Breeding Ducks :D

[Floss]

Hi I have a breeding pair of Silver Appleyard ducks. We are gonna sell the eggs as hatching eggs and/or incubate + sell the ducklings.
Would it be ok to keep a few of the ducklings or would the male duck try to breed with them????

Also, If I got a few ducks of a different breed, would they breed with the ducks I have already???
Thanks

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Yes breeding parent to young is called line breeding and is often used to keep genes from a good parent in the line.
Yes just about any duck will breed any other duck if he can catch or seduce her LOL the results are sometimes referred to as mutts as in dogs. a mutt usually has features (good & bad) from both parents. Few people will buy mutt eggs.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Usually a drake will mate with every hen he can get hold of during breeding season, so you would need to keep them separate if you also want to pure ducks of two different breeds.
To be safe you should also keep the ducklings separate untill they are a couple of months old. Drakes and sometime hens other than a mother that brooded them might attack the ducklings.
We built a simple wood frame chicken wire covered pen for our ducklings which we put inside our larger preditor proof duck pen. When the older ducks got to free range the ducklings could explore the larger pen.

 

[Floss]

Thanks!!!