Aztec Ducks!

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Beautiful ducks, great mission!

 

[bluemerle]

Oh, beautiful! How are their temperaments? Are they skittish?

 

[drumstick diva]

Beautiful birds - Pyxis will do wonders breeding and keeping them up.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

following

 

[Ducklover77]

Wow they are so beautiful I didn't know anything about these ducks thank you for sharing

Aztecs are a very rare breed of bantam duck created by Holderread in 1983. Holderread began to develop them when they realized that people wanted a small, pretty duck to keep that was hardy and easy to propagate. Call ducks weren't cutting it for some people, since well-bred Calls have a lot of trouble hatching and can be hard to breed. So Holderread set out to create a very pretty bantam duck that bred easily and was hardy and vigorous. Thus, the Aztec was created.

They were bred to be about halfway between the extremes of the wild mallard and the Call duck. Not so long and racy as a mallard, but not so short and round as a Call. As a result, they were small, hardy birds that weren't difficult to breed. They were good layers, as far as bantam ducks go, producing between 40 and 100 eggs a year. They were good mothers, and readily hatched and raised their own ducklings.

However, Holderread eventually decided they would no longer keep the breed. Since then, they have nearly become extinct. But some were preserved, and have been kept in small flocks, being outcrossed to Calls or mallards to try to introduce new blood.

A small group of just such these birds made their way to me today. I offered help and genetics advice to someone with a small flock of these beautiful little ducks, and they decided to entrust me with a small flock of my own to work with and to help preserve the breed.

Here is most of my little group today, settling into their new digs. Certainly didn't take them long to find the pool!

View attachment 1845376

More pictures to come as they get settled.

Does anyone else keep this breed?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Beautiful ducks love those colors. Look forward more information as you start this adventure, and of course pictures. Congrats @ Pyxis

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

@Pyxis after a couple of generation of breeding your own flock you will be able to cross them back to the original stock of the other flock owner to get genetic diversity.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Aztecs are a very rare breed of bantam duck created by Holderread in 1983. Holderread began to develop them when they realized that people wanted a small, pretty duck to keep that was hardy and easy to propagate. Call ducks weren't cutting it for some people, since well-bred Calls have a lot of trouble hatching and can be hard to breed. So Holderread set out to create a very pretty bantam duck that bred easily and was hardy and vigorous. Thus, the Aztec was created.

They were bred to be about halfway between the extremes of the wild mallard and the Call duck. Not so long and racy as a mallard, but not so short and round as a Call. As a result, they were small, hardy birds that weren't difficult to breed. They were good layers, as far as bantam ducks go, producing between 40 and 100 eggs a year. They were good mothers, and readily hatched and raised their own ducklings.

However, Holderread eventually decided they would no longer keep the breed. Since then, they have nearly become extinct. But some were preserved, and have been kept in small flocks, being outcrossed to Calls or mallards to try to introduce new blood.

A small group of just such these birds made their way to me today. I offered help and genetics advice to someone with a small flock of these beautiful little ducks, and they decided to entrust me with a small flock of my own to work with and to help preserve the breed.

Here is most of my little group today, settling into their new digs. Certainly didn't take them long to find the pool!

View attachment 1845376

More pictures to come as they get settled.

Does anyone else keep this breed?

Gorgeous ducks and what a great project! Best of luck to you and them!

 

[Pyxis]

Very nice, i always love to hear that a new old breed of ducks has be re-discovered and hopefully can be saved.
Are those ducks sexable by their colors? - The two ducks with the darker brown heads look like drakes to me.

They are not technically sexable by color, since no sex-linked color genes are involved. These guys are still a bit too young for the males to have molted into nuptial plumage for the first time, but you may be seeing hints of that - once they are in nuptial plumage, the males and females will look very different.

Oh, beautiful! How are their temperaments? Are they skittish?

They aren't too skittish They are still getting used to me, so they aren't very friendly towards me at the moment, but they also aren't overly panicky about my presence.

@Pyxis after a couple of generation of breeding your own flock you will be able to cross them back to the original stock of the other flock owner to get genetic diversity.

Yep, that's the plan, hopefully

 

[room onthebroom]

Very pretty! I agree, this should be an article.