D'uccles or Wyandottes, which would you choose?

[Mrs MIA]

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Meyer Hatchery says that they don't do well in heat? What do you think? We live where it gets really hot & humid in the summer.

Sorry, can't help you there... we don't get "hot" in the summer here. Maybe 80F. But they do fine. As long as you give them shade and plenty of water, they should be fine.

 

[pbjmaker]

I have D'Uccles in Iowa and although we haven't done winter with them yet - they survived the heat and humidity here just fine. It's the falcons they don't do well with. Mine are very active also and funny to watch. They don't seem to understand that they are only about 1 1/2 lbs.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Mine did fine here in August and it stayed in the high 90s to low 100s with humidity in the zillionth percentage. Ahhhh... summer in the south!

I think the wyandottes are better egg layers. My d'uccles are more for entertainment than anything else. They're adorable!

 

[hippichick]

I'm here way down south, and my d'uccles do just fine in the summer months. I don't have Wyandottes to compare them to, but I just love my little d'uccles. They're one of my favorite breeds, if not THE favorite. The roos are just such proud little birds, and the hens are soooo sweet.....

Paula

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
Meyer Hatchery says that they don't do well in heat? What do you think? We live where it gets really hot & humid in the summer.

They do fine in the summer, at least mine does. It gets hot here. We don't have the humdity, but it will get over 100 in the summer, and little Sasha seems to handle it better than the bigger girls (including my Wyandottes).
I do like the Wyandottes better, though. They are friendlier and don't go broody like Sasha does.

 

[the simple life]

I have both, I think my wyandottes are much calmer and easier to handle. They love to be picked up and don't run from me.
I have brought out my new two week old flock of chicks to get some sun and fresh air in the yard and the wyandottes are wonderful with them. They are the only ones that don't try to come up and peck them. I stand their with them while they free range and have seen them go over and peck at my wyandottes and they don't retaliate.
My mille fleur is a sweetie pie but afraid of her own shadow. I have to shove her out of the coop to free range.
The porcelain duccle I have is a roo and very aggressive, he is a great guard for the banty flock and chases after the other flock of standards that I have if they get too close to his women.
He rounds everyone up at the end of the day and follows each one into the coop and goes back for any stragglers.
At the same time I have seen him go over and grab a beakful of fur off of one of the silkies in his flock for no apparent reason.
I am hoping it outgrows his aggressiveness towards his own flock because as I said he is a great guard for them and I want to keep him.
He also crows all day long every day. My other roosters don't do that.

I guess the question might be, what are you looking for in these two types of chickens.
Are you selling their eggs? I they just for fun?
If you got them at the same time you could raise them together and shouldn't have any problems.

 

[juliechick]

Simple, Are your Wyandottes bantams?

I really want chickens that won't go broody constantly. I understand that bantys do go broody, but I want some that will lay for awhile, at least. I have one Silkie that's just a fluffy incubator and one that has never gone broody, so I guess you really can't be sure.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I knew I'd get mixed opinions on here. I'm just having a hard time deciding because this might be the last kind of chicken we can get for awhile. We have limited space and it'll be full after adding some bantys.

 

[the simple life]

Mine are standards. I have them in with my bantys though, after they came out of the brooder I knew they were too young to mix with the standard flock I already had so I put them in with the bantys -silkies and duccles to see if they would adopt them(along with 2 easter eggers I got at the same time) and they took to them right away.
I also thought it would be a good idea to be able to have a couple of standards integrate into that flock so when there is any trouble out in the yard with the older flock of standards there would be some weight behind them.
I know the other birds like to pick on the smaller ones, so hopefully with a couple of larger birds in the flock it might help. Although, as I said they are very mild mannerd girls.

 

[juliechick]

Quote:
Your chickens are beautiful. Where did you get the Easter Eggers?

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

All of mine came from Mypetchicken. I believe they get theirs from Ideal, perhaps?

Thanks for the compliments! They're sweeties.