D'uccle Thread

[Doug the Chicken Man]

Here is a picture of one of our Blue Millefluer pullets at about 16 weeks.

and one of her sisters

Now they are much better looking than a month ago when the photo's were taken.

 

[texasgal]

Just sharing:

4 weeks.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
I'm feeling disgusted with myself that I didn't keep Stuart

He looks lovely.

I'm on the fence about ZZ's gender now, and interested to see how the spots grow in. They look pretty even, so far!

 

[NellaBean]

I say ZZ is a boy

My blue mille fleur girl got taken by a hawk

All of my other girls are leaving Monday to a new home so if they can just manage to not become hawk food between now and Sunday, they are good to go. I have a single porcelain boy I am going to keep just becaue I don't have anything better to do for him. He has the choice of avoiding hawks or getting eaten. Eventually I will take him to a sale, but for now he was badly picked and doesn't have all of his feathers back yet.

the hawk has targetted the d'uccle sized birds so far....1 d'uccle girl and 2 bantam cochin girls that were around the same size. Stupid hawk......

So much for my grand d'uccle plans!

 

[teddiliza]

I know what you mean about those hawks. I used to let my d'uccles run around the yard when I wasn't home, but since something got one of my favorite young roosters, I don't let them anymore unless I'm home. That's why I'm hatching some Jersey Giants and got a few Langshans. Someone mentioned the hawks think they're crows and don't go for them so much. But it means reducing my porcelain flock. I'll probably try to narrow it down to 3 roosters and 9 hens. I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a lot of longtime experienced d'uccle breeders around, so I'm going to have to stick it out and become one. If anyone DOES happen to go to Europe and import a few quality Mille or porcelain d'uccles, I would be willing to support that venture.

 

[Gypsylion]

Hah... from the Association for promotion of Belgian Poultry Breeds website in Belgium:

"Recognized varieties are : white, black, blue laced, lavender, buff, red, cuckoo, quail, blue quail, silver quail, blue silver quail, millefleur, porcelaine, ochre-white porcelaine, black mottled, blue mottled, lavender mottled, black-red, silver duckwing, columbian, columbian blue, buff columbian, buff columbian blue. There are also some varieties which haven’t been officially recognized yet, such white quail, lemon porcelaine, silver porcelaine and blue millefleur."

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

how close are the new ones to being recognized ?

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
I feel the need to tell you that it doesn't make any difference whether you're home or not. I was washing water bowls the other morning and a hawk dropped down into the center of one of the pens and landed on the ground. It took off immediately and was gone in a flash. It never even touched a chicken, but it created quite a fright. It was no more than 20 ft. from me when it landed. Needless to say, there is netting on the pens now.
Nancy

 

[FarmGirl01]

I've had that happen too. The hawk was swooping towards me and a hen that was about 30 feet away. The hen got low and very still and I went running at them both. The hawk started flapping his wings and started to fly up. My heart was pounding. I'll never forget that.

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

We had issues with Hawks 2 years ago. The wife was haning the laundry while the kids were eating supper on the deck when 20 feet away a hawk had spotted a hole in the netting on the top of the run at the gate. The hawk dropped into the run and ran into the coop and started to eat one of the leghorn pullets.
The wife ran down stairs to where I was fixing the water pump and got me to go our with her. I initailly hit the hawk with a 2X4 and it nocked it off of the leghorn. He then hopped back on and started eating again. I grabbed my leather gloves and was able to quickly grab it abound the wings in a mannor in which it did not bite my gloves and threw it out the run door. The wife hit it with a broom out of the run. It sat in a tree for a week looking for the hole that we fixed. It finally left thinking it was not going to get anouther meal. Now when we free range we have the Salmon Favorolle Roo out with them. Haven't had a problem again, Doesn't hurt that the dog is also periodically out roaming around the yard with them.

Here are some pictures of our birds

original D'Uccle hens.

The only Lavendar (self blue) Pullet

And one of the 2 Lavendar (self blue) roos. Not to happy with the tails of them. I guess I will have to do some breeding to improve it.

And some of the offspring 23 Weeks old.

Black Millefluer split blue Cockeral.

Golden Neck (Splash) Pullet just laid her first egg this week.

Blue Millefluer Pullets