Ancona Duck Questions- Selecting my keepers from 16 new birds

[firstlight]

Hi Everyone,

I'm basically new to ducks, though I've had muscovys this is my first year breeding and now getting into Ancona ducks too. I purchased an existing flock from a farmer that was using them for egg sales so they range in age from fledglings to old stock. I see definitely black, chocolate, tricolor, and some that are almost totally white.

I'm planning to select 7-9 ''keepers" as my foundation flock, and then rehome the rest. I am pretty sure I have at least 10 hens based on their poor neck scabs and probably 6 drakes, 3 of age and 3 fledgling.

My goals are primarily for keeping up egg production quality though I am curious about what choices I can make that help the conservation of the breed and as well as standard color patterns. I'm getting 7 eggs a day now so I am in the process of isolating hens to determine who is laying, who might be pre or post lay.

I hear all kinds of things about duck to hen ratios. With my muscovies I've found keeping 7-9 hens is best because of how often several are broody. I don't plan on having these guys be broodies so is a 5-1 ratio good- i do want to keep up egg fertility.

Any advice you have about picking my hens, drake, or anything else is appreciated. Some additional random questions

I am curious if it's true the darker the feet the older the duck?
I have one drake with bright blue wing markings- is that an ancona color or indicative of mixing?
I'm reading they should have orange bills, yet some have green or black.
Is there any harm to keeping hens that are almost exclusively white with only a few black feathers?
Can someone explain tricolor genetics?
Can someone explain chocolate gene? should i keep chocolate hens or drake?

I have my storey's guide in the mail. Sorry for asking newbie questions.

 

[learycow]

Foot color has nothing to do with age.
Anconas can be black, blue, chocolate, lilac, lavender, silver. They can also be tricolor (this is more of a specific pattern rather than actual color) or white but these are NOT desirable in the breed.
You want orange bills with some color. Though some hens will get mostly black/green as they age.

Tricolor doesn't actually have anything to do with a bird having three colors. It's a pattern, much like a fawn runner duck. Facial mask and almost fully colored body. Can be black, blue, or chocolate based so can come in any color. You do NOT want to use these for breeding as they only create more. Which is undesirable as they don't display the desired asymmetrical spotted pattern you want in anconas.

Chocolate can be sex linked. Chocolate drakes over black hens will give you chocolate females and black males that carry chocolate. Same can be done with blue hens giving you black and blue drakes that carry chocolate and lilac and chocolate females.

Overall, there is much much more to anconas than JUST their paint job. Size, conformation, body carriage etc play a huge role in what makes the breed separate from other breeds.

 

[firstlight]

Of course you are right about there being more to it than the paint job. This is part of the reason I am holding on to the whole flock for a bit to see how they look as they round up a bit and to make sure I don't mistake any young ducks as small.

We joke in our family that we are on a duck egg based diet so these guys have already won us over. I'll probably end up keeping more than I originally set out to. ha.

 

[learycow]

If you want to message me pics I'd be happy to critique them for you! Tell you which I would/wouldn't keep for breeding and why

 

[firstlight]

If you want to message me pics I'd be happy to critique them for you! Tell you which I would/wouldn't keep for breeding and why

Oh wow that would be amazing feedback. I will post pictures.

 

[Senna95]

What would the genetics of tri-color be? J'm a bit confused on this one...

And...blue wing speculum is not a good thing in an ancona. Sort of sounds like you may have some other stuff going on

 

[learycow]

What would the genetics of tri-color be? J'm a bit confused on this one...

And...blue wing speculum is not a good thing in an ancona. Sort of sounds like you may have some other stuff going on

The wing colors are usually a result of a cross breed. Typically seen in welsh crosses. Not an ancona trait for sure!

 

[firstlight]

hmm interesting. would a saxony drake explain the odd colors? I'm having trouble with photos but I'll get them up today. I thought I spied one saxony pair at their farm. Supposedly most the flock is direct from a breeder and hatchery but they did hatch some out and I have those birds but i'm not sure which they are.

I see the "tricolor pattern" photos but don't have that in my flock- what I think I'm seeing on some birds is still the ancona spotted pattern but with different colors, some brown and black, some black and gray/blue. Calico ducks. maybe I'm looking too closely and that's normal feather color variation. Photos will help so much.

What a mess lol. Luckily if I just have production mutts that's alright with me. They are laying an egg a day, didn't even pause after moving them to our place. I was just looking for some better layers without concern for a particular breed. I did get excited researching ancona's though. what a neat breed. If there are some breeder quality in here it's a bonus.

Don't hold back either, I'd rather just be realistic and I really disagree with harming a breed w/ lazy breeding.

 

[learycow]

hmm interesting. would a saxony drake explain the odd colors? I'm having trouble with photos but I'll get them up today. I thought I spied one saxony pair at their farm. Supposedly most the flock is direct from a breeder and hatchery but they did hatch some out and I have those birds but i'm not sure which they are.

I see the "tricolor pattern" photos but don't have that in my flock- what I think I'm seeing on some birds is still the ancona spotted pattern but with different colors, some brown and black, some black and gray/blue. Calico ducks. maybe I'm looking too closely and that's normal feather color variation. Photos will help so much.

What a mess lol. Luckily if I just have production mutts that's alright with me. They are laying an egg a day, didn't even pause after moving them to our place. I was just looking for some better layers without concern for a particular breed. I did get excited researching ancona's though. what a neat breed. If there are some breeder quality in here it's a bonus.

Don't hold back either, I'd rather just be realistic and I really disagree with harming a breed w/ lazy breeding.

If there are saxony that possibly crossbred, then I honestly wouldn't use ANY as breeding birds. While some crosses will be obvious, others will look like an ancona though they are a mix genetically. So if in question, do not use for breeding.

Anconas can be rusted or penciled (rust is most common on blue and blue variants and penciling on blacks). So if you have a blue bird with brown on the chest, that's a rust blue, not a tricolor (I know, confusing!). Or lavenders tend to have chocolate bleed through feathers... etc.

 

[learycow]

Top left is a tricolor. Hence the pattern, full facial mask and almost fully colored body. Still a pure ancona, but due to the genetics that make anconas who they are these pop up. Doesn't matter what pattern or types you breed in anconas, you cannot genetically weed these out 100%