Early birds.

 Two days ago I had a Porcelain and Mille Fleur chick hatch one day early  and looked a little small and undeveloped here is a picture of them above, Mille Fleur om left ,and Porcelain on right.

 This is my Black Australorp hen sitting on the eggs before they hatched, usually I don't put to many eggs under her because she tends to break them so I only put four under, three hatched and one was bad, and one chick died because she squished it and it hatched to early, the two chicks are now doing fine and are out in the brooder outside.

this is the incubator my grandma let me barrow these eggs are still waiting to hatch ,there are 32 eggs in the incubator right now.

Disqualifications and Defects.

 Disqualifications and Defects for the Belgian d'uccle bantam.  D'uccles should have a straight firm comb with about 5 points.

 Duccles should have a thick and full beard and muffs, absence of beard and/or muffs is a disqualification,  They should also have an absence or very small wattles.Other disqualifications are ,severed wattles, squirrel tailed, and absence of vulture hocks which are basically featherless legs.

 Bull neck and v shape in back are very important for body shape.

 This is Oreo my Black Mottled d'uccle , he is a general description of what a d'uccles body shape should look like.other defects are , large wattles and ear lobes, and neck unduly long and too narrow.

The d'uccle is a four toed breed and should have four nice toes like this, also bare middle toe is a serious defect.  All of my birds seem to not have any thing wrong except for Oreo who has too many complete white feathers.

Broody Poultry

There are a lot of broody poultry here at our place. This time of year broodiness seems to be the name of the game as far as my chickens, ducks, doves, & turkeys are concerned.

 The end result of broody hens that have been successful is always a delight!To see more about the broodiness going on around here check out this post on my other blog.*Spot On Cedar Pond