Runner and Mallard cross?

[Vickers58]

Does anyone else have a mallard x runner? This surprise duckling has us wondering what it may grow up to look like.... Please share pictures if you have them!!

Here are the parents....

 

[The Duck Dad]

i am a little late but yes! I have a runner duck/mallard cross.

here is "Donald" but she is really a hen. That is her sister Daisy next to her. She isn't much runner duck, but there is definitely some in her.

 

[blueducklings]

I ordered a batch of runners 2 summers ago and the breeder said a mallard might have gotten into the enclosure
The result was a bunch of runners that did not stand totally upright and had somewhat fatter bodies
They could also clear a 3 foot fence
They had beautiful colors but they had a wild streak
Not like the runners I am used to getting from this breeder

They were also quite a bit shorter than the pure bred runners I have

 

[Miss Lydia]

The coloring/pattern on your 2 ducks is beautiful.

 

[Russian Blue]

How they look depends on the runner's color. My mallard girls crossed with fawn-and-white runner drake tend to come out buff or light brown. Some have a white ring around their neck.

 

[NathanZee]

Yes, you should clip one wing on each duck. This is for their own safety. I had mine fly to the neighbor's yard and not be able to get back over the fence. One ended up three houses down and I wouldn't have got her back except they knew I had ducks and called me. There are good videos on Youtube that show how to clip duck wings.

As for male vs. female, you have only two options. First is to learn to sex them when they are first hatched. This is difficult and takes practice but if you can learn it you will save money and probably be able to hire yourself out! The other option is to wait until their voices start changing at 3-4 months.

Unlike chickens, I don't think there is such thing as a sex-link duck that can be sexed at hatch by color. If there is, someone will brobaby jump in and tell us about it.

Here I am to jump in! Actually some crosses of ducks can produce sex-linked ducklings. I did it by accident crossing my Buff Orpington drake and Mallard hen, resulting in tan-yellow females and blue males. I think there may even be a breed of auto-sexing ducks.

2 day old male.


The one on the left, slightly darker than the other two is a sex-linked female.


Juvenile sex-linked male.


Juvenile sex-linked female.

 

[GreenSahara]

I wish I did!

 

[shortgrass]

Does anyone else have a mallard x runner? This surprise duckling has us wondering what it may grow up to look like.... Please share pictures if you have them!!

Here are the parents....

Are you still around? Have an updated picture?

 

[Russian Blue]

I have hatched quite a few of the reverse cross, a fawn and white runner drake with a mallard. The resulting ducks are either all buff (strangely enough) or medium brown. In my avatar pic, the drake in the center and the girl on the far left are runner x mallard. This is a wonderful cross, IMO. They are smaller in size, lay well and can't fly over the fence.

 

[GoldenFlight]

I'm crossing my fawn and white runner drake with my mallard hen this spring.