Sebright & D'uccle

[sky bird]

My sister is going to buy her very first chickens from Cackle Hatchery very soon. The breeds are Sebright and D'uccle. She plans to get five of each but she doesn't want a lot of roosters. She doesn't know how to sex Sebrights or D'uccles so we need a little bit of help with it. If you have any advice about their care and how to raise them properly, any information about sexing them, or anything else! Thank you.

- Ashley

 

[questions543]

What are you planning on coin with them? show, pets, eggs??

 

[sky bird]

She is planning to have them as pets.

 

[questions543]

oh okay! well if your not going to show them then it's pretty much like raising any other chickens. Just a note though- sebrightscan REALLY fly so if your in a residential neighbourhood probably would be good to have a roof to the run

 

[sky bird]

Thank you! I'm glad I have a tall wired cage, but we are not in a neighborhood really, we just live around goats and chickens. Do you know anything about sexing either breed?

 

[shmccarthy]

I've had both breeds, I can't post pictures right now for reference but I will be able to later.

Sebrights are supposed to be hen feathered. I've had a couple that weren't, but as a general rule of thumb they are. You can't usually use hackle feathers to determine the gender because if this. Out of all bantams I have, they have been pretty easy to comb sex. Most have rosecombs but I've heard they can still have single combs due to less dominant genetics. Whichever combs yours have, single or rose, the males will start pinking at about 6 weeks. 7-8 weeks males will have pink wattles coming in. Females combs will stay black and will start to yellow a lot later, mine start around 12 weeks. My Sebright roosters have always been early to crow too. They are pretty flighty from my experience, but like any chicken, can be worked with to be used to humans.

D'uccles are also great birds. Do you know what color(s) you're getting? I have porcelains right now and have had mille fleurs. They have very sweet dispositions and are pretty calm. I was able to accurately sex mine at 8 weeks. They have single combs. Males will start to grow in and pink noticibly at 7-8 weeks and females won't start to pink noticibly until about 10 weeks. Even at that point, the females won't have big combs. They are also slow to get their full feathering. My Mille rooster didn't get his full plumage, with all the colors until he was about 10 months old. I expect my porcelains this year to be similar.

This is only a general guideline and some chicks can grow and feather quicker/slower than others. If you post pictures once they are aroun those ages though, we can give you more definite answers on what you have. Hopes this helps and good luck with your new babies. I will post reference pictures when I get home today for additional help.

 

[shmccarthy]

This is the first one. It's pretty obvious he's a cockerel. This is weasel and he's 14 weeks old. He's crowing already and is very sweet. He's seeming to keep his hen feathering, which I am hoping for. His sickle/hackle feathers are rounded and usually both hens and roosters of the Sebright breed will have this. He has a very large single comb already.

This is a 13 week old porcelain d'uccle. Her name is lady and she is a female. her comb is still pretty tiny and is just starting to pink at this age. Usually d'uccle cockerels will already have a lot of pink and a larger comb at this age.

This is Giovanni, he's from a flock last year. He's about 13-14 weeks in this picture and you can see he is developing his comb nicely. He started developing it noticeably at 6 weeks and I could tell for sure at 8 weeks. He also grew a large single comb and was very beautiful.

Giovanni after he grew in all his plumage

Next is my Sebright pullet, pancake. She is the same age as the first Sebright (14 weeks) but you can see she has a lot of black in her comb. She has a rose comb.

This is Mikey, and he is 14 weeks as well. He has a rose comb and was in the same batch as pancake above. ^ he has had pink in his rose comb since he was about 7 weeks old. He isn't showing signs of hen feathering like sebrights usually do.

14 week old Elvis, showing some nice hen feathering so far. He has been the slowest maturing and didn't get pink in his comb until about a week after the other cockerels.

Finally, Garfield at 14 weeks of age. He has a single comb and I noticed pink in it first at 8 weeks.

I mostly have cockerels, luck of the draw and 3 of my Sebright pullets didn't make it. But hopefully this can give you some info on what to look for at certain ages.