D'uccle Thread

[acid_chipmunk]

Quote:
Hi A.C. I know you aske Lori this question, but if it helps, then YES, pull that booger outta there so it's not SHOWN at the show

Lori, you can take over now...sorry

Take over any time LOL

AC, he won over all my other birds with that black showing. In the standards I think there are allowances for a touch of black, but will have to go back through to confirm that.

Thanks Lori and Gypsy. I actually like the feather. It isn't solid black, as you know Lori, but more like peppered.

Oh, and when the NPIP testers were here the other night drawing blood, they were in love with Midas and the butterscotch girlie! She didn't have blood drawn since she is too young, but they oohed and aahed over her. Midas was a perfect gentleman while he was being held down and getting his leg band. He wasn't happy that they were "manhandling" his girls though!

 

[wegotchickens]

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Carolyn, I had lavender birds but there were feather issues that were genetic (poor shoulder feathers on some, too much 'fraying' on their feathers).
I have millie fleur with perfect feathers. So I crossed them.
Mf roo x lavender hens
lav roo x mf hens

I kept the two batches seperate, to see if there was a correlation between feather quality and the roo. There wasn't, and there wasn't a color difference either. So I picked the best and merged the chicks. Chicks that feathered poorly were culled young to remove the gene (it cna be lethal in some crosses, like to porcelain, so I wanted it out).

Next step is breeding cockerals to pullets to get back some lavenders.
And breeding the ones with more exotic color variations to each other to see what I get.
Plus breeding back to MF to see what I get.

This experiment was to see if I understood genetics, to improve my birds, and provide data for any future science projects my daughter might have (she did one in middle school when we crossed porcelain to lav and learned about lethal genes the hard way).

The project birds did not turn out the color I expected (plain black) but they are very pretty. The feathers are a little softer than I wanted and their body type isn't perfect, but they are very pretty little birds (girls). I wish I could show them, just to see what a judge thought. I might try them as a variant, just to get a comparison against each other and see which ones the judge thinks has the best type. The boys are too wildly colored to consider showing.
But I am very pleased to 'hear' that GC thinks there's some lemon in PartiBoy

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Take over any time LOL

AC, he won over all my other birds with that black showing. In the standards I think there are allowances for a touch of black, but will have to go back through to confirm that.

Thanks Lori and Gypsy. I actually like the feather. It isn't solid black, as you know Lori, but more like peppered.

Oh, and when the NPIP testers were here the other night drawing blood, they were in love with Midas and the butterscotch girlie! She didn't have blood drawn since she is too young, but they oohed and aahed over her. Midas was a perfect gentleman while he was being held down and getting his leg band. He wasn't happy that they were "manhandling" his girls though!

NPIP is my next project so that I can start shipping birds instead of eggs. I'm glad Midas behaved. I think the change of scenery did him some good!
I liked that feather, too. He'd be too perfect without it! It shows that he's 99.9% gorgeous but real at the same time.

 

[wegotchickens]

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I guess the project birds are about 4-5 months now. Will have to consult the calendar to more precise, but I think they're actually 5 months.
His breast is almost all white now, with a touch of black mottling.

I'm

that he's lemon!! I have only one project pullet that has a LOT of white mottling, and she'll be with PartiBoy for breeding later on, as well as any other odd-colored birds. Everyone already thinks I'm nuts, so when I'm painting vents with food coloring I'm going to really cement that opinion LOL.

I'll see if I got a better face/chest shot of PB. ...

A friend cared for my birds over Thanksgiving and fell in love with PartiBoy. He's definitely the lead roo in the bachelor pen. And what a strut!

 

[acid_chipmunk]

Quote:
Thanks Lori and Gypsy. I actually like the feather. It isn't solid black, as you know Lori, but more like peppered.

Oh, and when the NPIP testers were here the other night drawing blood, they were in love with Midas and the butterscotch girlie! She didn't have blood drawn since she is too young, but they oohed and aahed over her. Midas was a perfect gentleman while he was being held down and getting his leg band. He wasn't happy that they were "manhandling" his girls though!

NPIP is my next project so that I can start shipping birds instead of eggs. I'm glad Midas behaved. I think the change of scenery did him some good!
I liked that feather, too. He'd be too perfect without it! It shows that he's 99.9% gorgeous but real at the same time.

I am very glad that he likes it here. He loves and protects his girls very well. He keeps guard in the coop doorway when they are laying to make sure nothing gets in there. So cute! He is much better behaved that my MF roo was. The MF roo charged everyone and everything that walked by the coop and scared the crap out of my daughter. He messed up his leg somehow and it didn't get better so we had to put him down.

We are still waiting to hear the blood results, but I don't think we will have any problems. The testers actually only test the 4-H kids in the summer and this was the first time they tested anyone not in July for the county fair. They were very impressed with how clean and healthy our birds are, saying sometimes the birds are covered in poo and where they have them living is just gross. I couldn't live with myself doing that to my birds. Every bird here is pampered! Heck, we have a brooder full of 16 silkies and 2 polish in the house right now and I swore I would NEVER do that!!!

 

[Carolynspeeps]

GypsyChic, I would love to hear about your projects too. I am particularly intrigued by the lemon and porcelain. Although I have my eye on the blue millie? too. Please share, I look forward to hearing more....Right now I am living vicariously through all of you!

 

[wegotchickens]

The blues definitely have gold lacing on them. I am now having fantasies of lemon-laced blues

If girls, they wil go in with PartiBoy for sure!

 

[acid_chipmunk]

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Oh, you had to go there! Lemon-laced blues!!!!

 

[Carolynspeeps]

Now you have my attention too!!!!

 

[GypsyChic]

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What will we ever do with you Lori!!! Always a step ahead in the "fantasies" department (sigh)...I love the idea, sounds wonderful and I can just visualize how neat that color would be! Keep on truckin girl...just keep me in the loop too

PS...I 'MIGHT' have what appears to be a blue pullet coming up. I thought she was just a darker lavender, but it seems that's not the case now. I'll take pics Lori and you tell me if she's like your girls

Carolyn, I'll post more pics of my projects in the next few days. We've got tons going on with Christmas and all, but I'll try to squeeze a few chickend pics in as time allows

ETA: To correct my stupid spelling (it's the computers fault, lol) and add a bit more info

Misty