Can anyone identify this "extra" from Holderreads?

[FenDruadin]

She looks like a very poor quality runner to me too... but that doesn't sound like something that would come from Holderread. She is very pretty. I loved your description of how she thinks things through--NONE of my runners do that. They're more like your runners. So I'm thinking the dutch hookbill or similar is more likely.

Whatever she is, she's pretty. I love her blue color.

 

[galgo98]

Thanks for all of the replies! She does look similar to the hookbills. Can they fly? She is a good flyer. We loved her coloring and personality too, which is why we ended up keeping 6 instead of 5! Does anybody have any of Holderread's hookbills? I would love to see a picture of theirs.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
heres a link about them, and I think some can fly. http://poultrykeeper.com/hook-bill-ducks/the-hook-bill-duck/

 

[desertdarlene]

Maybe she was an accidental cross breed between the two breeds.

 

[farmdude]

me too!
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[StevenW.]

Not a Dutch Hookbill. (The don't come in Blue.)
Not a Blue Cayuga either. (They don't raise those and even if they did they would be an even blue without a couple white feathers on the chest.)

Her whole body looks Runner but she doesn't stand up like one? Hmmm. I'm just gonna say she's a Poor Quality Runner. You can always get those when you breed Show Quality or Breeder Quality parents.

 

[duck walk]

what ever that baby is, she's gorgeous...love the color!

 

[mominoz]

I have 2 lots of their runners in 3 colors, and I have their hookbills. Not a Hookbill at all. Looks like a runner that has a defective back. If she stood upright , she'd look just like the others. Feathering , shape etc. Runners have a high defect rate, even the best ones. Because they are an "extreme" form of breeding. Can't always tell when babies how bad or how they will grow.They always send some extras, which is nice. I received 2 nice black runners this time as 'extras'. Got extra Saxony's and Hookbills in other shipments, that were beauties.....

 

[galgo98]

So, sounds like she's a defective runner.. Darn, I guess I can't call Holderreads in the spring and ask to order some more of their "defective runners" for her to hang out with...

It makes sense, because she did look like the rest of the flock until she was about 2-3 weeks old. We don't know for sure that she was actually the "extra" since we got an assortment of colors. The thing that baffled us was her intelligence; the fact that she matured a little quicker than the rest (molted faster, quacked first); and of course the flying thing.

...now I wonder what would happen if I hatched some of her eggs... yes, I know, based on genetics, you don't breed the defectives... but I wonder if the progeny would show any other traits or revert back to runner... sounds like next years project!

 

[Dances with Ducks]

I don't know if I would consider her defective, maybe more a "throwback" to less highly refined runner breeding. She sounds like she is very healthy. Maybe you could order some "production" runners from a hatchery and she might find her soul mates.
I have an old runner hen that originally came from Murray McMurry and she seems to be the smartest duck in my flock. I have her paired with a show quality drake who is a perfect representation of his name "Daffy", but she is completely happy with him. Sometimes she does seem to roll her eyes when he goes into a panic and climbs three feet up the fence just because I got a little close, but otherwise she seems really happy with him. Like yours she was the favorite of one of the drakes to the point she began escaping into the garden or where ever she could get away from him. Now I give her a nice big area to forage with just her boyfriend and she seems totally content.