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.

Cochins, Spotted Silkie-Cochins, and Doves

 Bantam White Cochins. These two roosters are both purebred cochins , one is frizzled.  They both came in an order I received last June of Frizzled Bantam Cochins, White. Although one of the roosters does not have frizzled feathers, he is capable of siring frizzled chicks.

 I use kitty litter buckets as nest boxes for my bantams. The roosters seem to love them. I have observed the little hens waiting patiently for the roosters to get out of the nest boxes so they ( hens ) could get in and get busy.

 A sweet fluffy frizzled hen. I love these little fluffy balls of feathers !

 I obtained a pair of Paint Silkie Roosters last year. I placed them in a pen with my one Silkie hen and a few frizzled bantam white cochins. I did not get any successfully hatched chicks from the Silkie , but plenty of Silkie-Cochin crosses. Quite a few had spots, which I LOVE ! Spots like these are not common in chickens,

 I know these little chickens are not able to be shown because they are not purebred, and don't fit the standard for Sizzles (is there a standard for them ? ) but have decided I am going to aim for a particular standard of my own for these little chickens. I want small white chickens with very curly feathers, good sized black spots randomly placed all over the chicken, with blue under-color . I like the dark blue around the eyes and beak instead of the bright red.

 My preference here is the body shape & coloring of the chicken on the right, but the spotting of the chicken on the left. This is so much fun. My chickens make me smile, a lot !

 And then there are my doves. My sweet, easy-to-keep doves that coo and coo throughout all weather conditions. They faithfully tend their young and are so graceful , almost angelic appearing as they fly around their pen from perch to perch.

 My doves are prolific breeders and the numbers are requiring me to have to offer a few for sale again. I hate choosing doves to sell. Each one I choose is so perfect ! But I need to reduce the number of doves for the doves' sake. When there are too many of them they begin to compete for nesting spaces and perch space and get so busy chasing each other around they all suffer for the chaos.

A dove setting on eggs, more baby doves to come !



This is a glimpse of a few of my chickens and my doves this month. Every keeper of livestock & poultry needs to spend some time simply observing their animals. This gives the keeper an idea of the state of the flocks & herds, an idea of changes to be made. Sometimes simply taking time to observe them also allows the keeper to see things that alert him/her to health problems. Health problems caught early are often easily treatable and prevent serious infection or contagion. Feeding and caring for your animals should be a given, but knowing your animals and how they should behave is right up there with the most important things you should do. Besides, it's fun , after all, we're keeping animals we love and enjoy, right ?



How to Tell Different Colored d'uccles Apart

 Above is a Porcelain chick. It is a pale blue and cream color. Note~ all pure- bred d'uccle chicks have a beard feathered legs and a single comb.

 Above is my porcelain rooster  Platinum ,who is the father of the chick above. This is an example of what a Porcelain will grow to look like.

 Here are two Mille Fleur d'uccles chicks. They are orange and black or orange and gray. Note the beard feathered  legs and single comb.

 Here is my Mille Fleur rooster, Crimson. He is the father of the chicks above. He is a good example of an adult Mille Fleur.

 Above is a Black Mottled d'uccle chick. They can be the color above or solid black with a little white .

 Here is my Black- Mottled hen, the mother of the chick above. Black- Mottled adults are solid black with white dots. You can read more about the color in another post I did called Black- Mottleds, a challenging color.

 Here are a pair of white d'uccles that I used to have. The chicks are a white or pale yellow. I've found that by one month old you can sex d'uccle chicks and pretty much get guaranteed results. Roosters have a taller bright red comb and taller tails, hens have short pale orange or pink combs. If you would like to sex them earlier you should get  the book 'Sexing All Fowl' from the library or a  hatchery. So far I've had 100% success  from the sexing methods , as far as
I know My pet chicken is the only hatchery that sells sexed bantams so its a good skill to have .

Above are a Golden Neck and Self -Blue d'uccle .As chicks these colors can get mixed up with Mille Fleur's and Porcelains. Golden-Necks  are solid orange as chicks and self- blues are solid light blue.

 Above is a diagram of 6 of the 10 standard colors , colors not shown here are Porcelain, Gray , Buff, and Blue, Self blue pullet below. by Bugs.