D'uccle Thread

[TheCrazyClucker]

Hi everyone!

I have 2 d'Uccles.
A Porcelain:


And a Mille Fluer!

 

[dsfrango]

I

Is black in the tail feathers of a golden neck cockerel bad? Is it a fault, DQ, bad for breeding, etc.?

I wish I knew the sure answer for you, and I don't want to worry you but it's prob not too good and I'm not sure that's something you could pluck out and solve...

 

[RustysProvider]

I lost a baby blue splash hen. Another death from the overly aggressive silkie Roos. I have one blue Mille hen but oddly enough her feathers on her neck came in looking like a roo. But still no comb development. So ill just keep hoping for the best.

 

[hdowden]

I have d'uccle project eggs. They are crossed with Silkie or Serama to bring in dun and lemon coloration. I'm selling 18 for $10, plus $15 shipping. Almost everything born is lemon and sometimes a splash or paint come out. Not sure who is throwing the paint eggs yet.


Paint chick

dun with blue gene


dun. Alot of these look like doves.

lemon mille fluer

I think you really need to wait on selling till they look more like a d'uccle like they should that way you will be selling eggs that give people more to work with. I have project birds as well but they are not for sale but look a whole lot closer to a d'uccle with the 2nd generation being 75% d'uccle and 25% silkie but none with the silkied feathers that I would like yet I will only sell culls that is it nothing else yet. oh and I also get the white with spots and those are coming from the golden neck pair that I have

 

[wegotchickens]

Of course it looks nothing at all like a d'Uccle.

Agreed.
And frustrating to someone who wants to preserve the breed.
At this point these are mutts, not d'Uccles.

 

[Phoenix Farms]

My new D'uccle rooster

He is gorgeous! What color is he?

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Agreed.
And frustrating to someone who wants to preserve the breed.
At this point these are mutts, not d'Uccles.

You do realize that she is trying to breed a new color, and in order to do so, she has to cross them?

 

[2seth2]

Hi everyone!

I have 2 d'Uccles.
A Porcelain:


And a Mille Fluer!

CUTE!

so I have rooster with to little spangling UGH! guess I have to find an over spangled hen.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

I think you really need to wait on selling till they look more like a d'uccle like they should that way you will be selling eggs that give people more to work with. I have project birds as well but they are not for sale but look a whole lot closer to a d'uccle with the 2nd generation being 75% d'uccle and 25% silkie but none with the silkied feathers that I would like yet I will only sell culls that is it nothing else yet. oh and I also get the white with spots and those are coming from the golden neck pair that I have

I am getting the most spectacular lemon coloring. And yes, these ARE mutts, that's why they are called project birds. That's also why they are priced so low. It was a shame to let these eggs go for eating, so I posted exactly what I had. However, people getting these eggs will be getting dun and silver based lemon coloring, which has not existed in American D'uccles. They, in turn, will be able to breed the projects back to their standard d'uccles, thus bringing the lemon and dun genes into the American d'uccles that much faster. I was extremely surprised that I got what appears to be lemon mille fluer coloration in that one chick at the first crossing. Didn't expect that.

Sorry that you feel these eggs should just be thrown away or eaten, instead of using the genetics.

Here's a picture of most beautiful Lemon Roo. It's the palest, brightest yellow color I have ever seen in chickens. He's a keeper for breeding back to my d'uccle girls. This is a terrible picture of him, but you can see the lemon I'm striving for. Can you imagine this color with black mottles? (And yes, he does have wattles) He's a first gen. Serama/buff d'uccle cross.


Thanks for the support from the folks believing in my project! The quicker we can get these two genes into our beloved D'uccles, the quicker they can get accepted at shows. We've only got five or ten years left to go!

 

[wegotchickens]

You do realize that she is trying to breed a new color, and in order to do so, she has to cross them?

I do realize that.
I also realize the amount of discipline required. You can't look at a young chick and know what color it will be at maturity, and you can't know that it will breed true later on. To know if an accepted color is truly show quality, a good breeder has to wait until a bird is almost mature or even until it goes through a molt. For millies, the wait is even longer. Longtime breeders recommend keeping a bird for 2 years to know if it is TRULY show quality. For the sake of responsible breeding, I would wait until d'Uccle features are back on a bird before I would label the project a success, and even then they would still be project birds with potentially bad variables that could crop up.

For what it's worth, I have hatched dun d'Uccles and chicks like the "paint" pictured earlier, breeding strictly within my d'Uccle flock. I too have a project pen, but they are SQ d'Uccles in all ways except color. I agree with the old adage: "Build the barn before you paint it."



I am not against new varieties at all. I have my eye on some silver milles, and I know how many years the breeder has been working on them. I also know that they have years ahead of them before they can be admitted into the SOP. But they already have d'Uccle features and show well as AV.
AT THIS POINT they are a project that is ready to be shared. They are d'Uccles, not mutts. To be accepted into the SOP they will have to be shared, and shared responsibly. I have immense respect for the breeder, who is still not sure they are "good enough" to be shared. I hope that when he does share them, he picks folks with experience showing d'Uccles, so that they can continue to be improved responsibly.