that if I use my Golden Neck it should not be the same. So I am sure Ideal sent you chicks from their BMF lot you just got Splash. But I am not sure why they do not breed Splash to MF. Then when we buy them we would be getting actual Blue MF.

 

[Brigabart]

So, just sticking this in here for anyone who wants "blue mille fleur d'Uccle" from Ideal. I ordered 25 chicks from them this year. And from here and other places, I knew to expect little to no actual blue mille fleur. I expected all splash mille fleur. Splash mille fleur, by the way, look almost exactly like gold neck mille fleur, but the GENETICS are completely different. Gold necks have a dom white gene. Splash have a double copy of the dilute gene that dilutes black to blue.

So...here's a genetic example:
Regular mille fleur x gold neck = possible mix of mille fleur and gold neck. Nothing else.
Regular mille fleur x splash mille fleur = all blue mille fleur (looks just like mille fleur, but all black is replaced with blue - chicks are often yellowish with some blue tint on the heads)

According to Ideal, you should expect a mix of blue, splash, and regular mille fleur (to be clear, all chicks should be mille fleur. Some with black scallops, some with blue, and some with a double dilute gene called splash, which results in a mostly white and mahogany bird.) (for an idea, look up the genetics of blue, black, splash breeding - this is exactly what happens, but it only affects the parts of the bird that are black).

So what did I get? I got 4 regular mille fleurs and 21 yellow chicks. Five of those chicks looked a bit different - they had more white in them, almost a pale lavender white. A lot of chicks had incorrect foot feathering or tiny beards. They were sold off, along with the regular mille. All I wanted was splash. I finally found some others who had ordered from Ideal...and one did a trial mating this spring. The result? Her "blue mille fleur" were gold neck. Now, gold neck is NOT something that is possible in a group that produces blue, black, or splash mille fleur. That means that Ideal does not actually understand what they are selling. I have also FINALLY found someone who does actually breed these guys. And from her, I know that the whitish babies have a chance of being splash. Once I got rid of incorrect birds and lots of yellow roosters, I was down to four birds. One rooster - and he was a whitish chick! I am crossing fingers and toes that he is a splash. I will find out in the late spring after a trial hatching. I have a female who looks like a bleached out gold neck - she was a yellow chick. Very sweet, smaller beard than I like, but she might produce some lovely little butterscotch frizzles in my frizzle d'Uccle breeding pen, so I will perhaps keep her. The other two that I kept - one has wry tail (a genetic deformity) and one appears to be a gynandromorph - a sexual bilateral chimera, half boy and half girl. DNA testing is presently underway.

All of that is interesting, but here's the lowdown for blue mille fleur chicks from Ideal. You will get mostly gold necks. You *may* get some splash - look for yellow chicks with a whiteish/lavender cast. And if you haven't heard back from my late spring hatch, poke me and I will let you know. I've only found one person who actually got a blue mille fleur from Ideal that was blue. You may get some regular mille fleur in there, but the majority will be gold neck, which is NOT ever going to get you to blue.

Really, it is weird - all they need is to keep regular mille fleur roos over splash mille fleur hens, or the opposite, and every single baby will be a blue mille fleur. Someone over there is very confused. I will put some photos of the four that I kept. I will only breed the rooster and maybe the hen with the least amount of white, who I believe is a diluted gold neck.

 

[Bluegenes]

So, just sticking this in here for anyone who wants "blue mille fleur d'Uccle" from Ideal. I ordered 25 chicks from them this year. And from here and other places, I knew to expect little to no actual blue mille fleur. I expected all splash mille fleur. Splash mille fleur, by the way, look almost exactly like gold neck mille fleur, but the GENETICS are completely different. Gold necks have a dom white gene. Splash have a double copy of the dilute gene that dilutes black to blue.

So...here's a genetic example:
Regular mille fleur x gold neck = possible mix of mille fleur and gold neck. Nothing else.
Regular mille fleur x splash mille fleur = all blue mille fleur (looks just like mille fleur, but all black is replaced with blue - chicks are often yellowish with some blue tint on the heads)

According to Ideal, you should expect a mix of blue, splash, and regular mille fleur (to be clear, all chicks should be mille fleur. Some with black scallops, some with blue, and some with a double dilute gene called splash, which results in a mostly white and mahogany bird.) (for an idea, look up the genetics of blue, black, splash breeding - this is exactly what happens, but it only affects the parts of the bird that are black).

So what did I get? I got 4 regular mille fleurs and 21 yellow chicks. Five of those chicks looked a bit different - they had more white in them, almost a pale lavender white. A lot of chicks had incorrect foot feathering or tiny beards. They were sold off, along with the regular mille. All I wanted was splash. I finally found some others who had ordered from Ideal...and one did a trial mating this spring. The result? Her "blue mille fleur" were gold neck. Now, gold neck is NOT something that is possible in a group that produces blue, black, or splash mille fleur. That means that Ideal does not actually understand what they are selling. I have also FINALLY found someone who does actually breed these guys. And from her, I know that the whitish babies have a chance of being splash. Once I got rid of incorrect birds and lots of yellow roosters, I was down to four birds. One rooster - and he was a whitish chick! I am crossing fingers and toes that he is a splash. I will find out in the late spring after a trial hatching. I have a female who looks like a bleached out gold neck - she was a yellow chick. Very sweet, smaller beard than I like, but she might produce some lovely little butterscotch frizzles in my frizzle d'Uccle breeding pen, so I will perhaps keep her. The other two that I kept - one has wry tail (a genetic deformity) and one appears to be a gynandromorph - a sexual bilateral chimera, half boy and half girl. DNA testing is presently underway.

All of that is interesting, but here's the lowdown for blue mille fleur chicks from Ideal. You will get mostly gold necks. You *may* get some splash - look for yellow chicks with a whiteish/lavender cast. And if you haven't heard back from my late spring hatch, poke me and I will let you know. I've only found one person who actually got a blue mille fleur from Ideal that was blue. You may get some regular mille fleur in there, but the majority will be gold neck, which is NOT ever going to get you to blue.

Really, it is weird - all they need is to keep regular mille fleur roos over splash mille fleur hens, or the opposite, and every single baby will be a blue mille fleur. Someone over there is very confused. I will put some photos of the four that I kept. I will only breed the rooster and maybe the hen with the least amount of white, who I believe is a diluted gold neck.
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Have you hatched any chicks out yet? I'm very interested in what you find out because I was planning to order both godl neck and blue milles this spring, but if I'm going to get all one or the other I'd like to know ahead of time!