I agree with lilcrow we should all be posting on the club site
http://www.belgianduccle.org and not having to do it here. There isn't a forum there and very few even bother to post on their message board. It would be nice if some of the older breeders would share their knowledge from years of experience breeding them to people really wanting to learn but I don't see that happening.
We all need to become very familiar with the standard if we intend to breed these birds. Even the pet quality are cute so most people breed their pets to pets without ever even reading the standard. That's why it's so hard to find SQ birds to use for breeding and showing now. There are very few serious breeders left that have worked on their lines for years and they're very protective of who gets their breeding quality birds and I really can't blame them.
The trio of Milles I bought are not the best birds and have their share of faults but they were the best I could find after looking for almost two years. I'll keep adding better birds as I find them and do a lot of culling but keep just the best for breeding.
I read and reread the standard and looked at as many show birds as I could find so I would recognize what was desirable and what was not when I saw it. I'm still trying to get the genetics straight in my mind and if I live long enough that just might happen someday....lolol
One breeder selling eggs on
EBay was advertising them as coming from SQ d'Uccle. I don't know if they were aware that the roo was a Booted or if they had been told he was a d'Uccle when they bought him but he didn't have a beard and he sure did have some very big wattles for a d'Uccle. Don't just take people at their word, educate yourself because they may not know what they have.
SQ Booted are just as rare as SQ d'Uccle, so if you have some good Booted...that's very good too!!!
Sandy