Anyone have Snowy Mallards?

[Feathered Wings]

I will be ordering a Drake and 4 Hens from Ideal Hatchery as soon as they are available. I have Call ducks an I learned early on they are extremely hard to hatch, They most always need help hatching. I have sold most of my Calls except for a trio of white's and a Gray Pair due to the difficult hatching. I have way to many I help hatch and nonhatchers with the calls and I'm just not satisfied with getting 7 ducklings out of 30 eggs.
I decided to go with larger breeds like Mallards, East Indies, and Rouen's so when I do incubate the hatch rate will be much higher.
Any particular info anyone could give me about the Snowy Mallards would be appreciated

 

[kswaterfowl]

I have snowy, you can see them on my blog, link in the signature. They are great little birds, all around nice farm birds, but they do fly some. If you are hatching Calls, that is part of it. Think about how many eggs the big breeders sit to get the number of young birds they do. Mallards are also great for incubating call eggs...you end up with better results normally. We have pure black ameraucana chickens that we intend to sit mallard eggs under this coming year...but the mallards do a good job sitting themselves.

 

[Feathered Wings]

Thank You kswaterfowl

My biggest question is do the Mallards have a good hatch rate and hatch without help? Thats my biggest thing about my Calls is they are just so hard to hatch

 

[featherfooted]

I have Snowys and I love them. I did hatch some eggs that I bought and they had no trouble hatching, but they were under a broody not in an incubator. I hope to be hatching some from my flock this year. Four of my hens are from Ideal and my 2 drakes and 1 hen are from a breeder. I would like to get some more hens. If I could have only one breed of duck I would have Snowy Mallards.

 

[Feathered Wings]

Quote:
Thank You Featherfooted

I was thinking of doing the same thing trying a broody and in the incu. I'm so glad to get such glowing reports on the Snowy Mallards, I was going to order some last year but they had sold out.
I'm looking at ordering1 drake and 4 hens, Is that too many hens for one drake? Which as I write that I know sexing can't be 100% so I may not get 4 hens. Ideal was spot on with my East Indies I got last spring I got 1 drake and 4 hens, But I would warn anyone ordering you could get crested. The other flaw with Ideal East Indies was the different size's, The drake was small and so was one hen the other three hens were huge. I ended up only keeping the small drake and small hen and she laid this past fall but the eggs didn't hatch.
I'm really looking forward to my Snowy's

I already have a pen for them and soon as Ideal is taking orders I'm ordering

 

[featherfooted]

I learned last year never order just one, if you do that will be the one that doesn't make it. I did that last year when I ordered my Snowys. I ordered 4 hens and 1 drake and guess which one didn't make it. Yep, the 1 drake I ordered. You might want to order 2.

 

[Feathered Wings]

Quote:
Thanks for the advice then I will add a extra Drake to the list

 

[kswaterfowl]

Some of the birds from Ideal are a little more call-like in type. But I've never had any problem hatching them. I started with 2 pairs from Ohio that were all from the same clutch, ordered some Ideal birds in 04 and kept one hen out of 10 and bred her with my best drake, and have bred from there. Even crossed in greys a couple times and bred from there. They had MUCH BETTER color after crosses. A few of the better laying birds now are not as nicely typed as I would like, but I've managed to win champion bantam duck a couple times now...not saying much, other than there were a lot of really poor quality calls at those shows and no BEI's.

 

[Feathered Wings]

Quote:
Thanks for your reply

I'm so glad to hear the Snowy's will do great hatching. These Calls have really given me a run for my money on the hard to hatch or as it seems sometimes impossible to hatch. I'm really looking forward to working with the Snowy's they are such Beautiful Ducks.
I looked at your website and noticed you sell Snowy hatching eggs, I just may order me 6 of those to cross with my Ideal ones.

 

[Senna95]

I've got some snowy eggs in the incubator right now. It's awfully early, but they've started laying early, so...........

If they're fertile (I'll know in a few days), I'll have some available for sale if anyones interested.