I am no expert, but the Mohawk and black spot on the bottom of the duckling are typical for the restricted down pattern of an appleyard. In the adult photo though, he has a smaller, more streamlined body than my appleyards. He also looks darker than my appleyards in the photo. My guess would be that he is a mixed-breed drake with maybe some appleyard in there. He's a handsome drake, though!Does mine look like a silver appleyard to you? He is hatchery I got him from TSC This is his baby pic:
Very late response, but:I have only had my silver Appleyard duck pair since the end of May 2013 so I am pretty new to them. They were just over a year when we brought them home and she was already laying eggs. She promptly stopped laying about a week or two later. I thought she was done until January or February because she and the drake went through their moult, stopped mating, and put on what I thought was their muted winter colors. Well, now for the last week I noticed the drake being more aggressive to my younger geese who are actually bigger than he is, I've witnessed them mating for the first time in a couple of months, and the blue on their sides is again very bold (breeding colors??). I didn't think to look for eggs because there hadn't been any most of the summer, but tonight I noticed there are 3 eggs in her house. Can anyone tell me how the typical mating season goes over a yearly period for silver Appleyards... as far as, do they lay a few months, take off a few months, lay a few, off a few, etc; or do they lay for consecutive months then take off the summer months? I am very confused as to what to expect. Also, should I leave those eggs and see what she does with them or should I discard them and just start collecting them daily for the kitchen? Is it too close to winter to raise babies?
Thank you for any and all info!
