Ancona Ducks

[crystaldegallina]

Ok, well here are some shots of my "Ancona" ducks from Sand Hill. Obviously, the black/white one is Ancona. The other 2 white ones are a bit bigger then her, one is female and one is male. They either are both white Anconas or one is a Pekin and one is a Ancona. What do you all think? I plan on selling the 2 white ones as a pair when I able to procure new/better stock, but for now they will keep the only "good" one company.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

I would have guessed them to have better birds than that, so sorry you ended up with ducks you werent expecting.

 

[AuroraSprings]

They both look like Pekins to me. Larger head than I've seen on most Anconas. Hard to say for sure though. I ordered from Sandhills too. Was going to increase our layer flock for eggs, but they cancelled our order altogether. Guess I should be thankful.

 

[ChristineR]

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?

Is there a lilac color in Anconas? Are there other acceptable colors than these?

BLACK
CHOCOLATE
BLUE
LAVENDER
SILVER
TRI-COLOR

His tail does seem to be a slightly different shade than the rest of him. He keeps changing color, so I'm kind of just waiting for his next molt to see what happens. I was thinking he is lavender...?

 

[crystaldegallina]

I think they are both Pekins too, they have both have thick necks. Honestly, they should have canceled my duck order all together, and I would have neen totally cool with that! At least I wouldn't have put time and money into substandard stock. Oh well, I had issues with another oder from them too, they admittedly sent chicks too old to be shipped, so I ended up with a whole bunch of fading and dead chicks. I will still order seeds from them, but I will never ever buy poultry from Sand Hill. I think I will shoot them an email and ask them how I am supposed to figure these guys out.

 

[ChristineR]

I think they are both Pekins too, they have both have thick necks. Honestly, they should have canceled my duck order all together, and I would have neen totally cool with that! At least I wouldn't have put time and money into substandard stock. Oh well, I had issues with another oder from them too, they admittedly sent chicks too old to be shipped, so I ended up with a whole bunch of fading and dead chicks. I will still order seeds from them, but I will never ever buy poultry from Sand Hill. I think I will shoot them an email and ask them how I am supposed to figure these guys out.

That is awful - unprofessional and inhumane. I would never do any business with them.

 

[StevenW.]

That's awful! I did send a order in for 15 Indian Runner Ducklings (Grey, Buff, Trout?) this spring and I had to cancel it due to a family emergency and no one would have been home to get them.
It took them over 2 months to send a check back, they could have at least called and said "We're sorry we didn't get to you fast enough." That would have been OK with me but I had left over 10 message on their voice mail.. I thought I was never going to see that money again!

I understand they are a family run hatchery/business but that is NOT how you do business at all!

 

[crystaldegallina]

I had to wait quite awhile for my partial refund too, probably a month or so. I wanted really bad to have a good experience with them, because I love that they are preserving so many breeds of poultry and of seeds. But they failed.

You are right ChristineR. Completely inhumane, I will not be supporting them any longer, at all. It was a completely avoidable situation, and they handled it terribly.

 

[AuroraSprings]

Per Holdderread's book: " Lavender Anconas have the same genotype as Chocolates, except they are heterozygous for blue, while Lilacs are homozygous for blue. "

We are realizing that a lot of our Lavenders are actually Lilacs. Working on getting pictures together to show the differences.

 

[zooweemama]

Ok, well here are some shots of my "Ancona" ducks from Sand Hill. Obviously, the black/white one is Ancona. The other 2 white ones are a bit bigger then her, one is female and one is male. They either are both white Anconas or one is a Pekin and one is a Ancona. What do you all think? I plan on selling the 2 white ones as a pair when I able to procure new/better stock, but for now they will keep the only "good" one company.

The white ones look like my Pekins. Spitting image. I'm sorry.