D'uccle Thread

[cheeka]

I'm about an hour south west of Albany, NY, western Catskills.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

Why are there to few colors of D'uccles in America, compared to Europe? I was messing around on the chicken genetic calculator, and it seems like crossing D'uccles, even just in the colors fairly commonly available (from, say, hatcheries) you could produce many new, cool colors that breed true within a few generations.

I am working on bringing the dun, chocolate, silver and cream genes to my d'uccles. And yes, it will take years of cross-breeding to be able to get back to standards. This is after a year of breeding for dun and lemon/silver. This is 1st Generation. First thing that leaves is patterning and half the foot feathers. What comes back in is full wattles.




Second Generation. Starting to get the pattern gene back in. Notice the full mottled gene has been introduced in the chocolate mottled. Mottling requires TWO genes to show. The other pattern gene is from the citron spangled hen, and the wild pattern,which I hate. The white/dun birds are carrying the silver and dun gene. In the white birds, the silver has two copies. If I can get the pattern correct and D'uccle standards correct, by breeding these double copies of silver to a correct millie fluer, I will get a citron millie fluer. This will take several generations for the bad genes to leave, and for the good genes to "fix". THEN, they may be available






This is the chocolate mottled. Since I only have one bird carrying the chocolate gene (a male that doesn't show, but comes from chocolate stock), that would make this a female, as they only need 1 choc gene to show. The parent crossbred Roo was obviously carrying the mottled gene and passed this as well. This bird should have appeared much later in my breeding, but sometimes you get lucky! Dun shows on both male and female with one gene.




I also have the dominant white gene in my chicken pool, but I don't like this gene because it produces blotchiness and does not breed true. It does not have a one gene or two gene thing going on, like silver or blue. It has a "degree" of inheritance. The more you mate dominant white, the lighter the bird becomes. Pure white birds are birds with many generations off dominant white. Also, the dominant white creates "holes" and you can allow the underlying colors the show thru in all its glory. This is the gene paint breeders use for their paint birds. This is a gene I want to eliminate, since it creates such havoc.

See the difference in the patterning?

 

[Metella]

I really like the chocolate mottled without any dun coloring - it looks GREAT on the white background.

Sheesh - I wish I saw this coloring before I got my dun colored millie flors .... love them - but this is really cool.

 

[alibra]

I really like the chocolate mottled without any dun coloring - it looks GREAT on the white background.

Sheesh - I wish I saw this coloring before I got my dun colored millie flors .... love them - but this is really cool. 

Dun mille?! Can you post photos?

 

[mstricer]

I'm about an hour south west of Albany, NY, western Catskills.  

I have a few girls I could sell. Not SQ but they are nice. Pm if interested

 

[Metella]

alibra - perhaps it is semantics ? I consider this normal background color a dun color .... here is a roo when young - I ended up with 5 roos and one hen ! ha ha on me. They are all spotted out perfectly now .... but the background color is what I mean by dun - Also - don't hold me to any show lingo - I am not showing nor breeding - just keeping these for myself and for my family who LOVES the millies & always play with them when they visit. This was the teen nursery - they are in a big hoop coop now with the rest of the flock and doing very well with a big mix of standard sized chickens. They also get to free range nearly every day when the weather is good.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

alibra - perhaps it is semantics ? I consider this normal background color a dun color .... here is a roo when young - I ended up with 5 roos and one hen ! ha ha on me. They are all spotted out perfectly now .... but the background color is what I mean by dun - Also - don't hold me to any show lingo - I am not showing nor breeding - just keeping these for myself and for my family who LOVES the millies & always play with them when they visit. This was the teen nursery - they are in a big hoop coop now with the rest of the flock and doing very well with a big mix of standard sized chickens. They also get to free range nearly every day when the weather is good.

You must have horses. (Me too.)The buff coloring is very similiar to that of dun horses, however in chicken lingo, it is one of the many shades of buff. There are only about a bajillion ways the buff color gets made in chickens, which is why it's such a hard color to pin down. But you have beautiful little millie fluer babies!

 

[QuoVadis]

I am working on bringing the dun, chocolate, silver and cream genes to my d'uccles. And yes, it will take years of cross-breeding to be able to get back to standards. This is after a year of breeding for dun and lemon/silver. This is 1st Generation. First thing that leaves is patterning and half the foot feathers. What comes back in is full wattles. Second Generation. Starting to get the pattern gene back in. Notice the full mottled gene has been introduced in the chocolate mottled. Mottling requires TWO genes to show. The other pattern gene is from the citron spangled hen, and the wild pattern,which I hate. The white/dun birds are carrying the silver and dun gene. In the white birds, the silver has two copies. If I can get the pattern correct and D'uccle standards correct, by breeding these double copies of silver to a correct millie fluer, I will get a citron millie fluer. This will take several generations for the bad genes to leave, and for the good genes to "fix". THEN, they may be available This is the chocolate mottled. Since I only have one bird carrying the chocolate gene (a male that doesn't show, but comes from chocolate stock), that would make this a female, as they only need 1 choc gene to show. The parent crossbred Roo was obviously carrying the mottled gene and passed this as well. This bird should have appeared much later in my breeding, but sometimes you get lucky! Dun shows on both male and female with one gene. I also have the dominant white gene in my chicken pool, but I don't like this gene because it produces blotchiness and does not breed true. It does not have a one gene or two gene thing going on, like silver or blue. It has a "degree" of inheritance. The more you mate dominant white, the lighter the bird becomes. Pure white birds are birds with many generations off dominant white. Also, the dominant white creates "holes" and you can allow the underlying colors the show thru in all its glory. This is the gene paint breeders use for their paint birds. This is a gene I want to eliminate, since it creates such havoc. See the difference in the patterning?

Were these all bred from crossing various colors of D'uccles, or did you outcross to other breeds?

 

[Metella]

HA ~~~

I DO have horses !

ha ha ha you called that right.

They are actually all grown now and look even nicer !! I am very happy with them - but all the current pics are on my phone, not PC.

I'll try to fuss with it and share some - the millie hen is so tame, yet I barely have time to work with her.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

Were these all bred from crossing various colors of D'uccles, or did you outcross to other breeds?

I had to bring in the silver and genes from other breeds. I used light cream Dutch, a lemon spangled Sussex, and four silver fawn Old English. I crossed those onto my d'uccles. the first gen should not show any mottles, because it takes two genes. I keep crossing my hopefuls back onto my d'uccles. The goal is to get homozygous as close to d'uccles standards as possible, then I am assured of getting lemon/dun when I cross that to my d'uccles. I am continuing the first gen crosses, because I have never been able to duplicate my beautiful citron roo. The roo that created him passed on, and he's not high enough up on the pecking order to contribute to my hens. Well, he is, but he mates with another born similiar to him (has extremely pale coloring), but the babies from that cross don't live beyond chickhood. I'm thinking that perhaps, like in horses, there is something similiar to the Lethal White Gene. I need to cross him back to a reg millie chick.