Aylesbury ducks, True Pekin Ducks, and Long Island ducks- a discussion and "proposal"

Sorry to disappoint but I can't get my scanner to work. I might try to fix it tomorrow.

In the meantime, I found this:

Quote: For some reason a lot of the letters are scrambled. This is an old historic document called "Garden and farm manual."

https://archive.org/stream/gardenfarmmanual1898john/gardenfarmmanual1898john_djvu.txt

this is so cool, seems like something my grandpa would have read in an old newspaper. since our discussion I thought to do some research on my chocolate indian runner. i found some cool facts like; it's thought that indian runners have been around for more than 2000 years, when they were in china they worked in the rice paddy fields, and its thought that the black and chocolate indian runners are from breeding indian runners with some dark plumage and the black east indian duck. i see a teal sheen in gunters feathers and it seems to add up

I'm glad you posted, I had almost forgotten about this thread.

Since my last post I have found much more information on all three breeds, and on a fourth breed...

First, here is an image of a yellow pekin duck, from Europe, probably Germany:


The picture is from the book: "Keeping Ducks and Geese" by Chris and Mike Ashton.


A note on the yellow color:

Quote:

the young drakes especially possess a

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lemon-coloured, silky sheen over the
plumage.

It’s possible to increase the slight
yellow reflection by feeding them
extra maize.

Some exhibition breeders do go too
far. They keep the German Pekin in
cages or sheds all the time during
the day, so that they will not get
any sunlight. Only by night are they
allowed to go out, and they feed
them only maize. The result is a
yellow German Pekin duck, but this
is at the cost of animal cruelty.

So it’s a compliment
to the knowledge of
some judges in the
Netherlands and
Belgium when they
note on the
judgement card:
‘Bird too yellow!!!!’

That note comes from the same article referenced below.

-----

Now for a history of true / European pekins.

It started with a Chinese breed, the shi-chin-ya-tze or ten pounds duck.



Now according to "The German Peking Duck" by Kenneth Broekman (where the above image was found):

Quote:

But in 1872 a certain Englishman Mr Walter Steward imported the same breed into the UK.

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This was the start of two types of Pekin ducks.

He goes on to say the American crossed the imported ducks with aylesburys, creating the Long Island or "American Pekin."

Next,

Quote:

commercial spirit of the Dutch Seafarers.

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The Dutch East India shipping company was the only company
permitted to trade and to enter Japanese harbours. As a result, the
‘Penguin’ or ‘Japanese duck’ set foot in Europe. It is in type an upright bird.

German fanciers then started to crossbreed the Penguin/Japanese with the existing Pekin duck: the Shi-chin-ya-tze from China. It must be stated that the German fanciers did a great job to perfect the breed now called German Pekin duck.


So the Pekin family tree goes like this:


--------------------crossed with Aylesbury = Long Island Duck (American Pekin)
Shi-chin-ya-tze (ten pound duck, first pekin) -----
-------------------- crossed with "Penguin Duck" = (European) Pekin

Now what is the Penguin Duck?

Penguin Duck is simply an old term for the breed we now call "Indian Runner"! (see wikipedia)

Visual:





The internet does not have much information on the shi-chin-ya-tze.

So there you have it, the origins of the Long Island duck and the European pekin.

There is more to come, too much to fit in one post.

Nice thread. I wish the pictures would still show...

We have American Pekin we have European Pekin we have Indian runners we have Aylesbury (barley), but where are the “true” Pekin Ducks? Where are the shi-chin-ya-tze ducks?

I have 1 true-pekin and had 3 Long island which were sold as "True-Pekin" as ducklings at Theisens.

HeritageGoose13 said:

Yup, looks like it. I'm glad you like the name. I do too. I guess it does sound kind of mysterious!

It may just be the lighting (or my computer screen) but it looks like your duck has a somewhat pink-ish bill. This is kind of a recessive thing in Long Island ducks that pops up rarely and people believe it is there because of their Aylesbury ancestry. Thanks for commenting, I really like hearing what people have to say about this!

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I know this was a while ago but I was wondering if I could have some help with my duck. She is about a year old and she was sold to me as a Pekin from tractors supply, but in my experience they haven’t been the best with identifying breeds. She has a pale, pinkish beak and has a much lower keel than the others in my flock. She also has a more angular head shape similar to the Aylesbury. Is it possible that she is an Aylesbury or just a Long Island duck?

my handsome boy Donald with his Daisy. He’s aprox 19 weeks old & has been a good size (10 lb) duck since he was 10-12 weeks old

I'm gonna add a couple of photos here that I found with some size comparisons for reference as I also struggled to differentiate. I can't say if any are pure breeds but there are some distinctive features.

Pekin (Cherry Valley) vs German Pekin (vs a Runner)

It seems the German (or true/original?) Pekin is as described in previous posts with orange bill, upright, rather "fluffy" feathers. Cherry Valley Pekins are smaller, smoother feathers with orange or pink bill. The presence of pink bill makes me wonder how mixed the breed is though.

Aylesbury (cross) vs Pekin (Cherry Valley) vs White Call

The Aylesbury (crossed breed) is bigger, with more "fluffy" feathers around neck and their body is lower down close to the ground. The two Pekins (Cherry Valley) in the middle are smaller with smoother feathers but can have pink or orange bill. Their body between the legs seems higher from the ground. The white Call is significantly smaller with orange bill.