D'uccle Thread

I had D'Uccles and they are the most beautiful birds I ever had along w/ being without a doubt the best layers and brooders. My problem was, they were so very skiddish. I would walk into my other hen houses and the chickens always ran to greet me, I would walk into the D'Uccles house and the would scatter like mice. I just assumed it was their nature, but from you guys post I see that I'm wrong. How did you all do it??
 
In my ee's puberty is about 3-4 months; for me it's when they get their sickle feathers in their tails, start noticing the girls. 6+ months the girls actually consider them "men" LOL.

As to the friendly it's all in the breeding, in my opinion.
My friendly birds were all friendly chicks. My hatchery d'uccles and booted bantam were skittish; the d'uccle boys roosted in trees and only one of the 3 allowed any contact after puberty. The booted bantam girl i have worked with more and she tolerates me and seeks me out, but don't like being held for long. Still wild in her blood. The ones that i got from a breeder by contrast are the in-your-face under your feet friendly ones. :)
 
mine are friendly. They don't hop on me but easy to catch. They do come see me when I come out usually. my Skittles seems even friendlier since she's been laying. Probably coincidence though.
 
I just ordered a few mille fleur d'uccles today! They will be here the end of February, along with the other chicks/ducklings I ordered. So the d'uccles will be straight run, and we have never kept a roo. Are these guys pretty laid back, non aggressive? I would LOVE to keep one, they're pretty, and I LOVE teh rooster crow. Hubby wants nothing to do with roos because he says they're all mean. NOpe they're not.
I would recommend once you can tell the males from females to not to hold the roos as much, until they are a couple months old. I hold them a lot the first few weeks, then only if they come up seeking attention. I've found forcing attention on a cocky little cocks is good way to make them aggressive. If they reach maturity without acting aggressive I've never had one start later in life. If they act aggressive though when younger it does tend to get worse. (This is not really specific to D'uccles - just general roo advice - D'uccle roos tend to be pretty nice, but I had one mean one, that I'm convinced got that way because we would force cuddle him all the time as a baby when he had not interest in it.)



As far as hatchery D'uccles are concerned - almost all mine have been nice and friendly. I do think though that D'uccles tend to me more quiet and gentle birds, and if they aren't handled a lot when young that tends to manifest itself in fear and timidity. If they learn to trust you and view people as a friends when they are babies you'll have a hard time keeping them away the rest of their life!
 
Quote:Originally Posted by QuoVadis Mine do this a LOT! But i do think you are right about the forcing attention thing. I've done both, and the ones i forced never really did get the same level of friendliness anyway. And i do think they did be more liable to get aggressive.
 
#@&% hawk!!!! Lost a Porcelain roo today. I know he was doing his job and protecting the girls. I thought I had lost my prize Sizzle FiFi, but she came out of the woods near were the hawk had him. This is one mad Chicken Mama.
 

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