Appleyard vs. Welsh Harlequin ducks

[onaharley]

Thanks everyone! Haha, I'm still caught between these too. It seems they each have a lot of fans!

I noticed that onaharley mentioned that their Appleyards didn't fly as much as they had read WH could, but LLee34 said that their WH's didn't fly. I assume this just means that they can fly to varying degrees? I'm okay with a duck that can fly a bit, like a chicken, but too much more than that and I wouldn't be able to contain them!

Temperament would be a biggie for me. Two of you have said that your Appleyards have a nice temperament, does anyone know if the WH's do too?

Also, I noticed on the links you gave me (thanks!), that the Appleyards are quite a bit heavier than the WH's. (8-9 lbs, vs. 5 or so lbs.) I assume this would mean that they need more space? How much space would you recommend for the kind of ducks you have? And do you think the Appleyards would need to eat much more than the WH's due to this? If they both lay the same amount of eggs but one eats significantly more than the other, it might make a difference in the cost/benefit in the long run.

Sorry for all of the questions! The more answers I hear, the more questions I have!

So another point i forgot to mention was i chose the SA because it is a heavy breed i already have 2 pekins so i wanted to make sure that i picked a breed that was comparable to my pekin drake in weight size. (little did i know that pekins are sometimes judgmental and will snub their beaks at birds of different colors.....only time will tell if this will be true for me). My pekin drake has shown me many of times that he can fly. It's mostly a hover across the yard and he would never be able to get over the fence in the backyard, i am assuming that this point will hold true with my SA. I could not find an article that stated if they did fly or not.

Since mine are all heavy breed i really have not measured the amount of feed they eat. But i will say that one pekin drake eating the maintenance feed took almost 4 months to eat a #50 bag, but then again that's a pekin and not the comparison you are really looking for.

 

[onaharley]

I've had three WH hens for 2.5 years now. I love my girls. I have an order for more, along with some Saxony, coming from Holderreads (will hopefully be here tomorrow ). They are very sweet and calm. They like to talk to me when they see me coming. Mine have never gotten more than a few inches off the ground. Like maybe six inches max. The only time I've seen them "fly" is when they are heading toward a freshly filled pool. I will say that my girls take a long winter break from laying. When they do lay, it's almost always an egg a day with few days off.

I would think that a larger bird would eat more than a smaller bird. I believe that the Appleyard are bred more for meat even though they can also lay a lot of eggs.

Here are some pictures of my girls.
View attachment 1356753 View attachment 1356754 View attachment 1356755 View attachment 1356756 View attachment 1356757

They are beautiful!!!!

 

[Fiasco]

Thanks! It sounds like both kinds do have lovely temperaments, and I don't think either would fly too much for me. I've done a few more comparisons...I found these two pages on BYC where people have posted reviews on SA and WH ducks:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/silver-appleyard.10910/reviews
https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/welsh-harlequin.10905/reviews

From what I see there, it seems that the main con with the Appleyards is that they can be loud or bossy. Those aren't a big issue for me though. With the Welsh Harlequins, the only con I saw is that they can be broody, but that could actually be a plus for me.

What may end up being the deciding factor for me, is space. I have a 5.5' by 6' shed (about 30-35 square feet), and a run that's about 15' by 20' or 300 sq. feet. I was hoping to get maybe a dozen ducks, but I wasn't sure if that would be enough space. I imagine more WH ducks could fit in that space than SA... how many of each do you think would be able to live happily in that amount of room?

 

[lomine]

I think it will depend on how you manage them. If you go by the standard suggestion of 4 sq ft in the coop per bird that's only 7-8. However, I would say that my ducks prefer to be outside almost all the time. Days with really high winds are the iffy days. Your run is a really nice size and I think it could hold 12 easily. But if it's all grass I'm not sure how long it will hold up before they turn it into a mud hole. You'll have to come up with a good maintenance plan that fits your wants and environment.

 

[Fiasco]

I think it will depend on how you manage them. If you go by the standard suggestion of 4 sq ft in the coop per bird that's only 7-8. However, I would say that my ducks prefer to be outside almost all the time. Days with really high winds are the iffy days. Your run is a really nice size and I think it could hold 12 easily. But if it's all grass I'm not sure how long it will hold up before they turn it into a mud hole. You'll have to come up with a good maintenance plan that fits your wants and environment.

Okay, thanks! It's going to be hard to decide between these guys. I am leaning slightly towards the Welsh Harlequins because of their size. But the Appleyards are so cute! Haha, I'll have to think about it for awhile! But I do have a couple of general questions now...

This may be a crazy question, but...since my shed is pretty tall (about 6') and they don't roost, do you think I could maybe make a ramp inside along one wall and a "second floor" to increase the floor space? Just curious!

Actually, my run isn't quite that nice...it has more brush and "wild grass" sort of stuff, with a lot of rocks. This is the sort of landscape that my chickens seem to love climbing over and picking through, so I thought the ducks might as well. I thought I would start filling it in with mulch if it got too mucky. Do they need much grass, though? I was thinking I would let them out to get slugs and such from my garden/lawn (1 acre fenced in) for the day, about once a week. If they need more forage than that, maybe I'll dump my waste from weeding into their run! That would be about a wheelbarrow-full a week. Do you think that would be enough for them?

Thanks!

 

[lomine]

They don't need grass in the run. They will eat it down and flatten it. What you have sounds good. Just watch that the rocks are not too sharp. Ducks can get bumblefoot pretty easily. They would love any lawn waste.

My ducks would use a ramp if I herded them up it but they didn't like it. I wouldn't bother making a second floor in the coop. More than likely they probably wouldn't choose to use it on their own.

To get you even more excited here is a picture of my ducklings. My order from Holderreads came today. It's a mix of WH and Saxony.

 

[Fiasco]

They don't need grass in the run. They will eat it down and flatten it. What you have sounds good. Just watch that the rocks are not too sharp. Ducks can get bumblefoot pretty easily. They would love any lawn waste.

My ducks would use a ramp if I herded them up it but they didn't like it. I wouldn't bother making a second floor in the coop. More than likely they probably wouldn't choose to use it on their own.

To get you even more excited here is a picture of my ducklings. My order from Holderreads came today. It's a mix of WH and Saxony.
View attachment 1358788

Aww...those ducklings are too cute!! I can't wait to get my own. It's gonna be amazing, I'm so excited!

Thanks for the advice! The rocks in that area are pretty smooth, so I think we'll be okay...but I'm definitely going to double-check and make sure! That makes sense about the ramp. I had a feeling, but it was worth a shot!

I think this is my last question, haha. Do you have any idea if one or the other of these two breeds (SA and WH) are more popular than the other? Since one of my goals is to sell some ducklings, I'd better take that into consideration. I'll probably ask around locally, but any idea about how they compare on that in general?

 

[onaharley]

Great advice @lomine !!!

 

[lomine]

Hmm, I'm not sure which would be more popular. I know that SA are more rare or at least there are fewer hatcheries that sell them. They're generally more expensive too. I will say that when first started researching ducks I came across WH first. I didn't discover SA until maybe a year after getting my WH. I have seen WH on my local Craigslist but I've never seen SA. So it might be worth it to have a rarer breed that's harder to get. But on the flip side it might be better to have a breed that people are more familiar with. Honestly, I don't think you could go wrong with either. You should get what you want. If you really can't decide build another run and get both.

 

[onaharley]

i like @lomine thinking on get both!!!