D'uccle Thread

[chickenlady099]

I have done a terrible thing...

I went to a swap meet with no intention of buying more duccles so what did I find after a YEAR of searching? Duccle chicks. Yep, and colorful ones.

Now mind you this wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't bought 7, one of which has a gimpy foot.
You could think I could learn my lesson after spending countless hours on Craigslist looking for Duccles and finding saddlepoots and booted bantams claiming to be duccles. Nope, I see the adorable little faces, the little lavenders with hardly any leg feathers and the black and whites who the guy says has beautiful parents and buy him out on the spot. Without seeing the parents.

I am 99% sure this guy buys them off ebay/eggbird, hatches them and sells them for a premium ($3.00 a chick, $2.00 for Mr Gimpy)

He has no idea what the parents of the lavenders look like, only that he has worked with this breeder before and they usually have nice birds. He also says the bk/whs have beautiful parents, he even kept some chicks for himself.

As I gear up for the hour long drive him with my new little bundles of joy I realize I am going to need some starter feed and so I swing by my local Rural King. I then make the bigger mistake of the day…I look at the chicks. They have bantams folks, adorable porcelain and mille fleur chicks right there for the buying. I manage to not buy them out and only bring home 4 more, bringing me to 11.

I wake up this morning and promptly say ''what in the Heck am I doing?'' I probably just bought 11 birds that won't be good for anything other than pets at best and to top it off with my luck every last one with be a Roo.


I have one porcelain hen who is iffy at best (gimpy foot, nice conf, okay feathers but not epic in the beard/muff area)
and now these little fellows. I've been looking for some nice starter stock that I could hopefully mix with some nicer birds and slowly work my way up to higher quality…I guess after a year of waiting, reading and watching I just went crazy and got ahead of myself.
I didn't even buy colors I was that interested in! I like Mille Fleur and Porcelain the best and I not have 2 lavenders (cruddy toe feathers but I hear this is somewhat normal for lavs) and 5 mottled black/whites with AMAZING feathers, even heavy on the middle toe already.


I'm not hugely interested in showing at this very second but figure if I'm going to bring animals into this world they might as well be quality and I figure I will show for fun one day.

For those of you who made it to the bottom of that long and rambling post, do you think there is any chance I might have some iffy birds that might be worth breeding to others one day? I am basically trying to talk myself out of the idea that I just made a huge mistake and am going to have to cull the whole lot of them unless I want to keep them away from the future roo and just keep them as pets.

Has anyone every had a nice surprise come out of a birdy gamble?

I have a friend who got her stock from the feed store and she bred them and got a winning bird out of them so yes I think you could get good birds

 

[roostercantrell]

My little Pepper is having some trouble. She's got pasty butt, so I'm doctoring that with cleaning her vent area. This morning it was totally clogged, I used a tooth pick lubed with Vaseline & got the scab off. She pooed immediately. She was also breathing very rapidly & trying to get under the bigger ones wings. I moved her. & 3 others to the Rubbermaid tub I used as a brooder earlier last week. Hopefully it will help her stay warm. Not sure how to get rid of pasty butt. I gave her yogurt.
Here's a couple snuggle pics.



I kept her on my chest, wrapped in a rag, for a couple hours. Her breathing got regular,& she slept most of the time.

serch for pasty butt thread there is some really great info there. had 3 with pasty butt read that and followed the suggestions and it was gone in a few days

 

[MamStables]

LOL..... well if its any comfort.... we did the same thing... got several that were ok but not great quality... once he started showing them, we upgraded to a pair that were good quality and started his show flock about 5 years ago from those birds, with a few thrown in here and there.... now 5 years or more later we have sold off as pets most of the non -quality birds.... but YES I think you can get a perfectly good quality bird from a hatchery gamble...or a breeder who just didnt wait long enough to see what they looked like... good news is they dont eat much..... but if you want to show, and breed.... talk to some quality breeders and get a trio or at least a pair of great quality birds and go from there.... much easier...and less frustrating.... terrible traits are the first ones to replicate it seems.... so start with good ones...

It all started out looking for silkie chicks (just for fun, wanted bantys) went to TSC and ended up with two d'uccles by mistake and so fell in love with the colors and funny/loving personalities.
After that I figured I would just breed for fun, nothing big just enough to help replenish my flock as they got older. I waited all last year to make sure I knew enough about them to breed quality birds and not just breed something no one would want in case I couldn't keep them for some reason. Also to move/finish my coop so I could keep the d'uccles separate from the meat and egg birds.

I was planning on paying the big bucks and buying some SQ/breeder quality to help start myself out on the right foot (cheating I know) and just breeding for fun of my favorites ( as long as it kept the show quality)

I ended up losing the littlest black/white chick this morning, he was smaller than the rest and was kind of quiet/sleepy yesterday so I figured it might happen.

I am really looking forward to the black/whites, they leg feathering is amazing and they also have the most cheek fluff by far so I am crossing my fingers they might be worth keeping.

 

[fazziobear1]

:/

 

[kara1015]

I am very quickly falling in love with this breed!

 

[hdowden]

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

That's just mean, showing me all those d'uccles.... need more....especially the gold necks....

 

[Loriemarler]

Here is my blue mille rooster. He was mad at me because I dusted everyone with poultry dust (hence the dull comb)

 

[Mhardersen]

Roo or pullet? approx 2 weeks old in this pic.

I was weak when I went to the local Farm N Fleet. This little one was in the clearance bin--it was not as strong as the rest. I didn't even think about what sex it was...I can only have hens in town. I am trying to gather as much info as I can...this thread is AMAZING!! thanks to all who have posted!!

 

[Folly's place]

Cute chick, I think a cockrel. You'll know at about three weeks of age. LOVE those pictures of your birds! Mary