D'uccle Thread

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have a few questions about the d'Uccles.
Are they friendly?
Are they flighty?
Are they are reccommended breed?

I have had d'Uccles 3 times now. Two of those times we held them some, and they sought out being held.

This time around we haven't held them at all, except to do "maintenance" on them. They still fly up to my chair arm or the gate where I am standing/sitting to be with me. But if I try to grab them they fly away. Very cuddly sweet things! They have cute little voices (the roos do crow loudly though).
They fly up to their shed top effortlessly but do NOT like to range far from the coop. I have a large fenced garden area and they don't like to fly out of the enclosure often, since they prefer safety. I give them lots of places to hide from hawks (under pallets and range shelters that I have made) to protect them.

They never did range far when I free ranged one of the flocks. They weren't like the large fowl that came up to the house and messed up my bark nugget flowerbeds. But they did try to come to the deck to be with us.
When I go in the coop at night to check on them or do maintenance, my Nankins get worried and hide in the corner (Nankins are also a sweet breed that I highly recommend but they are more of a free spirit type and flightier) but my d'Uccles sit calmly and look at me. Even though I haven't tried to tame them this time around!!!

They make excellent pets. They can hover like a helicopter and fly very well- so you would have to either let them go where they want or contain them somehow.

Yes- the foot feathers will get muddy if you have mud. So sand is helpful as FBL said!

 

[Helen in the Desert]

I know this is late - a few pages ago -

Having bread show rats for years and used lots of Doxycicline there is no affect on the breeding/genetics due to the drug.

What you may have is a spontaineous genetic mutation if you are positive that they are not from you mixed hen. I had a couple of those, one of which only occured with two particular parents and was never to be bred again, no matter how much inbreeding I tried

 

[phoebs]

Probably a little pullet but a close up of her head would be great to confirm that

is this close enough???

 

[BlueCamas]

Hey guys, so finally after 3 long days of hatching all 8 chicks are all fluffed and in the brooder! There are 4 Bantam Barnevelder chicks (the mahogany ones) and supposedly 4 d'Uccle chicks

well obviously as you can see one of the "d'Uccle" eggs that I bought turned out to be a Silkie egg! When I opened the incubator that morning my reaction was

White and fluffy d'Uccle?

5 toes and black skin?

SILKIE!

The seller (Mysticwinds Silkies) has silkies and obviously a Silkie egg got mixed in with the d'Uccle eggs. Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised as the little white silkie has nice dark skin, 5 toes, is bearded, and appears to be vaulted as well (

no silkie expert though) so it's a win for me

On to pictures...
I think I have 2 Self Blues and 1 Blue Motted

(I like blue)
All of the chicks



The Silkie



Blue Mottled?


I also noticed that one of the Self Blues has an obvious lack of beard. So I guess time will tell, but I'm going to assume I have a Booted Bantam as well!


Beardless Self Blue (Booted Bantam)

Bearded Self Blue (d'Uccle)


This hatch I intended only to be hatching Bantam Barnevelders and d'Uccles, but ended up hatching 4 different breeds

 

[dsfrango]

is this close enough???

Haha, thanks for the close up! how old is she in this pic??? Is this the diva we were looking at earlier? I'm still pretty sure it's a hen, but the comb is very red and bigger here so now I'm confused....

 

[mstricer]

Good morning all,
Coffeekittie and myself need good shipping vibes. I sent chicks to her via EXPRESS, they were guaranteed by Nov 7 12:00PM. they didn't arrive in WA until 2 am this morning. The kicker to this whole thing is it cost frigging $ 46.19 to ship it, on top of it I went tried to mail it priority on Monday, which would have been 23$ and we would have expected 2 days, The postal worker looked at me

and said, they will be dead if you don't ship them express, you can't ship live birds priority, Guess what dummy, they arrived priority, with an express price

, to kick us even more, the 2 packages I sent priority, got to their destination before the EXPRESS ship

So mental note, if coffeekittie says Express don't me anything to those people, believe her.

Don't listen to the postal worker, add extra heat pad and some gro-gel, I really think that is for the humane, they just step in it and it's yucky, but just in case they might find it. Ship priority.
Thanks for letting me complain, I tried that with them dude didn't want to hear it, told me to take reciept to the office and get a refund...Have a nice day, Good bye

No wonder things are not good with the USPS

 

[Helen in the Desert]

Good morning all,
Coffeekittie and myself need good shipping vibes. I sent chicks to her via EXPRESS, they were guaranteed by Nov 7 12:00PM. they didn't arrive in WA until 2 am this morning. The kicker to this whole thing is it cost frigging $ 46.19 to ship it, on top of it I went tried to mail it priority on Monday, which would have been 23$ and we would have expected 2 days, The postal worker looked at me

and said, they will be dead if you don't ship them express, you can't ship live birds priority, Guess what dummy, they arrived priority, with an express price

, to kick us even more, the 2 packages I sent priority, got to their destination before the EXPRESS ship

So mental note, if coffeekittie says Express don't me anything to those people, believe her.

Don't listen to the postal worker, add extra heat pad and some gro-gel, I really think that is for the humane, they just step in it and it's yucky, but just in case they might find it. Ship priority.
Thanks for letting me complain, I tried that with them dude didn't want to hear it, told me to take reciept to the office and get a refund...Have a nice day, Good bye

No wonder things are not good with the USPS

The difference between Express an Priority may be where the package is on the plane and wheather or not the it is in a pressurized area or an unpressurized cargo area. Don't know for sure, but that may be the case.

 

[coffeekittie]

The difference between Express an Priority may be where the package is on the plane and wheather or not the it is in a pressurized area or an unpressurized cargo area. Don't know for sure, but that may be the case.

Many hatcheries ship Priority, not Express, as they have found the chicks do NOT arrive earlier. They would not risk their guarantee on something as dangerous as shipping unpressurized, I'm sure.

 

[mstricer]

I'm so pleased we had no causalities .

 

[coffeekittie]

I've never seen non-hatchery d'Uccles babies before - what a difference! The body shape is more condensed - which if you look at pictures from oversees, is more correct. The foot feathering is out of this world! No, "hmmm, will they grow in more when the chick gets older?" Nope. Copious and complete on all appropriate toes - the all-important middle toes are thickly covered! So beautiful! Cute little buggers, listening to them trill and chat with each other right now. It's pretty cold out - only 31 degrees F earlier today, so these youngsters will be my house guests til much older.

Thank you, Michele!