Ancona Ducklings & Breed SOP

[Kholts]

I have hatched out 8 Ancona Ducklings. All appear to be Black except 1 possible chocolate.

I will be growing them out to see how many ducks & how many Drakes I have. I was able to find others in my area who have hatched this year as well (from a different source) & we are looking to do a drake swap later in the year.

My hope is to use for eggs & possibly meat while trying to maintain the breed. This is not a common breed where I am located & I had to shop eggs in from another province. I got pictures of the parent group as well as precious hatches & talked in length with the breeder.

I have been reading breed SOP but obviously do not have the proper eye yet. Is there anyone here that has experience with the breed?

My main question at this present moment is do these ducklings look to have too much color or would you consider them not the worst? (I can post better pictures if needed)



Obviously body composition & utility is also important but I’m going to have to see them grown out to know what to keep & what I’m going to have to work on.

I’ll keep this thread updated as they grow out & will most likely post more questions as I go along on this journey.

 

[CluckerFamily]

They are so cute!!

 

[Kholts]

Updated pictures. My little flock of Ancona are now 4 weeks old.

 

[Bitofablonde]

Such adorable fluffy babies!

This is the breed of duck I want to add to our flock next!

Enjoy them!

 

[Quacking Pigeon]

I have hatched out 8 Ancona Ducklings. All appear to be Black except 1 possible chocolate.

I will be growing them out to see how many ducks & how many Drakes I have. I was able to find others in my area who have hatched this year as well (from a different source) & we are looking to do a drake swap later in the year.

My hope is to use for eggs & possibly meat while trying to maintain the breed. This is not a common breed where I am located & I had to shop eggs in from another province. I got pictures of the parent group as well as precious hatches & talked in length with the breeder.

I have been reading breed SOP but obviously do not have the proper eye yet. Is there anyone here that has experience with the breed?

My main question at this present moment is do these ducklings look to have too much color or would you consider them not the worst? (I can post better pictures if needed)

View attachment 2686134

Obviously body composition & utility is also important but I’m going to have to see them grown out to know what to keep & what I’m going to have to work on.

I’ll keep this thread updated as they grow out & will most likely post more questions as I go along on this journey

I don't have any experience with the breed but my understanding from reading the proposed standard is that colourwise they should have spots or small patches of colour all over, and they shouldn't be symmetrical. Some of yours are looking too dark, but experienced breeders tend to say to keep darker birds in a flock for diverse markings to be produced. Obviously you should wait until they mature as type is important for the breed, as with many others.

 

[Kholts]

I don't have any experience with the breed but my understanding from reading the proposed standard is that colourwise they should have spots or small patches of colour all over, and they shouldn't be symmetrical. Some of yours are looking too dark, but experienced breeders tend to say to keep darker birds in a flock for diverse markings to be produced. Obviously you should wait until they mature as type is important for the breed, as with many others.

I won’t be deciding what to use until they go through their first moult. Right now they are looking fully white with no real yellow left.

 

[Kholts]

Updated photo of my flock. Taken a couple months ago before the snow.

There are 3 drakes that will be butchered right away leaving me with 5 total birds.

I’m excited for this spring hatching season.

 

[telandra2]

There is an Ancona breeder in Newport, WA about a hour from the border if you are anywhere near there (and international trade ss allowed.) Iirc she has over 30 hens and swaps out her drakes yearly to keep genetic diversity. The regional feed store, North40, also listed Anconas last year in their available chick stock

I have a recessive flock with way too much white, so I like your body color. Personally I'd like more head color. Did you keep the chocolate? My lilac/chocolate drake sires chocolate, silver, lilac, and one pure white (listed as a bad color. )
One hen has feathers on her legs, which I guess is bad, but Anconas aren't a broody breed so I kept her despite it for her good parenting. She even chased off the drake from her growing teen.

FYI both the white and a lilac were pure yellow ducklings (to my eye), so do wait for the adult feathers.

 

[Kholts]

There is an Ancona breeder in Newport, WA about a hour from the border if you are anywhere near there (and international trade ss allowed.) Iirc she has over 30 hens and swaps out her drakes yearly to keep genetic diversity. The regional feed store, North40, also listed Anconas last year in their available chick stock

I have a recessive flock with way too much white, so I like your body color. Personally I'd like more head color. Did you keep the chocolate? My lilac/chocolate drake sires chocolate, silver, lilac, and one pure white (listed as a bad color. )
One hen has feathers on her legs, which I guess is bad, but Anconas aren't a broody breed so I kept her despite it for her good parenting. She even chased off the drake from her growing teen.

FYI both the white and a lilac were pure yellow ducklings (to my eye), so do wait for the adult feathers.

I’m in Canada a long ways away from the border lol. Most of the Ancona breeders seem to be in Ontario which is the opposite side of the country from me.

I did keep the chocolate & she’s a female. I was trying to procure a chocolate drake but no luck I did however get an urelated blue drake that I will be using this spring . He’s the very back one in the photo above with the cap of color on his head.

In total I have 4 females (3 black & 1 chocolate) the 1 has way too much colouring for my liking but I’ll breed her this year to see what she turns out. Then I have my blue drake.

Surprisingly we are in the dead of winter here with temps ranging -30c to -45c (-22f to -50f) & 2 of them have started laying. I was dumbfounded as they were middle may hatchlings & I don’t have much like in the past (with other breeds) starting to lay before winter sets in. Normally they hold off until mid March before laying.

 

[Kholts]

Update:

3 of this years babies I kept back from my test hatch. I think they are all drakes lol. Just my luck.