D'uccle Thread

[mstricer]

Hdowden, is your self blue the only one you have with wattles?

 

[mstricer]

Hopefully someone will chime in. Maybe not show quality but I thought the porcelain with mottled might be pretty.
Here are the birds back from quarantine. Got a little poppy in hte transportation crate so once they mellow out, will bath them so sorry for dirty birds, but here they are ! The mottled and roo are mildly friendly. Need to work with the blue mille(seen in pic with my mille who is super friendlY)

Your rooster appears to have a long neck, was it stretching out or is it long. That would be considered a defect. My first bunch that I had all had long necks except for the girl I kept. Got rid of all of them.

 

[mstricer]

How do D'uccles do in colder temps? I am in Anchorage and have Orpingtons and Coturnix Quail outside without heat. They do great. I have 6 little ones coming to my house to live and was going to put them outside once feathered. With temps as low as 20 below will they require heat? I have a green house with an oil filled radiant heater. But would prefer them not be reliant if it is not needed.
N

I had mine in an insulated coop last year, but it didn't get that cold. I would put them in the greenhouse, I would say the sun would warm it, but considering during the winter you don't see it that much. You won't need a lot of heat. They might do alright if they go into it but they will still be young. Next year after they go into the winter and acclimate to the change they may be fine just watch the boys and their combs. Congrats you will love them. Buy mealworms they will get very friendly. I.usually keep mine in our attached garage until they are close 12 weeks they stay little for a while. That is for hatches done in the winter.

 

[CGinJCMO]

here he is with some sun bleached feathers (the yellowing on the feathers)

heres crystal my porcelain

The spots on Crystal are lovely.

My pullets don't look like that. I think they look nice

, just not that nice. Maybe mine are sunbleached too? They look more like the cockerel's color posted above that you say is self-blue but with sunbleached feathers (so mine would be porcelain with sun bleached feathers). Do those spots come in later (my pullets are younger - not yet laying age)? Doesn't seem likely but might be some explaination for my birds lack of spots. Guess there's no way to get rid of sunbleached feathers until molt and that won't be until next spring (they won't molt during the winter will they?) I can't say that I remember when their feathers came in, that there was those spots, they just looked a creamy gray even before they went outside and got possibly sunbleached. Now you've got me wanting to closely inspect my d'uccles to hunt for spots.

CG

 

[wegotchickens]

How do D'uccles do in colder temps? I am in Anchorage and have Orpingtons and Coturnix Quail outside without heat. They do great. I have 6 little ones coming to my house to live and was going to put them outside once feathered. With temps as low as 20 below will they require heat? I have a green house with an oil filled radiant heater. But would prefer them not be reliant if it is not needed.

I have a friend in AK who owns millies. She says they do just fine as long as you have a pile of hay or straw for them to nestle in, and keep them in a dry spot out of the wind. In fact, she says it's really funny to watch them walking around on top of the snow, with their natural snowshoe-like feet, while the egg layers flounder around.

 

[dsfrango]

Heres my mottled boy and 1 of my blue girls



He could prob use a little more mottling. Hopefully after a molt he'll have more or him with my hens that have alot of white will make some nice babies

And this is BlueBell

 

[kristip]

That blue mottled is gorgeous!!!!

Ok so I know what a Mille fleur looks like hatched, and I know that a black mottled looks like a penguin when hatched... What does a golden neck look like when hatched? Or porcelains or lav? Just greyish for those? My other eggs are hatching and I know my neighbor had all of those as well as a red shouldered one. But a lot of Mille fleurs...just want to know what to expect...but I am sure Pictures will be posted! So excited

 

[hdowden]

Hdowden, is your self blue the only one you have with wattles?

so far he is. i'm waiting to see how the golden neck (might sell him due to him having black on his feathers) and the 2 mille's turn out to look like

 

[hdowden]

The spots on Crystal are lovely.

My pullets don't look like that. I think they look nice

, just not that nice. Maybe mine are sunbleached too? They look more like the cockerel's color posted above that you say is self-blue but with sunbleached feathers (so mine would be porcelain with sun bleached feathers). Do those spots come in later (my pullets are younger - not yet laying age)? Doesn't seem likely but might be some explaination for my birds lack of spots. Guess there's no way to get rid of sunbleached feathers until molt and that won't be until next spring (they won't molt during the winter will they?) I can't say that I remember when their feathers came in, that there was those spots, they just looked a creamy gray even before they went outside and got possibly sunbleached. Now you've got me wanting to closely inspect my d'uccles to hunt for spots.

CG

she started laying a bit after these pics were taking if i remember right, she was about 6-7 months old, she is almost a year old now. if you look in my d'uccle album i do have pics of her at a younger age and on my facebook i have even more pics lol https://www.facebook.com/holly.dowden.33/photos yes those sun bleached feathers will stay there till they molt. mine are losing feathers here and there right now as i guess you can say a partial molt and those sun bleached feathers are coming in the self blue color they are supposed to be.

 

[hdowden]

this is a link to the d'uccle page on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-duccle-chicken-page/268529153188380