Australian Spotted Ducks

[Duck Drover]

I keep my ducks in the yard where my chickens free range but they don't really "play" together, LOL. They tend to stick to separate groups and they get along when they do cross paths. I am working on clearing and fencing a new garden area this year that will also serve as a duck safe pen when the ducks are not nesting. I actually prefer to collect eggs to hatch but with so many eggs the incubators fill up quickly. I have Silkies for hatching as well but they run on their own schedule and the ducks took an interest in hatching their own eggs before I found the nests hidden in bushes. The one Silkie hen that was broody ended up being sold to someone else wanting a broody hen because she was not bearded and my other Silkies are bearded.

I raised chocolate Muscovies for many years but I have also had Indian Runners, Swedish, Black East Indies, Call ducks, Rouens, Mallards, Cayugas, Khaki Campbells, Pekin, and something crested that was too dumb to even call a duck but it had personality. I have wanted to try Welsh and Silver Appleyard but I am too attached to the Australian Spotted ducks now.

 

[Duck Drover]

I am finally getting more colors of ducklings. The greenheads are beautiful but I have been working on getting bluehead and silverhead colors as well. I have a silverhead pair and three bluehead hens so now I am hatching some blueheads I can keep. Here are some bluehead Australian Spotted ducklings that hatched in the past 24 hours. I had to sell my first bluehead because it was the only one and the separation anxiety would have been too stressful for the baby ducks but now I have two that I can raise together so I am keeping them.

 

[chickengrl87]

What color would my drake and two hens that I purchased from you last year be considered? Quackers(the drake) has turned his funny white/grey color again like he did last summer. I got an incubator and ready to start hatching but the hens started molting right after I bought the incubator! That would be my luck! So I just have to wait for them to start laying again.

Kelsey

 

[laughingdog]

How loud, large, hardy, pred savy, friendly, and self sufficient,are ASDs compared to calls,EIs, and any other mini/bantam ducks known, and compared to scovy? what is going prices for eggs, hatchlings, adults? are hatchery ones same as would get temperment ect as asked above, and size/shape, as from few breeders see out there? howare they at laying setting hatching and rearing own young compared to other bantams?

 

[Duck Drover]

What color would my drake and two hens that I purchased from you last year be considered? Quackers(the drake) has turned his funny white/grey color again like he did last summer. I got an incubator and ready to start hatching but the hens started molting right after I bought the incubator! That would be my luck! So I just have to wait for them to start laying again.

Kelsey

Quackers is a bluehead and both Abigail and the other hen (can't remember her name at the moment) are greenheads. I remember Abigail seemed determined to hatch a nest last year and then she was disturbed and her eggs disappeared. They are really good at hiding their eggs! My last hatch was in October and I was getting eggs again in February but it was too cold so the eggs were not viable. These were fresh eggs that were in known nests but then when we were able to collect them daily the hens typically moved to a different location just to make things more difficult. My first hatch was April 9th this year and those eggs were set in early March. As the temperatures rise, the fertility and viability of theeggs increases but again we find nests full of eggs that were so well hidden that they got too cold overnight for them to develop and hatch. It seems the most recent eggs from a large clutch will hatch while the older eggs are clear or they quit mid way through incubation.

The hen who is sitting on a nest due any time had four clear eggs that I pulled out and I hatched two of her ducklings in the incubator already so the cold may be delaying the development of the eggs in her nest compared to the ones I put in the incubator. She clearly does not turn them as well as the automatic turners either because both ducklings were stuck to the shell and I had to assist them in hatching since they could not turn around to unzip. It is possible they hatched early since they are smaller than the ducks that were incubated entirely in the incubator and one had a bent neck that did not straighten out so it ended up dying, possibly because the eggs had rolled out of the nest so they sat cold before I saw them and brought them inside to put in the incubator. Normally I think the hen does a better job than artificial means but their nests are on the cold ground and we have had so much rain, plus they take breaks to eat and drink (and poop broody piles by the water) so the eggs cool off more in cold weather instead of being constantly heated. I do staggered hatching so I can keep setting eggs a few days apart but I only have one hatching incubator and I am hatching chickens as well so I end up alternating my duckling and chick hatches.

From what I have seen in my ducks, the season starts out slow and then picks up suddenly. I see alot of action from the drakes but still get clear eggs so either the drakes are not covering the hens adequately or the eggs are too old or too cold when I set them. Some will develop spots on one side of the egg so I candle before I set them and I candle again during incubation. Some eggs that look questionable due to a visible air cell actually develop so I will try most eggs and weed them out later if they end up cloudy looking. I lose good eggs to.accidental cracking during collection too.

I would suggest you keep looking for eggs and try setting the first clutches you find so you can observe what is happening, then when fertility is established let the hens take over. I have four hens that were clever enough to hide their nests long enough to start sitting so I am letting them stay on their eggs since I only have three incubators that hold 40 eggs each for duck eggs and two incubators for chicken eggs (they have a shorter gestation so I can run more through in the same time). I have crows that will find eggs before we do and they also can get to ducklings before I lock up a new hen with her babies in a safe pen so I try to moniter the nests the hens are sitting on and I will take the eggs to put in the incubator if she is not able to protect them well enough.

I am still willing to hatch eggs for you if I have the space but right now I have eggs waiting to go in when a batch goes into lockdown. I converted one of my still air incubators to forced air but I could use my hatching incubator and my brooder incubator as still air incubators if I buy turners for them or hand turn eggs, which I may need to do with my Call duck eggs if I can't sneak them under a Silkie that is sitting on Silkie eggs now. I am tempted to invest in more incubators but if I end up with too many eggs I may consider selling hatching eggs, as long as I have a high fertility rate established on my own hatches. I was pretty selective about who I sold eggs to last year because I don't want them to be a loss when I can hatch them myself. Anyone who wants to hatch duck eggs needs to have success with hatching ducklings first and there are plenty of other less valuable eggs to practice on before they can buy my eggs since I know I can hatch them successfully given enough incubator space. I use the Little Giant incubators because they are what I have used for many years successfully but newer styles seem to work better for some people.

 

[Duck Drover]

How loud, large, hardy, pred savy, friendly, and self sufficient,are ASDs compared to calls,EIs, and any other mini/bantam ducks known, and compared to scovy? what is going prices for eggs, hatchlings, adults? are hatchery ones same as would get temperment ect as asked above, and size/shape, as from few breeders see out there? howare they at laying setting hatching and rearing own young compared to other bantams?

Wow, so many questions! Here is a site with an overview that is pretty comprehensive: http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/australianspotted.html

You can also check Holderread's for his price list. I sell ducklings for $10 each with a minimum of four, his are $10.50 each with a minimum order of 10 plus shipping. I have not shipped live birds myself. I am not sure if there are any other hatcheries that have them but you could check. I only want show quality myself so all mine have come from Holderread's originally. I am selling breeding pairs for $100 due to the fact that I have to separate my lines and raise the ducklings to make them available. Holderread's also sells pairs for $100 plus $10 for a shipping box and $22 for postage (from Oregon to Washington). I drove down for my last pair during Spring Break so they would not be stressed by shipping. I have mainly had greenheads available but I am hatching other colors now so I should have more color variety. Holderread's only sells assorted ducklings so you do not get to choose your colors. All ducklings are sold as straight runs so you will get both hens and drakes. I am not sure how closely related ducklings are that are sent together but typically you would want to keep a wide gene pool, especially on a rare breed. You might find people selling eggs through online auctions but remember that shipping can kill them if the post office mishandles them or x-rays them. I would only sell eggs locally for pick-up because I don't trust the post office with my reputation. I have never purchased shipped eggs myself because I am not a gambler but some people are thrilled if anything hatches.

I personally like the Australian Spotted duck over other breeds I have raised in the past because they are great foragers, layers, and mothers. When I had 40 acres I did have a beautiful flock of about 50 chocolate Muscovies (no pied color defects either) and there are times I miss them but they were a meat breed and these are a bantam breed so they have different purposes. With people needing slug and pest control for their yards and gardens, the Spots are the best backyard duck in my experience. They are beautiful and friendly so they make great pet ducks. They don't make the noise Call ducks were bred for so they are a quiet duck but the hens can make some noise so drakes can be better suited for their inability to quack (they sound more like croaking frogs). Groups of drakes get along fine together since they are not an aggressive breed.

Hopefully I have answered some of your questions and others can share their experiences.

 

[laughingdog]

Thank you very much to take time to answer my and I'm sure questions of others. any pics of your color variety?

 

[Duck Drover]

Here are pictures of some of my ducks.

This is a pair of greenheads.

This is a silverhead hen and a bluehead hen. The silverheads get so light that their spots are not as visible so the greenheads have the most color contrast out of the three colors and they also hide better if there are predators.

 

[Duck Drover]

The best way to get the ducks to come running is to spray water on the ground because they love the water! We have such nice soil full of worms that they love it when I "make mud" (as my husband calls it). I have been trying to take dirt from high spots in the yard to fill in holes and low spots since we had to dig up our yard this winter to lay down new septic lines. The best way to know the ground is level is to make mud and see how the water drains and the best time to do it is right after a heavy rain when the ground is already saturated. I actually got a power nozzle so I can pressure wash the dirt right out from under the sod in order to get the ground level.

In the summer, we set up a sprinkler for the ducks because they love the water so much. We hope to be able to put in a pond this summer if we can afford the materials. We were going to dig out a pond in a high spot in the yard but I have seen above ground ponds that I like so we are still looking for ideas. I really like waterfalls to circulate the water and that makes a pond pretty expensive. I had used the plastic pond liners in the past but I did not really like them because I need to be able to drain water from the bottom for my garden and then fill from the top.

 

[chickengrl87]

Thank you so much for all the information! I know I have asked you a lot of questions about my duckies! How exactly can you tell the difference in their colors in hens? My husband is building me a separate pen and area for the ducks so when they do start laying again they won't be disturbed by my chickens. My chickens kept booting Abigail off so they could lay their eggs! I got so mad! I am hoping they will set on nests and I can do a batch in the incubator. I'm kinda nervous about hatching eggs in the incubator since I haven't done it before. I have observed my grandpa hatch several batches of quail eggs so I have an idea of what I'm doing but I'm not confident! LOL