D'uccle Thread

[wegotchickens]

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You can't really evaluate her until you've seen her go through a molt and then grow in her feathers while on decent feed. She may be gorgeous and her tail may straighten out a little by then. Its so roughed up and ragged!

 

[wegotchickens]

Today was awesome!
I took 15 birds to show, 1 silkie and 14 d'Uccles in various colors. I had a little competition for a change, too. That made me happy.
Now I have a preliminary ranking, and it confirmed what I suspected for most of the birds.

The silkie got 2nd place, beaten by a Jack Ferguson silkie which isn't too shabby

One of my mille fleur cockerals took Best of Breed and Best of Variety.
A black pullet took Reserve of Breed and best of her Variety.

I have 7 1st place ribbons, 5 2nd place ribbons, 3 3rd place ribbons. 4 total Best of variety and 3 Reserve of Variety.

I am a very tired but happy show person today!!!

I wish more d'Uccle peeps lived closer, as I'll have a few black and a couple of millies for sale soon. Some POL and some a little younger. Way too hot to ship and I can't afford to drive very far to meet people

 

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

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Will some one please point me in the right way?

 

[mstricer]

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congrates on ur wins.
Michele

 

[NateinFL]

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That's fantastic! Would you mind posting a pic of your Best of Breed mille fleur? I'd love to see what it takes to get that

 

[tofumama]

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Someone must know, with all the showing y'all do...

We are trying to breed(my daughter is, actually) with the hopes that eventually she will be able to show her birds, etc. We need to have enough hens, and right now we seem to be overrun with roos and we simply can't keep them all. I donot want to rehome what I think are roos only to have them be hens... could someone please help me out? Thank you!

 

[NateinFL]

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Someone must know, with all the showing y'all do...

We are trying to breed(my daughter is, actually) with the hopes that eventually she will be able to show her birds, etc. We need to have enough hens, and right now we seem to be overrun with roos and we simply can't keep them all. I donot want to rehome what I think are roos only to have them be hens... could someone please help me out? Thank you!

In answer to your question, pin feathers are simply new feathers coming in. If you want to know the sex you need to wait, within the group you will quickly see the males getting combs and females hardly develop anything of a comb when they're young. That's the best way to sex them. Good thing about them is you can sex them easily by this method at an early age.

 

[NCSprout]

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Will some one please point me in the right way?

if you visit the club website you will find contact info for people in NC.

 

[tofumama]

Thank you, nathhowe! This is good news as we now have more girls than we thought! I just got 12 more chicks thinking we had no girls, but it seems we will have an abundnace! YAY!

Now, to check and see which ones will be show-worthy...

 

[teddiliza]

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They get more spots each time they molt, through maturity. By a year old you can pretty much tell how spotted your mille fleur will be. And as they age, they get more white in them, which is undesirable. Would be nice if they molted into their set colors at 6 months and STAYED that way, would be much easier for us breeders to make up our minds on who to keep for breeding. Soon as I think I have a pretty hen she changes. And when I think I have a bad looking juvenile, it turns out to be a decent hen. Rule of thumb is hold on to as many as you can until you're for sure you don't want certain ones. Ones w/o a beard, or wattles too big, or off coloring are easy to eliminate.

Off topic: I would really like to see what the hatchery's stock birds look like. Anyone know of a way to find out? Wish I knew someone that worked in one.

I know teddy got her stock from a hatchery. I have some of her chicks that are about 6 months old now. I'm new to this breed and am trying to figure out the traits that are desirable, I have one rooster from Garbard Farms. And one chick from him and pullet before she got ate by a coon. My others are from teddi.

In comparing my breeder stock, my stock from Ugly Duckly had very crisp markings in terms of the white tipped Mille fleur porcelain pattern, whereas the hatchery stock I kept had skinnier necks, and not as crisp or even color patterning. The hatchery stock did have good foot feathering, or at least I kept the ones with better feathering. The hatchery hens had fair beards in the porcelain but excellent beards in the Mille fleur pattern ( comparing Ugly Duckly stock to Ideal). The roosters I kept from Ugly Duckly had much better combs , with the right number of points, and nice tiny wattles. One did have a wattle that was bigger on one side than the other. I am really downsizing my number of porcelains now that I have quantity and are trying to focus on quality in a smaller group. I just sold two hens and gave some cockerels to a gentleman who is really enjoying how friendly they are.