D'uccle Thread

[Carolynspeeps]

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
That's always a hard decision to make. Especially since I'm tending and feeding a flock of freeloaders myself....


I've decided to only sell one trio of goldnecks, and hold onto the other trio. I figured out a new plan for arranging the birds

Sadly, I'm thinking of selling Parti-boy. Depite the potential gold gene, he has a very nicely cleft chest. Very studly looking, but wrong wrong wrong for d'Uccles. And it didn't show up until recently. Since they other 3 roos do NOT have this feature, and have the cream and gold on them, I don't think I'm losing the lemon potential by rehoming PB.
But Parti-girl is probably leaving soon as well. Her feathering is too crummy to be worth the wild color. If she weren't wildly colored she'd have been culled for her craptastic feathers. And I mean hard-culled, not re-homed as a pet bird. I've fought too hard against the lav / porcelain shoulder thing to take a chance of passing bad genetics back into the d'Uccle mainstream. She doesn't have the shoulder issue, but her feathering is just always rumpled and ratty, to the point I constantly check her to see if she's healthy. Stupid me.

So, I'm taking a goldneck trio, 2 project boys, a porcelain chick (possible roo) and a black mottled chick (possible pullet) to newnan, ga. BTW-> PartiBoy has lovely foot feathers, and with non-related birds I doubt he'd pass on that cleft chest. He's otherwise gorgeous!
AI'll aso be selling a lovely partridge silkie roo that won best of variety in his class last September.

I'll be showing 6 birds, various colors.
Last night I had a bad dream that when I got there on show day, my show birds were missing and we later found them all dead in the trash with their necks wrung. It was a horrible nightmare and I woke up crying and MAD.

 

[Carolynspeeps]

Quote:
That's always a hard decision to make. Especially since I'm tending and feeding a flock of freeloaders myself....


I've decided to only sell one trio of goldnecks, and hold onto the other trio. I figured out a new plan for arranging the birds

Sadly, I'm thinking of selling Parti-boy. Depite the potential gold gene, he has a very nicely cleft chest. Very studly looking, but wrong wrong wrong for d'Uccles. And it didn't show up until recently. Since they other 3 roos do NOT have this feature, and have the cream and gold on them, I don't think I'm losing the lemon potential by rehoming PB.
But Parti-girl is probably leaving soon as well. Her feathering is too crummy to be worth the wild color. If she weren't wildly colored she'd have been culled for her craptastic feathers. And I mean hard-culled, not re-homed as a pet bird. I've fought too hard against the lav / porcelain shoulder thing to take a chance of passing bad genetics back into the d'Uccle mainstream. She doesn't have the shoulder issue, but her feathering is just always rumpled and ratty, to the point I constantly check her to see if she's healthy. Stupid me.

So, I'm taking a goldneck trio, 2 project boys, a porcelain chick (possible roo) and a black mottled chick (possible pullet) to newnan, ga. BTW-> PartiBoy has lovely foot feathers, and with non-related birds I doubt he'd pass on that cleft chest. He's otherwise gorgeous!
AI'll aso be selling a lovely partridge silkie roo that won best of variety in his class last September.

I'll be showing 6 birds, various colors.
Last night I had a bad dream that when I got there on show day, my show birds were missing and we later found them all dead in the trash with their necks wrung. It was a horrible nightmare and I woke up crying and MAD.

Oh Lori...that is a terrible dream! My husband has taken to dreaming about the chickens...not sure what that means, but in his dream we had 14 eggs in the nest box (usually 1-2)! Perhaps a premonition of things to come?

Maybe his realization that we have more chickens than he ever anticipated. Anyway. Best of luck this weekend. I am again so sad to be missing it! Kick some D'uccle bootie. Can't wait to hear how it goes.

I do have a question about my little black chick. Maybe you or GC (if she reads this) might know. Her right wing seems to be split? Does that make sense? Almost as if someone had yanked out the feathers right in the middle. So she has long feathers in back...space....short feathers in front. Any ideas? Should I be concerned? I have not noticed this in any of my Serama babies and the yellow D baby is very slow w/ wing feathering. Hard to compare.

 

[speckledhen]

Lori, what a horrible dream! I have to take antihistamine and when I do, I have these weird dreams, sometimes about chickens.

I don't know if I'll end up keeping Beau, JoBeth and Lizzie in the end. I want to watch them grow and blossom to get a handle on the way they evolve so I won't make the decision right now. They are still so skittish, but Beau will eat out of my hand, at least. I don't mind small eggs, but I hope they are decent layers overall. That may make my decision for me if they aren't at all okay in that department.

I am getting D'Anvers next month and between now and then, will be building a nice coop for them. All this is an experiment, the bantams. My banty Cochin is a very good layer so she has set the bar high for the little tykes.

 

[wegotchickens]

She's awfully young, Carolyn. I'd keep an eye on her and watch for development to fill in that space. If it doesn't then you do have an issue. But I'll bet those other feathers are just slower to show up.

 

[Carolynspeeps]

Quote:
That's what I wanted to hear! Thanks. Have a great time at the show.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
d'Uccles are not dependable layers, in my experience (typed 'payers' by accident. Freudian of me lol).

But they are usually very sweet when they mature. Mine can be pretty flighty when young, but steady as they mature. My current teens thought I was a monster until they graduated to a new pen. Now they happily let me pet them so that they can eat treat food without the bigger kids pecking them. When I first got Tennessee and his girls, I joked that they'd do ANYTHING for bread....


I can't blame meds for the dream. But life's been a little stressful lately. My father-in-law is in the hospital in IL, so no one's been sleeping very well

Hopefully tonight is full of sweet dreams.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
That's what I wanted to hear! Thanks. Have a great time at the show.

Thanks!

Do you have your babies on Chick Start? You might give them a little manna pro gamebird start on the side. I think d'Uccles need more protein than average to help 'finance' all those foot feathers and hocks. I always supplement a tad. Not too much, so that other issues aren't caused, but a little more than non-featherfoot birds need.

 

[speckledhen]

Lori, I don't expect them to be daily layers, but 3-4 eggs/week would be good. Sorry about your FIL. Stress is killing us all in this country right now and that doesn't even count our family dramas. Sweet dreams, my friend. I'm off to bed. Can't stop yawning.

 

[Carolynspeeps]

Quote:
That's what I wanted to hear! Thanks. Have a great time at the show.

Thanks!

Do you have your babies on Chick Start? You might give them a little manna pro gamebird start on the side. I think d'Uccles need more protein than average to help 'finance' all those foot feathers and hocks. I always supplement a tad. Not too much, so that other issues aren't caused, but a little more than non-featherfoot birds need.

They're eating Purina Med chick starter and living with the Serama chicks hatched the same week. Very cute in there with the tiny ones. I think they are happy to have a few more friends. How much exactly is a tad? I will see what I can do...maybe egg yolk?