D'uccle Thread

[lilcrow]

Quote:
Yup, you're right it's a cockerel and if he's the only one out of 14 you did GREAT! Something just short of a miracle.

Regarding temperament.....Most are very sweet, particularly if you spend some time with them and handle them often. Some are just plain gentle from the start and some are little A--holes. I do believe that from the time that I got my first d'Uccle, breeders have been working diligently on their improvement. Now it's not at all uncommon to get really nice birds across the board. In the past I've had some really nasty cock birds and I made a decision that I wouldn't breed them no matter how nice looked. I like peace between my birds and me, and it takes all the fun and joy out of taking care of them if I need a whip and chair to go in the run. All of my roos are doll babies and the hens are unspeakably gentle and sweet. I am at heart mostly a cochin person, but my absolutely favorite (person bird) are my MF hens. They actually seem to enjoy being picked up and cuddled with, and they love having the back of their necks and their cheeks scratched.
At the National in Columbus last year, I watched a group of kids (little boys) that had a roo as a pet that they were carrying around. At one point they were sitting on the floor with the roo, and were playing with him. Every once in a while they'd get up and leaving the roo sitting on the floor, they'd race to the far wall and then race back. The little roo didn't seem phased by this in the least and when they boys came skidding back toward him, he would just stand their, waiting for them. It was just precious. He NEVER once attempted to get away or even act a bit timid, he just looked like this was old hat for him and he loved his little boy. As far as I'm concerned, they have absolutely darling disposition.

 

[Zonoma]

Quote:
Yup, you're right it's a cockerel and if he's the only one out of 14 you did GREAT! Something just short of a miracle.

Regarding temperament.....Most are very sweet, particularly if you spend some time with them and handle them often. Some are just plain gentle from the start and some are little A--holes. I do believe that from the time that I got my first d'Uccle, breeders have been working diligently on their improvement. Now it's not at all uncommon to get really nice birds across the board. In the past I've had some really nasty cock birds and I made a decision that I wouldn't breed them no matter how nice looked. I like peace between my birds and me, and it takes all the fun and joy out of taking care of them if I need a whip and chair to go in the run. All of my roos are doll babies and the hens are unspeakably gentle and sweet. I am at heart mostly a cochin person, but my absolutely favorite (person bird) are my MF hens. They actually seem to enjoy being picked up and cuddled with, and they love having the back of their necks and their cheeks scratched.
At the National in Columbus last year, I watched a group of kids (little boys) that had a roo as a pet that they were carrying around. At one point they were sitting on the floor with the roo, and were playing with him. Every once in a while they'd get up and leaving the roo sitting on the floor, they'd race to the far wall and then race back. The little roo didn't seem phased by this in the least and when they boys came skidding back toward him, he would just stand their, waiting for them. It was just precious. He NEVER once attempted to get away or even act a bit timid, he just looked like this was old hat for him and he loved his little boy. As far as I'm concerned, they have absolutely darling disposition.

Thanks for posting that story! I've been nervous about the temperment, despite all my research, because my 10 year old son wanted a few chickens that, in his words, "We don't eat. They're just pets." I chose D'Uccles and ordered them but I've been lurking about the threads reading horror stories of really mean roos and making myself pretty nervous about the deal I struck with my son.

 

[GypsyChic]

Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers. We are all hanging in there, and now rebuilding has started, after a full week of search & rescue teams from all over the USA have come to help us out. The President was here yesterday assessing damage, speaking at the HUGE memorial service, and provided us with a "start" of funding to begin rebuilding our lives. Thank you, thank you to everyone...We all deeply appreciate everything you've done

On a lighter note, I've got some very nice cockerels coming up, and hope to be able to share some new pics with everyone in the next couple days.
Carolyn, I'll get pics of my 'splash' to send along as well. I know you've been waiting on those for a bit now

sorry hun.
Teddi, got your note hun, thank you...all the eggies were a total loss. I had 2 bators stuffed with yours and mine and due to no electric for almost a week, I lost them all.

Hope everyone else is doing well. Love all the new pics

Misty

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
Yup, you're right it's a cockerel and if he's the only one out of 14 you did GREAT! Something just short of a miracle.

Regarding temperament.....Most are very sweet, particularly if you spend some time with them and handle them often. Some are just plain gentle from the start and some are little A--holes. I do believe that from the time that I got my first d'Uccle, breeders have been working diligently on their improvement. Now it's not at all uncommon to get really nice birds across the board. In the past I've had some really nasty cock birds and I made a decision that I wouldn't breed them no matter how nice looked. I like peace between my birds and me, and it takes all the fun and joy out of taking care of them if I need a whip and chair to go in the run. All of my roos are doll babies and the hens are unspeakably gentle and sweet. I am at heart mostly a cochin person, but my absolutely favorite (person bird) are my MF hens. They actually seem to enjoy being picked up and cuddled with, and they love having the back of their necks and their cheeks scratched.
At the National in Columbus last year, I watched a group of kids (little boys) that had a roo as a pet that they were carrying around. At one point they were sitting on the floor with the roo, and were playing with him. Every once in a while they'd get up and leaving the roo sitting on the floor, they'd race to the far wall and then race back. The little roo didn't seem phased by this in the least and when they boys came skidding back toward him, he would just stand their, waiting for them. It was just precious. He NEVER once attempted to get away or even act a bit timid, he just looked like this was old hat for him and he loved his little boy. As far as I'm concerned, they have absolutely darling disposition.

Thanks for posting that story! I've been nervous about the temperment, despite all my research, because my 10 year old son wanted a few chickens that, in his words, "We don't eat. They're just pets." I chose D'Uccles and ordered them but I've been lurking about the threads reading horror stories of really mean roos and making myself pretty nervous about the deal I struck with my son.

I don't know whether you know this or not, but the aggression that you are speaking of and concerned about is breeding age roos. They become overly protective of their women and want nothing better than to drive you out of the area. My experience has been that you can frequently get some idea of the potential for this when they are very young. If they generally don't like being messed with and are always hard to catch, then more than likely they are going to be unfriendly adults. I have had no luck in rehab-ing mean or skittish birds..........mean only gets worse and skittish just never totally settles down. Roos are easy to come by, so never feel like you have to hold on to a nasty roo.
Oh and disposition is a hereditary thing.
Nancy

 

[Zonoma]

Quote:
Nancy,

I did know that! But I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to type it out. I had 'figured' that disposition for mean-ness might be observable when they were young bad hadn't been able to confirm it by research or word of mouth so thank you for confirming that for me, too!

Z

 

[emptynester]

We have 8 new Mille Fleur babies less than 24 hours old

I'm excited as the parents are SQ and we plan on showing them this fall, so hopefully we will get some beautiful babies to show as well. Here is a quick pic of the new arrivals

 

[Zonoma]

Yay!!!

 

[teddiliza]

Quote:
Oh, they have the best fluffy cheeks!!!!! Where did you get these babies?

 

[teddiliza]

Quote:
At the Missouri Poultry show this spring there were 2 people showing d'uccles: Me and Mopargal72. She brought two, I brought 4. And at the last Missouri Poultry show I went to last October, there were 7 d'uccles, 4 of which were mine. So.....Missouri and Maine must be similar. In the bantams, there's always lotsa silkies, cochins, and brahmas for the feather footed. Plenty of english bantams as well (modern and old english). I don't think I even saw many d'uccles at the state fair either. If it wasn't so darned hot during fair time I'd take a few to show, but at 100 degrees in the shade, I don't know if I want to risk my birds for a ribbon- plus being stuck there all day in the heat. I've been trying to promote d'uccles as best I can by just getting people to try them. I'm hoping they will catch on once people find out what a gem they are.

 

[jeremy]

Does anyone have Gold Necked D'Uccles?