Information needed: breeding heavy weight to light and vice versa.....

[TattooQ27]

I am still trying to decide if I want to have 2 pens of purebred ducks producing purebred offspring or if I want to have one big pen with different types of ducks that are allowed to breed at will.

Does anyone have any information on breeding different weight class ducks together to produce mixed offspring? I am interested to know the pros and cons of breeding heavyweight drakes to lightweight ducks or light weight drakes to heavy weight ducks. Are there any cons you have personally observed when breeding mixed weight class ducks?

 

[Wifezilla]

All my ducks are the same weight class, but I do know most of my egg sales are for purebreds, not my Welsh Harlequin/Runner mixes.

 

[cayuga26]

I wouldn’t mix pure breed ducks unless you have a purpose for doing so (trying to improve size, egg laying ability, colour etc). Same goes for all breeds in my opinion (unless there going to the freezer or for a purpose as mentioned). Just my opinion though. Cross breeds would potentially make good pets (as all ducks can) but there would not be the demand or enough good homes for them all anyways so I would stay away from breeding poultry as “pets” (not that they don’t make good pets though).

What breeds do you currently keep if you don’t mind me asking

 

[1lpoock]

Yeah, many people looking for ducks want purebred ducks. If you are able to split them up, why not do so?

 

[TattooQ27]

Quote:
We aren't actually getting the ducks with the intention of selling hatching eggs, just figured if we have the ducks we might leave a running auction on Ebay to sell the eggs instead of just throwing them out or feeding them to the dogs. If they sell, great but if not that is fine too. I just don't want to sell them and then have an issue where people get mad at us because the ducklings are deformed or something due to the size difference between the ducks and drakes.

Right now we have a Pekin drake, and Ancona, Welsh Harlequin and Blue Swedish ducks.

We have an order from Cackle for more Anconas, Khaki Campbells and Cayugas and then an order from Ideal for Buff Orpingtons and Blue Swedish (hoping for a Black or Splash Swede)

We are thinking when we are done we will have 9 total ducks:

Drakes- Ancona
Pekin

Ducks - Ancona
Welsh Harlequin
Cayuga
Khaki Campbell
Buff Orpington
Blue Swedish
Black or Splash Swedish

 

[TattooQ27]

Quote:
We are able to split them up but we really only want them as pets and we aren't too concerned about whether the eggs sell or not. We were just trying to avoid having hatching trouble if we did decide to sell them (or hatch some out ourselves). We don't want to sell them and then have people have issues with the ducklings because of the size difference between the drakes and the ducks.

 

[cayuga26]

if you dont want to breed them you could always eat the eggs, duck eggs are very good (well not much different than chicken eggs) that's alway an option. Put's them to better use and makes the pets valuable to the family (for food they produce)

 

[Wifezilla]

Yeah...why not eat the eggs. Duck eggs are delicious and my friends LOVE my duck egg quiche.

 

[muscovy94]

Breeding ducks of different weight classes will not cause them to hatch deformed or anything. They should hatch and be perfectly fine. The only thing I would worry about when letting a large male duck breed a small female duck is that the male could hurt her while mating. But other than that they should be fine.

 

[TattooQ27]

Quote:
Thank you, that is what I was worried about too but so far my drake doesn't seem to be hurting anyone. I will keep an eye on him but it is good to know that the resulting ducklings, should we sell or hatch any eggs, should be fine )