Non Standard Call Ducks

At the moment the only Non Standard colour we have bred is the Dark Blue Silver as seen below.

Dark Blue Silver Duck

This spring we had a surplus mallard drake and had kept two apricot ducks who were full sisters - we couldn't decide which one to keep, so kept both. After reading in a book, that if you crossed an apricot with a mallard the offspring should be 50% mallard and 50% apricot we decided to give it a try. The duck layed eight eggs and hatched seven ducklings, however they all appeared to be blue fawn. We have since been told that this is in fact what we should have expected. As the ducklings feathered, one was seen to be lighter than the others, and after their first molt it became quite different. We have since discovered that it is classed as a Dark Blue Silver. One of the reasons we decided to try this pairing was to improve the heads of our apricots, because the Mallard drake had a particularly large head. Although the colour of the ducklings was unexpected the we were delighted with their type, especially the Dark Blue Silver duck (seen above). We intend to try breeding with her next season.

Father (Mallard drake)	Apricot sisters

Blue Fawn duck and drake

(parents shown above)