Ancona Ducks

[AuroraSprings]

Mine are not genetically chocolate. Done the test breeding there and when bred to chocolate hens no chocolate babies, when bred to black hens no chocolate babies. I now have one of these tri-colored males that should be a chocolate carrier, but he himself did not hatch out chocolate.

What colors did you get? What would hide chocolate I wonder?

We bred blues together this year and haven't gotten a single silver baby. The buff gene keeps getting in the way. So technically, we hatched lilacs, but that's another story.

 

[ChristineR]

We bred blues together this year and haven't gotten a single silver baby. The buff gene keeps getting in the way. So technically, we hatched lilacs, but that's another story.

I have one that I hatched from your eggs that I thought was going to be silver, but he darkened up and is actually lavender, I think. I need to take some recent pics

 

[toadbriar]

We bred blues together this year and haven't gotten a single silver baby. The buff gene keeps getting in the way. So technically, we hatched lilacs, but that's another story.

I have yet to get a silver - and I have several birds in blue or lavender. Lilac is silver + chocolate, isn't it? I don't know a thing about buff, can you explain that bit for me?

And do you still have that speckly silver? I love that bird.

 

[jgell]

What colors did you get? What would hide chocolate I wonder?

We bred blues together this year and haven't gotten a single silver baby. The buff gene keeps getting in the way. So technically, we hatched lilacs, but that's another story.

I need some help with all these colors. I have Black, Dark Brown, Light Brown, Dark Grey, Light Grey and what I would call Silver but it is probably different than your silver. I have looked for pictures on the internet so I can attempt to talk intelligently in this thread but they don't seem to help. The one I am calling silver came from your 5/20 hatch so she is probably lilac given the information above. She started all yellow. So what is silver? What is the difference between Blue and Lavender? Not genetically speaking but when you look at them? We can talk genetics later. My Light brown looks like a pencil runner, which I figured out from reading this thread as I have never seen a runner of any kind, but some of his feathers go from brown to silver. Does anyone have any pictures that will allow me to know what is what? I have never had any other breed of duck so please don't reference other breeds because I will still be lost.

 

[Valntyn]

My naughty drake is at it again.

My ducks are partially pets, but I don't want to breed more stand-offish, semi-aggressive ducks.
I understand that it is breeding season & he is just feeling his oats, but at what point do I give up the goat on this one?
Half the people say to roast him ASAP, that the thing with the chickens is dangerous, and another group act like I am trying to re-home my eldest son.

Just yesterday we finally made the decision to cull one of our original males, even though we said they were grandfathered from ever seeing the dinner table. He's a big, beautiful (Muscovy) boy, but he's too cocky and keeps our girls and our other drake too stressed -- which, of course, causes ME stress! We've had to put him in with everyone so a new mama could raise her new ducklings in the 'bachelor pad' without harm... but when we had him separated, MAN was everyone in the main pen so much happier! So, when our ducklings are big enough for processing, he's going, too.

I just moved to Maine...

...and I need to stop feeling so bad. ... Right...?

Hi, fellow Mainer!

And yes, we need to stop feeling bad, when we've done everything we can think of, but need to put the health of the rest over the crotchetiness of the one.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/ShyGecko/bc4729de.jpg

That black-bill is gorgeous!

We have two Anconas we bought as ducklings from learycow.

They are cu-u-ute!!

I've been so focused on the Muscovy babies and taking care of our duck who was attacked (sadly, one of the Anconas), that I haven't taken too many pics of them lately, but here's a couple to add to this lovely thread!

Here's Patches, our female:


She's barely left this pool since we bought it. *giggle*

All the girls flock to Wade, our Muscovy drake we're keeping.

And here's Freckles -- sorry for his appearance. He's our boy who is healing from being attacked. The latest pics I have of him are with wounds (though I tried to not show any here).


I love his "shawl..." and his striped feet... and his freckled cheeks and bill... and... and...

I'll try to get more/better pics soon. I've LOVED going through this thread -- Anconas are beautiful!!

 

[ducklover700]

poor boy; he looks sweet though. and I love his coloring. I hope he heals up quickly for you!

 

[ducklover700]

Here are my four Anconas. they'll be turning 3 wks old tomorrow, and Friday. I have to say this hatch has been a really strange experience; but I love them to death, and they're very social and friendly. Pic overload warning lol

Here's Yara, a Black female. She was shrink wrapped in her egg. This is gross but I've noticed that her poo has been really watery which isn't so strange but it's very white, like milky. what's that from?


She stood up and stretched out one of her legs here.


Ren, my Chocolate boy. I'm hoping he'll turn out to be an awesome drake. So far he's very respectful of his girls, and has a soft spot for Opal. He was scaring off my big Swedish girl yesterday when she got too pushy through the fence. He has one little spot of yellow in the middle of his back. that's going to be so cute!






Opal. It's very hard to see her coloring in the sunlight, and she's also very dirty right now. She, and Ren have been best buddies since they were tiny. She loves cuddling up next to him.


she has a bullseye on her back.



Last but not least, Posie, the third girl, and she's very brave! the first day I set them up next to the older ducks she squeezed onto their side of the fence and went foraging with them.



Here are my other 3 girls just for fun. I have a swedish, a Welsh Harlequin, and a buff Orp. (Blue Belle, Aurora, and Ella)

Blue is going through a molt currently.


Aurora, she gets prettier every day.

Ella, on the right. she has a lot of lacing on her feathers. I've learned that the Buff gene can effect the ancona coloring, and I thought how interesting it would be to see what babies came from my buff gal, and chocolate ancona boy. hmm!

 

[Chicken Crazy12]

What colors did you get? What would hide chocolate I wonder?

We bred blues together this year and haven't gotten a single silver baby. The buff gene keeps getting in the way. So technically, we hatched lilacs, but that's another story.

We hatched out Blacks and more of the chocolate and black tri-color. Another interesting thing about these chocolate and black tri-colored ducks is that they are hatching out black and then as they get their adult feathers in you see the chocolate appear.


This is one of the drakes from my original tri-color drake. Daddy looks a lot like this only different pattern. I'll see about getting some better pics this weekend.

 

[ChristineR]

A few of my Anconas, all grown up. I took these with my phone last evening, so not the best quality, and I had to put them in the dog crate to get them to hold still, but I wanted to show Aurora what mine ended up looking like (I got my hatching eggs from her). I need to take more pics of the others in better light and with a better camera.

 

[AuroraSprings]

Lovely! I've been very happy with the markings and size on our babies this year, glad to see it is consistent. Looks like you might have a lilac, if that what it actually is. Will have to test breed to find out. Are the feathers on the tail another color from the ones on the back?