D'uccles!!! Need some advice plz

[BantamStar86]

OK, I became interested in D'uccles not that long ago and decided that it was time to pick a breed to stay with. So i choose the D'uccles. Theyre beautiful birds and everything but mine seem to have a very mean personality. My hens are flighty, and my Cocks are very aggresive to me and other birds. I have heard they have a very sweet disposition but mine do not. I do not kno what to do. I handled them every day from when they were chicks and still do but they are still aggresive. they peck and spur me all the time. What do i do? i still handle them but they just wont seem to be calm with me.

any advice at all.

 

[Camelot Farms]

I have 3 varieties of Duccle.

My porcelains are sweet as can be. Even my roo.
My Golden Necks are skittish but once they are in your hands they are very sweet.
My Mille Fleurs used to be like the Golden Necks until the roo turned into the birds from Hades. He had been one of our favorites. Then he started getting a little fiesty. Now he is a full blown butt head. Even after I close the cage door, he will fly at it and hook his feet into the wire and jam his beak through it trying to get me. Lil jerk.
As soon as I get one of the pullets to give me a nice replacement for him, he will be going bye-bye.

I think its the bird, not the breed. JMHO.

BTW....Welcome to BYC!

 

[wegotchickens]

I have heritage mille fleur and hatchery lavenders.
My goldnecks are a mix of hatchery and heritage.

My MF have always been the most personable of all the d'Uccles. I think this is because they're heritage. I work with them a lot too though.

All my d'Uccles are very food-motivated. They love treats. So I use this to help me tame them. I throw out very few treats, and make 90% be taken directly from my hand. Doesn't take long for them to see that being friendly = good food. After that it's much easier to work with them.
The heritage birds learn this much more quickly.

Since I show my birds they have to be fairly tame and docile, and easily handled. That only happens if you work with them regularly.

 

[orionburn]

Quote:
Yep. My MF roo is as friendly as all get out with me. He jumps up on my leg if I'm sitting and will fly up on my shoulder. For the rest of the family he has days where he doesn't mind them and other days where he attacks their feet. Our hen is calm with us, but she likes to rule the roost. She's kicked the crap out of our Seabrights I don't know how many times because they've wandered too close to her chicks.

Over the past two years we've had 2 Seabright roos (from the same hatch) - one completely calm and docile, the other a total jerk. We acquried an Orpington roo this summer. He's a butthead to our bantam roos, but he never attacks people. I think it really does depend on the bird.

 

[BantamStar86]

i work with mine all the time to, but the females are still flighty and the males are all butt heads. lol They r all from the same breeder too. so idk. i just bought some hatchery ones and they are just flighty.

 

[Cetawin]

I cannot say why they are flighty...I have a pair of Milles that are a month old and a trio of porcelains that are 2.5 months old...they are all very very friendly. The Porcelain cockerel is sitting my my lap right now as I type.

From what NellaBean told me when I picked up the porcelains, they were hardly ever handled

 

[NellaBean]

Cetawin is right....the Porcelains she got from me had not been handled much at all. Most of the boys were picked up every night to get put in their night hutch, but that was it. If they got in there on their own they were not handled at all. While I did not handle them, they did get "interaction" daily........as they were in a pen full of very friendly cochins and I would go in there every day to feed/water and let out or lock up. But no "cuddling" so to speak.

None of my boys have shown any aggression at all, although they will pick at the other boys.....the girls are all very gentle and docile, even though I do not hold them.......they do not have any problem with me "being around" and will calm down if I force the issue (they were all easy to legband).

I have mottled girls, mille girls, and porcelain, gold neck and white boys and girls. None are aggressive at all. The girls are quiet and shy, the boys are a bit snotty to each other but give me a wide berth. they are relatively young, but don't act like they will be bad once older.

 

[BantamStar86]

idk, maybe i will try that treat trick thing. maybe it will help. idk but ones that are mean are the ones i got from a personal breeder. i got a whole new group of them that are just flighty but r starting to calm down. idk. Nellabeam if ur selling d'uccles i am looking to increase my flock for breeding for 4-H and Shows. Are ur d'uccles show quality? im interested plz message me.

 

[teddiliza]

That's a bummer that yours are mean. I have a few flighty ones, but no mean ones. The ones I handle more frequently are the most trusting things. I have a pair that goes in a cage at night to preserve their feathers inside my big coop, and I put them in the chicken tractor every morning. They are just happy to be picked up and taken outside and put back in at night. The rooster cracks me up. He's not as nippy and possessive of me now that he has his own hen. He just closes his eyes in comfort when I pick him up and start petting him, and follows me around to keep tabs on me when he's not in the tractor. When it comes time for downsizing, I sell the flighty ones and keep the tamest ones for breeding. Personality is more important than looks in my flock