Hey Patty, Gator, Mike and other mille cochin enthusiasts

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Anyone heard from tate lately?

 

[JOSHSBANTAMS]

I haven't talked to him since last week. I believe he has to move shortly so he's probably pretty busy with that. I sure hope he can get back into the Millies. His work has brought most of us to where we are in them.

 

[alpinefarm]

Quote:
My farm work is really intensive in the spring, so I don't "BYC" as much as I'd love to do...

I wasn't aware that a lot of folks here had gotten their mille fleurs from "tate"....

Would love to see more photos from those whose have these birds.

Also, there were a number of folks asking if his birds were imported, given that a recent ad he posted seemed to imply that. Forgive me if I missed someting, but those of you who have worked with him and have his stock, do you know whether he ever answered that?

 

[onthespot]

Quote:
I would hang onto the one with too much white. I bet most of it will go away. My roo had huge chunks of white on his back, shoulders, sides, streaks in his neck and tail and barely has an off colored white feather here and there as an adult. I would NEVER have guessed and almost barfed up a kidney when i saw all that white coming in... I just about passed out from disgust. It all molted out as a teenager, LOL. No promises on your guy, but I bet he will turn out nice for you.

 

[Krys109uk]

I hope you lot don't mind my asking about your experiences; I am working with blue jubilee Orpingtons & it helps to hear of others experiences, working with a similar pattern.

Did all of your birds originate from the same breeder?

The variety of different chick downs is interesting. Are they relatively stable in that they consistently produce well mottled offspring. My bird's chick downs are relatively similar in that they are on wheaten down.

As others have said, mottled chicks often have quite a lot of white in juvenile plumage. If only lightly marked with white the white usually more or less disappears in adult plumage.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
is tate out of milles now??

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
I would hang onto the one with too much white. I bet most of it will go away. My roo had huge chunks of white on his back, shoulders, sides, streaks in his neck and tail and barely has an off colored white feather here and there as an adult. I would NEVER have guessed and almost barfed up a kidney when i saw all that white coming in... I just about passed out from disgust. It all molted out as a teenager, LOL. No promises on your guy, but I bet he will turn out nice for you.

barfed up a kidney, huh? LOL Well, the jury is still out on this little guy...he was a hatch a while after my three others...so he's a weeks' younger...thanks!

 

[Msbear]

Quote:
Hi There

I believe most of us started our project with the same lines... though some of us went a different root. I know Patty (onthespot) started with a mille fleur roo from Tate and put them to mottleds. Her F1's were very much mottled showing some minor red streaking. She took the birds with the streaking and put them back to the mille roo and already has some nice looking youngsters... I believe chipmunked down and some wheaten and quite a few darker mottled looking. Others who are in further generations like Lynne (wwmicasa1) and Josh are getting blondes (wheaten) and chipmunks. I hatched F3 generation (Lynne's lines) and scored 1 chipmunk and a few wheatens with some buff/red splotching on the backs... a bit lighter than the F2's I hatched earlier this season. I know Tate has been breeding these for 8 years and Im pretty sure he's getting something a bit more consistent... maybe he'll chime in. Im not sure which is the "right" down pattern. I know a mille fleur D'uccle chick can have a wide range of down color from light wheaten to chipmunk to very dark.

You are the genetics guru

Do these down colors have meaning like would certain down colors carry certain traits that may breed more desirable birds? I hatched a few dark ones and did cull them out for lack of mottling but Lynne has a dark pullet that has just gorgeous mottling.

This is a great point! Im glad we are all taking pics of our chicks. As they age, we should have a page where we can share this info. ...compare the chick pics to their adult pics and see if there is something more to learn from the down color.

 

[twinlights]

I was lucky enough to purchase some of Tate's chicks recently. I just love them, what cute little buggers.
Wish I could have taken more.
I will get some photos of them soon.

 

[Krys109uk]

MsBear, Thank you so much for your detailed response, it is very interesting. I think decent mille fleur can be rather elusive.

Do any of you have 'then & now' photos of your chicks? Do you keep notes on each chick?

Also are you going for the beautifully neat mille fleur pattern like the Belgians, or the more random mille fleur of the Speckled Sussex?


I think Onthespots idea of using a mottled sounds good. There are different patterns of mottled too. I have used my mottled Orps, it seemed to help (but it didn't help the mottled Orps).

I hadn't realised that there were three different down colours found in Belgian millies in US. In Europe the millie Belgians are the dark down (eb aka brown). However Speckled Sussex & Jubliee are in Wheaten in Europe.
I've read that the pattern takes best on the dark down. But I think it looks well enough on wheaten. I've not seen, close to, any birds with the pattern on chipmonk (duckwing).

From my point of view, the more white the better at this point, because I have the problem of not enough white in my birds. I often get the blue or black with little or no white at the tip. Have any of you had this & what, if anything did you do that helped?

Also maintaining a good ground colour without mess is also a problem I've had (I get pencilling marks). Have any of you had any trouble like this?

Most of my chicks finish up being pets for eggs or someones dinner, I think.

Thanks for your help.