Exciting Blues ! (Self-Blue Mottled Rooster & Porcelain Hen )

Last year I hatched two d'uccles that I don't typically get out of my breeding pens.  The first color is a Self Blue Mottled d'uccle who has some gold leakage in his neck hackles.  Some of the other blue colors are, Blue, Self Blue and Blue mottled.  The Blue color is a mixture of blue and black, the Self Blue color is a solid gray blue. This color is also referred  to as Lavender. Then there are the Mottled versions of the Blue and Self Blue colors, which are the same as the colors above but have white spots throughout their body.

In this photo you can see the cream-gold leakage in his neck hackles. This most likely comes from the Mille Fleur in his background. Typically Self Blue Mottleds don't have this leakage. His parents are a Mille fleur and Black Mottled & both of the parents are half porcelain which is where he gets the lavender color gene. The lavender gene is a simple recessive gene that turns red or buff to cream, and black to light blue or lavender. His brother didn't get as much of the lavender gene and is therefore black with red leakage.

     A view of his wing.

And this is the Porcelain hen, one who stood out from the rest of my Porcelain chicks that I hatched last year. She has more blue and brighter, more defined color than my other porcelains. She is 1/4 Mille Fleur and 3/4 Porcelain. By crossing my Mille Fleurs with the Porcelains I was able to get better feather quality and color with my porcelains, this is where the hen got the brighter color.

So far these birds have been shaping up well and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. We plan on breeding them soon. My guess is the chicks will look like the father. I have done a Porcelain Self Blue cross before and got Self Blue chicks from the pairing, however the lavender color carries a lethal gene and when I did this cross only one chick lived. Since both of these birds carry Mille genetics there is probably less of a chance of the lethal gene happening.

We're ( Granny Baa & myself )pretty excited to see chicks from this pair and expecting some exciting blues !  ~By Bugs.

Porcelain D'Uccle Breeding program 2011 to 2014

 

 I started about 4 years ago with the d'uccle breed to start my own project of showing, raising, and breeding bantams, and its been a fun experience so far. I originally started with 2 Mille Fleurs , which then expanded to 2 adults and 3 chicks ,  but about a month later a neighbor dog got into my pen and killed all my birds. In December 2011 my Grandma got me 25 cute little D'uccle chicks as a Christmas present, 10 Mille Fleurs, 5 Porcelains and 10 assorted d'uccles, and that's how my porcelain breeding program got started.

 The two photos above are of 2 of my original birds, Snowflake and Platinum.

 So far my Porcelains have had great temperaments, are great moms, and are good egg layers.

 One of some of my first Porcelain chicks that hatched out in 2012.

 Above is Colonel Blue who was out of the batch above and champion bantam at our community fair, he also won many other awards before the age of  1 .

 This is Copper a half porcelain  half Mille Fleur. His dad was Colonel Blues Brother Glacier , he is a 3rd generation bird and has put a lot of great traits into my birds.

 Above is a photo taken to compare feather quality. Generally porcelains have poor feather quality due to the lavender gene,but it can be improved by crossing them with mille fleurs which is where Copper came in, although he looks like a mille fleur, if bred to a porcelain the chicks come out with porcelain color. On the left is a 3rd generation pure porcelain , on the right is a 4th generation 3/4 porcelain which has a lot of feather quality improvement.

 This is Tundra a 2nd generation porcelain hatched this year out of my best 2 original birds, and is probably one of the best birds Ive bred so far. In this photo she is 6 months old and in moult, currently she is fully feathered and looks even better.

 Another angle of her.

 A close up of her pattern. As far as pattern goes, you want the wing spots to form wide u shaped lines in the middle of the wing ,  good spaced pattern throughout the body with nice blue barring and white spangles,  a light blue tail with a white spot on each tail feather.

A close-up of her foot feathering. Tundra has some of the longest and thickest foot feathers of my d'uccles, a trait desired in the breed , and hopefully she passes this on.

This is Polar, Tundra's brother. So far he's a great looking rooster, although he doesn't have much pattern yet. He has a good base color and better feather quality than most of my pure porcelains..

And finally one of my latest porcelain chicks , a  4th generation 3/4 porcelain. Platinum's great granddaughter, and hopefully her and my other 4th generation porcelains add the great traits they have onto the next generation with many more. ~ By C.T. ( Bugs )