D'uccle Thread

[hdowden]

check this out about colors
http://www.edelras.nl/belgians/colour.htm

 

[JulieNKC]

I have some questions as this is the first "true" D'Uccle breeding I have done. I had 3 pairs of Millies, collected 7 eggs for my incubator. The hatch happened last night. Of the 7 eggs my mix is perplexing. I have 2 that look like typical Millie chicks. I have one that is black, one that is pale yellow, one that is buttery yellow and one that looks like a striped chipmunk with eyeliner. I thought breeding millies would make more millies......WHERE are these colors coming from??? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

I had a little yellow chipmunk chick too. She still looks odd, but I've been told she'll most likely feather out into a mille.

 

[FairLeaBantams]

I have some questions as this is the first "true" D'Uccle breeding I have done. I had 3 pairs of Millies, collected 7 eggs for my incubator. The hatch happened last night. Of the 7 eggs my mix is perplexing. I have 2 that look like typical Millie chicks. I have one that is black, one that is pale yellow, one that is buttery yellow and one that looks like a striped chipmunk with eyeliner. I thought breeding millies would make more millies......WHERE are these colors coming from??? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

There must be some other colors in their genetic backgrounds. You're lucky you got such a wide variety, unless you were hoping for just milles.......Then I guess you don't feel so lucky.

 

[kristip]

Thanks Phoebs, he's really workin' it in that pick! lol.

He is handsome. after all the great advice on here, I picked up a younger blue mille fluer pullet, a black mottled hen that is gorgeous and a lavender roo. I have one mille fluer hen at home.
My good friend picked up a mille fluer roo and a black mottled with some brown mixed in pullet. Very unusual looking but nothing like the book! I can borrow her roo for more pure mille colors!
I have 4 more eggs sitting under a broody buff orp. Breeding project for next year under way!
Love the pictures from everyone!

 

[Stewzoo]

I will try to get some good pictures tomorrow.

 

[coffeekittie]

I realize this is a little random, but one of my little porcelain girls is finally getting friendly! She has flown onto my lap two days in a row, and tonight she tried munching on my nose ring.

Another one is trying to fly up but keeps missing...

My cat has just climbed into the pen out of jealousy. Gotta love yer pets!

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:

I realize this is a little random, but one of my little porcelain girls is finally getting friendly! She has flown onto my lap two days in a row, and tonight she tried munching on my nose ring.

Another one is trying to fly up but keeps missing...

My cat has just climbed into the pen out of jealousy. Gotta love yer pets!

I've had millie hens knock the cats out of my lap to cuddle me when I was feeling really blue. It was an "awwwwww!!!" moment for sure.
The problem with breeding to show is that I don't have as much time to just play with my birds these days.

I finally got the pics of the leg bands for you:


The yellow is the one from the box. The green one is un-numbered, just a simple plastic spiral band. I have a slightly smaller size that I use on brooder babies, if I have to band them. When I graduate them to a pen with no lamp, I switch them to the one on the left. I save the numbered ones for showbirds, and switch over to them so that I can use Excel to track show performance.

I keep trying to post a pic of a bird modelling one for you, but BYC is not posting images well this evening. Tried 3 times before I got the legband one to post.....

 

[Stewzoo]

Ok. One of the daddies is my Avatar.

This is one of the mommas:



And here are the babies....WHERE does all the color variations come from???

 

[wegotchickens]

Ok. One of the daddies is my Avatar.

This is one of the mommas:



And here are the babies....WHERE does all the color variations come from???

If the picture color is accurate, then the hen looks like she is uneven in her base russet brown. So either she's about to molt, or she's just not an evenly-colored bird. If so, that could account for some of the variation. Are you CERTAIN that your millies come from pure millie lines? Even then you can get sports that are oddly colored, but with this much variation you either have a cockerel hopping the fence to romance her, or you have a genetic stew going on with the adult birds.....

That's my opinion

My guess is she's got goldneck somewhere in her background DNA, if you can rule out a male visitor. That would account for the yellow & whitish chick, for sure. The black mottled is liable to feather in with a considered amount of red leakage. Not sure wherre the black is coming from, but pray that's a hen so you can try for mahogany mf later.

 

[wegotchickens]

Yay! Finally got it to post. As you can see, there is a lot of wiggle room in this size. I like that, because they don't get crud all up inside them like tight bands do....
Those spiral gren ones in the large size will fit a mature d'Uccle unless it's a cockerel with stout legs. These numbered ones work for silkies as well as d'Uccles.

Isn't she being a super-model in this shot?