D'uccle Thread

[wegotchickens]

Pretty birds everyone!
Good goldneck examples. On feathersite they have what they calla buff mottled that looks like a pale goldneck to me. Terminology gets confusing.

I took a bunch of pics as I spent 3 hours in the coop cleaning and playing with everyone. My birds have crummy foot feathers right now. Makes me sad, siince they won't show as well.

I have X amount of space, Y amount of birds, and Z amount of dreams. Y+Z > X

Time to make hard decisions.

Keeping 2 pens of millies.
One pen of silkies
One pen of project birds with lav as the destination
Remaining pen needs to be white
The grow-out pen can be goldneck + butterscotch potential

Can't get rid of the silkies, as they are more popular and easier to sell for feed $ around here. Plus I'm attached to the silly fluffheads.

The blue babes have strong red lacing. I think their projeny is more likely blue milles. I don't want blue milles. I think I'm going to sell them when I sell the spare goldneck cockerals. I can't show them, or my project birds. But the project birds have a destination (lav) and the red-laced blue babes don't.

It doesn't help that DH and I are having a slight disagreement about my needing to hatch more eggs. I will be turning on the bator this weekend. But thinning the flock would make life easier in more ways than one....

 

[Jenski]

Quote:
Sister you are not kidding! If I had more space I'd be scooping up some of these gorgeous porcelains and lavs, and then some lovely lemons and butterscotch and . . .

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Sister you are not kidding! If I had more space I'd be scooping up some of these gorgeous porcelains and lavs, and then some lovely lemons and butterscotch and . . .

It's such a sad sad truth. I live in a subdivision, so even though we have a big yard I can't really push the limits

 

[Jenski]

Preaching to the choir! Subdivision kid here too. . . with dreams of a FARM!

Now this thread has been fantastic and educational, but has anyone perhaps started a BYC page where we can collect all members' bird photos in one place? There are some amazing birds in this thread, but it does take awhile to get through all the pages. ???? Not sure how this could be done . . .

acid_chipmunk, thanks for the kind comments on Flash. If I could find some hens like the ones I foolishly traded off, I would most certainly sell eggs. Will keep you posted.

 

[GypsyChic]

Jenski, your roo is gorgeous but he doesnt look very happy in the pics. Maybe he would like to come live with me

Lori, nice to hear from you. We need to "catch up" a bit later on about eggies. You want to give a stab at what color that little roo is I posted pics of? He's an odd one...buff with lavender and a pale GN pattern. What would you call him?

 

[teddiliza]

Quote:
I cleaned one of my coops yesterday too. It was starting to get Ammonia-y. I have Jersey Giants in there with 5 young d'uccles. The size difference is astounding. The d'uccles like to roost on the highest 'shelf' as we'd originally built it as a goat shed, and the Jersey Giants go to bed at night on the floor in the middle of the coop, even though I have a nice 2x4 perch for them only 12 inches off the ground with a 'poop' tray under it. I guess it hurts them to jump even that much for their size. If I see a Kodak moment, I'll grab it.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Not wanting to start the New Year sounding like a broken record, but you promised us baby pictures!!!!!!!!!!

GC, I think he's a blue mille that didn't get his white. If you took the gray and darkened it to black, I'd think he was a mf that didn't spot up, right? His pattern is a goldneck pattern, but I can't decide if he's missing the white or lightened the black. He's a pretty boy, though!

I read on the breeder thread that soeone has a blue with gold hackle & saddle feathers. I need to find out who his parents were... Sounds like my babies could make up a set with that bird!

I had planned on spending the day cropping and posting photos. Then I found out DD is coming back from NC a day early. Not sure if it's a ride issue or a 'homesick' issue. Quite possibly a "Giftcards are burning a hole in her pocket and there's no good stores in that part of NC" issue.... I'll know in an hour so so. And probably be at the mall until 6pm

I'd think it was funny if there weren't hideous thunderstorms in the area.

 

[speckledhen]

I see I'm into a whole new genetics deal with these birds--I think I have a mental block with genetics; I know the barred gene and the blue gene, but this new stuff will take some learning. My D'uccles are only hatchery stock, but I'm looking forward to getting the D'Anvers from Aubrey. Then I'll have to decide if I want to separate those by themselves or just let them live in the old ladies' coop with my banty Cochin Shadow and these D'Uccles. Maybe I need to just wait and see which breed I like best before I decide anything, eh?

 

[wegotchickens]

Waiting would be atypical of a chicken person, don't you think? Jump in over your head with the rest of us!

The gold-laced blues, with the lav/blue gal:

D'Uccle babies amongst their Silkie buddies:

Project gals:

PartiBoy:

Will paste a few more if I come across those that don't need to be cropped.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

Partiboy definitely is interestingly colored. I can't wait to see what he produces.