D'uccle Thread

[FairLeaBantams]

Seeing those chicks gets me so excited for my own! I've got my d'uccle breeding pairs separated and bought my incubator, now I just have to wait for some eggs!!!! Any advice for a first time breeder? I got a hova bator, anyone have tips or experiences with that incubator?

 

[ChicksinFL]

Seeing those chicks gets me so excited for my own! I've got my d'uccle breeding pairs separated and bought my incubator, now I just have to wait for some eggs!!!! Any advice for a first time breeder? I got a hova bator, anyone have tips or experiences with that incubator?

I'm very new to chickens myself just starting in Sept. 2011 though we've hatched out about half our flock ourselves from bought eggs. The two Duccles we bought from a breeder though. I think the best thing I did was purchase a auto turner and a second incubator to use as a hatcher. Since we are now hatching out our own eggs it makes so much easier to be able to do staggered hatches, once a week I set all eggs laid that week. So I'm always moving eggs to the hatcher for lock down so I can keep adding to the incubator. I also made codes for each breeding pair of birds and each egg is marked with the code,the date laid, the date set and the date they will move to the hatcher. My daughter also keeps all this info in a spread sheet on her lap top (she's only 8 but super into her chickens) so that she can track which pairs produce which chicks. Now that we are getting more eggs we are also going to be adding colored zip ties so we know which chicks are which as they grow.. so each breeding pair will also have an assigned color.

Good Luck.

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

We also run two incubators in order to do staggered hatches. WE have them on a computer UPS to ensure that if the power goes out we don't have issues.
If you use zip ties you must constantly check how tight they are as the chickes will quickly grow out of them.
I would suggest you get eggs from a reputable breeder if you don't already have D'Uccles.
The better quality now the easier it is later to have good qulity stock as to try to breed imperfections out may take some years.

If you have more than one pair of D'Uccles what we do is segragate them by hatch date then they go into different brooders so we can keep track of which chicks came from which pairings unless they are different color varieties. as such we put in Mille Fluer with self blue and the next week we put in our Lemon Project eggs then back to the Self blue and Mille Fluer from different pens. This way it is just a little bit easier to keep track of which eggs / chicks are whose. Keeping records is a must and with that we also take pictures.

On a happy note we have about 8 growing eggs from the Self Blue ( Lavendar) improvement program so we will see how that works. I think all the eggs are from one hen as half were fertile and half were not.

On the Lemon Mille Fluer front those Mille Fluer split for lemon hens have not started laying yet. We will have to see how that goes as it will be the culmination of 2 years of work since I found the Lemon Mille Fluer Rooster.

 

[fairwindminishetland]

Seeing those chicks gets me so excited for my own! I've got my d'uccle breeding pairs separated and bought my incubator, now I just have to wait for some eggs!!!! Any advice for a first time breeder? I got a hova bator, anyone have tips or experiences with that incubator?

If you got the Genesis 1588, it's pretty well idiot proof and if you get the backup plug that goes into your car, you can ensure that if the power goes off, you won't lose you eggs! IT's been a life saver a couple of times. And yes, having the second incubator makes it much easier to have staggered hatch dates!

 

[chicken fever]

 

[wegotchickens]

You should enjoy the chicks and making more of them. Fun project for you and your daughter.....I bought the eggs from a breeder and they were supposed to be from her blue color pens...but one is a beige color...one a blue/lavender color and one is black and white.... I think they are really cute and bright little guys. I'll see about taking some snaps of them tomorrow. They are a little over a week old. I've got more eggs coming this week, and should be blues and black. Very exciting!

A blue pen will throw something different than a self-blue (lavender) pen. That may be why you saw such random colors coming from a supposedly blue pen.

 

[shanshan51]

I have one really cute MF D'Uccle pair left. They were hatched on Christmas Day 2011.

 

[FairLeaBantams]

Thanks guys! I do have the Genesis and the car power adapter, now I just have to worry if the power goes out when I'm not home I think I'll just stay close to home if there is a storm or enlist my mom to check if I'm at work. I too will use a code to mark the eggs, but with my luck they'll hatch simultaneously while I'm gone and I won't know who's who. I'm hoping to get some interesting colors, I'm breeding a mille roo with a porcelain hen, and a goldnecked hen to a black mottled w/gold roo. All of them have mixed colors in their backgrounds so it could be interesting.....Doug, when will those Lemons start laying, I have been following your lemon saga since the beginning!

 

[chicken fever]

I am new to the d'uccles and am totally in love! I have two four week olds, I think porcelain or self blue (yall r a better judge lol) and im hoping a pullets Mille fleur! Yall tell me if I'm right.

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

For the power if you are going to be away from home that is why we have the computer un interupted power supply (UPS) found at any computer store or we evan have them at walmart here.
you plug it into the wall then plug the incubators into it. in our case I have one that will keep a 500 Watt computer up for 2 hours. so my 2 incubators use 40 Watt bulbs so total 80 Watts. that means I can go with out power for 8-10 hours befor I run out. hasn't happened yet. when not used on the incubators it is used on the computers.

As to the Lemons Laying we will see when they decide to start.

Thanks guys! I do have the Genesis and the car power adapter, now I just have to worry if the power goes out when I'm not home I think I'll just stay close to home if there is a storm or enlist my mom to check if I'm at work. I too will use a code to mark the eggs, but with my luck they'll hatch simultaneously while I'm gone and I won't know who's who. I'm hoping to get some interesting colors, I'm breeding a mille roo with a porcelain hen, and a goldnecked hen to a black mottled w/gold roo. All of them have mixed colors in their backgrounds so it could be interesting.....Doug, when will those Lemons start laying, I have been following your lemon saga since the beginning!