Bantam chickens.. a friendly discussion about all pure and mixed breeds.

[mymilliefleur]

AWESOME!!!! Ohhhh these are so beautiful and happy!!! Thanks for the photos!

Thank you! I'm glad you like them! I'm an amateur photographer, and my bantys make great subjects.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

Thank you! I'm glad you like them! I'm an amateur photographer, and my bantys make great subjects.

Those are GREAT photos! I saw MF D'Uccles at a show Saturday and could not believe what rockstars they look like as adults! They're hilarious! I really think the boys look lilke cowboys, but then again they also look like some flashback to Glam Rock! And also the girls and boys just look like they're wearing pajamas! With slippers! Love them!

I see your name is Celia! I currently have a sweet Sebright named Celia (see photo below) and had a wonderful rescue Persian mix named Celia in the past. A life-long favorite name for sure! My real name is Sarah but I use an online name for fun and the illusion of privacy. It's my favorite kind of tree (Arbutus=Madrone) and Peregrine is very close to my last name (Perine). I love that Peregrine means wanderer and is also the name of a falcon.

In the photo is Morse (the Millie cockerel), Catherine (the Millie pullet), Nicky (the Dutch cockerel) and Celia the Sebright. You will see the boys are wearing No crow collars which I have since discarded. It was a part of my rooster experiment that pretty much failed!

Are your D'Uccle boys nice? I'm hoping Morse stays nice. He is just over 4 months now and hasn't ever shown interest in mating the girls. He is very kind to Nicky and they both live with the 16 pullets they grew up with. I'm hoping there will just be peace. Nicky tries to mate with the girls every now and then and even does the rooster dance daily. He is the smallest bird I have (he had a slow start to life trying to die the first three weeks!). The girls aren't too impressed by him and treat him like a little brother. Morse is so nice to everyone and I hope it stays that way. Morse doesn't want to hang out with me but will sometimes take treats from my hand. He is always watching the girls and I'm fascinated how he's known how to be a rooster all along! Instincts are amazing! Morse and Nicky often roost next to each other at night and dust bathe and nap together. I am hoping this peace lasts but I guess that only time will tell. My two other D'Uccle cockerels went to live on a farm. One was the most anxious bird of all the chicks I had. The other was lovely and quite confident and tame. You just never know, I guess!!

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

Thank you! I'm glad you like them! I'm an amateur photographer, and my bantys make great subjects.

Here are the rockstars I saw at the show. They just crack me up!

 

[mymilliefleur]

Those are GREAT photos! I saw MF D'Uccles at a show Saturday and could not believe what rockstars they look like as adults! They're hilarious! I really think the boys look lilke cowboys, but then again they also look like some flashback to Glam Rock! And also the girls and boys just look like they're wearing pajamas! With slippers! Love them!

I see your name is Celia! I currently have a sweet Sebright named Celia (see photo below) and had a wonderful rescue Persian mix named Celia in the past. A life-long favorite name for sure! My real name is Sarah but I use an online name for fun and the illusion of privacy. It's my favorite kind of tree (Arbutus=Madrone) and Peregrine is very close to my last name (Perine). I love that Peregrine means wanderer and is also the name of a falcon.

In the photo is Morse (the Millie cockerel), Catherine (the Millie pullet), Nicky (the Dutch cockerel) and Celia the Sebright. You will see the boys are wearing No crow collars which I have since discarded. It was a part of my rooster experiment that pretty much failed!

Are your D'Uccle boys nice? I'm hoping Morse stays nice. He is just over 4 months now and hasn't ever shown interest in mating the girls. He is very kind to Nicky and they both live with the 16 pullets they grew up with. I'm hoping there will just be peace. Nicky tries to mate with the girls every now and then and even does the rooster dance daily. He is the smallest bird I have (he had a slow start to life trying to die the first three weeks!). The girls aren't too impressed by him and treat him like a little brother. Morse is so nice to everyone and I hope it stays that way. Morse doesn't want to hang out with me but will sometimes take treats from my hand. He is always watching the girls and I'm fascinated how he's known how to be a rooster all along! Instincts are amazing! Morse and Nicky often roost next to each other at night and dust bathe and nap together. I am hoping this peace lasts but I guess that only time will tell. My two other D'Uccle cockerels went to live on a farm. One was the most anxious bird of all the chicks I had. The other was lovely and quite confident and tame. You just never know, I guess!!View attachment 1951633

You have some pretty birds too! And I love the fact that I share a name with one of them! d'Uccles may be small, but they sure have big characters!
Thats a cool username! Mille fleur is the color of my d'Uccles of course, so ''mymilliefleur'' just came to mind as a username for me, but back then I didn't know how to spell it, and I guess I've just been too lazy to have the ''I'' taken out. Mille fleur also means ''thousand flowers''.
I've had my d'Uccles for 15 years now, and I've been slowly breeding them toward the standard. I've never showed though (been too busy!).
In that time I've only had 3 aggressive roosters. All the others have been fine. Their personalities vary alot. I have some birds that are just super jump-on-your-shoulder friendly, and others that are more on the flighty side. My d'Uccle hens I've noticed have less patience with the roosters then other banty breeds I've owned. My hens always make a fuss when the roo tries to mount then.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I always like how you do your posts as multiple replies in one post. I have to figure that out! I'll give it a try here!

Looks like you got it figured out!

I saw a bit on the Ohio Nationals with that movie "Chicken People"--have you seen that film? I've seen it a few times over the years and just love it! I think I'll try to go to the Ohio Nationals someday. I went to some horse shows as a young person in Ohio. Really enjoyed it. I'm glad you know your Dorkings! I know when I have been at horse shows and am critiquing horses, I learned to be smiling and be ready with something positive and unique to say about the horse I was critiquing! There is always something good! We are probably all guilty of being caught like that...it's part of the fun at shows. What I wonder about is what is it about certain people who (like me) who can stare at animals all day and learn and compare/contrast... I always wonder why our minds work that way?! I don't even want to show but I do this all the time! I had pet-quality Australian Cattle dogs from shelters who lived to be 17 and 19. I fostered a ton of herding dogs in that time. I knew everything a breeder would know about genetics, behavior, confirmation... so weird! Not a bit of interest in showing or breeding. I think that the by-product of showing and breeding is what's hard for me. I don't have the space to house and no stomach for the culling. I sometimes imagine that if they were meat birds it would be easier because I could be feeding people!

Oh, yes, I've seen Chicken People!! It came out the year before I first went to the Ohio Nationals as a spectator, and WOW, the view of the show that they give you on film is NOTHING on how big it actually feels when you're standing in that huge building! I just saw Shari McCollough's birds at the Central Indiana show a few weeks ago, too, and passed her in the aisles a few times. I knew I recognized her at the time, but I couldn't remember who she was until I was at home and saw her picture shared on the show's FB page. She won champion feather-legged bantam with a bearded White Silkie pullet at that show.

Oh, yeah, I had been commenting on both good and bad, and there were a lot more good things to say about them than bad, but I just happened to notice the guy after I'd been talking about the bad. Oops! They were Colored Dorkings, a variety I've always wanted but haven't had the chance to get my hands on yet, so of course I'd commented on how gorgeous they were! I think they were less heavy-looking than they should have been because they were cockerels and still needed to fill out (judging by that lighter-looking frame, and by how short their spurs were without looking like they'd been trimmed), but they had been entered as adults, so I guess whoever entered them kinda set themselves up for that sort of critique.

Remember that culling simply means removing the birds from your breeding stock, not actually killing them. I have quite a few culls from my own stock, including my yellow-legged OEGB girl, running around here, and a few culls from others' stock as well that I happily took in. They'll stay here as pets and not be hatched from unless I want to hatch crosses. It does get tougher with male culls because there are only so many you can feasibly keep before you have troubles, and that's out here were we're allowed to keep as many of the males as we want. I've had to accept that some of the birds I hatch are going to end up on the table--I just don't think I'll ever be able to process them, myself, so I've had to hire others to do so.

Boy all that man's birds were gorgeous but I guess I just hadn't really seen the lemon blues in-person before! And that pair was stunning. The dark features of his other birds and the Creles (sp?) were also AMAZING! I've seen your photos, though, and your birds are super gorgeous! They are really charming and friendly!

I wish I could go!! I hope you take and share lots of photos!!

Aw, thanks! I definitely will take a ton of pictures! The Nationals are on Saturday and I'm stoked!!

I kind of love that the girls have different colored legs! The one with green legs is my friendliest bird and has been all along! You call them yellow legs? If that is what they are then I will call them yellow legs. My cochins definitely have yellow legs!View attachment 1951618

Oh, I meant to say yellow skin, not legs. I believe they actually refer to yellow skin under gray shanks as 'willow-colored' or something to that effect. Yellow on its own is quite bright, as you've seen on your Cochins. Sorry for the confusion!

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I thought I'd share a few pics of my adorable little d'Uccles.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

Looks like you got it figured out!

Thanks and I learn so much from your posts! The leg colors is just one example! Wishing you a terrific time at Nationals!!





Oh, yes, I've seen Chicken People!! It came out the year before I first went to the Ohio Nationals as a spectator, and WOW, the view of the show that they give you on film is NOTHING on how big it actually feels when you're standing in that huge building! I just saw Shari McCollough's birds at the Central Indiana show a few weeks ago, too, and passed her in the aisles a few times. I knew I recognized her at the time, but I couldn't remember who she was until I was at home and saw her picture shared on the show's FB page. She won champion feather-legged bantam with a bearded White Silkie pullet at that show.

Oh, yeah, I had been commenting on both good and bad, and there were a lot more good things to say about them than bad, but I just happened to notice the guy after I'd been talking about the bad. Oops! They were Colored Dorkings, a variety I've always wanted but haven't had the chance to get my hands on yet, so of course I'd commented on how gorgeous they were! I think they were less heavy-looking than they should have been because they were cockerels and still needed to fill out (judging by that lighter-looking frame, and by how short their spurs were without looking like they'd been trimmed), but they had been entered as adults, so I guess whoever entered them kinda set themselves up for that sort of critique.

Remember that culling simply means removing the birds from your breeding stock, not actually killing them. I have quite a few culls from my own stock, including my yellow-legged OEGB girl, running around here, and a few culls from others' stock as well that I happily took in. They'll stay here as pets and not be hatched from unless I want to hatch crosses. It does get tougher with male culls because there are only so many you can feasibly keep before you have troubles, and that's out here were we're allowed to keep as many of the males as we want. I've had to accept that some of the birds I hatch are going to end up on the table--I just don't think I'll ever be able to process them, myself, so I've had to hire others to do so.







Aw, thanks! I definitely will take a ton of pictures! The Nationals are on Saturday and I'm stoked!!







Oh, I meant to say yellow skin, not legs. I believe they actually refer to yellow skin under gray shanks as 'willow-colored' or something to that effect. Yellow on its own is quite bright, as you've seen on your Cochins. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

You have some pretty birds too! And I love the fact that I share a name with one of them! d'Uccles may be small, but they sure have big characters!
Thats a cool username! Mille fleur is the color of my d'Uccles of course, so ''mymilliefleur'' just came to mind as a username for me, but back then I didn't know how to spell it, and I guess I've just been too lazy to have the ''I'' taken out. Mille fleur also means ''thousand flowers''.
I've had my d'Uccles for 15 years now, and I've been slowly breeding them toward the standard. I've never showed though (been too busy!).
In that time I've only had 3 aggressive roosters. All the others have been fine. Their personalities vary alot. I have some birds that are just super jump-on-your-shoulder friendly, and others that are more on the flighty side. My d'Uccle hens I've noticed have less patience with the roosters then other banty breeds I've owned. My hens always make a fuss when the roo tries to mount then.

I think we need more photos!!

 

[mymilliefleur]

I think we need more photos!!

OK! I'll try.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

OK! I'll try.

I'll help! I can't stop taking photos constantly! Here's Morse the cockerel, and Catherine and Coretta the pullets.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

My little Dutch cockerel had a swollen leg and wouldn't stand for his first three weeks. I had to splint his legs and separate him half the time from his brood mates. My sweet cat looked after him quite a bit. I just brought Nicky-the cockerel- in for a cuddle and my cat walked in and got in my lap, too. Then my cat, Malcolm, went to watch squirrels through the window. I let Nicky go and sit by him. He stayed for a good five minutes! They are definitely friends!