can I see your duckies?

[Kkrista123]

Look at all these pretty young ducks... Mine are all getting older:
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I love your ducks they're gorgeous! What breed is the brown, back of the photo, middle duck? She looks a lot like my duck and everyone has been debating my ducks mixed breed for SO long. I don't like not knowing lol

 

[Texag87]

Today was the last day that all the ducks we brooded were together. Two Pekins were re homed today and our Rouen drake, George, is going to his new home to live with Magnolia Ducks

 

[Miss Lydia]

Does that mean no more ducks or just no more drakes? And yay Mini will finally have company!! That’s right you’ll still have your Runner drake right?

 

[Texag87]

Does that mean no more ducks or just no more drakes? And yay Mini will finally have company!! That’s right you’ll still have your Runner drake right?

We will still have six. It is still not good duck math but at least it’s the runner and KC drake and not the Jumbo Pekin.

 

[Texag87]

Btw, has anyone ever heard of a drake being asexual? I have never seen the runner try to mate but the others have for a month.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Nope my Runners and Buffs make sure their Runner drake gets a work out daily. Maybe he just hadn’t matured yet.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Oh my gosh I just love those white and black speckled ones! They are runners right?

Yes they are runners. Female ducks with the extended black gene (black ducks, blue ducks and chocolate ducks) get white "snow" feathers as they get older. Since most people are more excited about their poultry (or kids, or other pets) when they are new, there tend to be more pictures of young ducks around the forums. Cayugas are black, runners are one color, Swedish have very distinct bibs. As they age the snow feathers increase and eventually most extended black gened ducks end up more white than their original color. None of my ducks were speckled when they were young. I first found out about this viewing @Amiga's beautiful runners who were older when I was new to BYC.

I love your ducks they're gorgeous! What breed is the brown, back of the photo, middle duck? She looks a lot like my duck and everyone has been debating my ducks mixed breed for SO long. I don't like not knowing lol

That is Latte, she is a Buff Orpington or simply a "Buff Duck". They can be anywhere from a very light tan, to an almost orange-brown, but they don't have the patterning like a Welsh Harlequin (Rhiannon on the right in front of the poof-headed Tevye). She is fairly dark for her breed compared to some I have seen.

Btw, has anyone ever heard of a drake being asexual? I have never seen the runner try to mate but the others have for a month.

Tevye (the poofy headed one) just figured out he was a drake last winter. This was in the presence of a strong personalitied drake, Kaine (the green-headed one staring strait at him.) Before that, he was very meek and was bullied all the time by Kaine. He showed very little interest in the other girls. Last winter, he stood his ground against Kaine and last spring/summer, he acted like a "normal" drake, although he isn't nearly as aggressive as Kaine is. He was born March 17th of 2014, so last winter he was 3-1/2 years old. So your runner may just be a slow starter like Tevye.

Wow! most of my flock is almost 5 years old. Where does the time go?

 

[DuckyDonna]

Yes speckled ones too aren’t they pretty!

oh yes, what are they called and how do you get some? I guess it doesn't matter anyway as long as they are cute. I don't understand all the gene stuff and it makes my head hurt if I try to figure it out!

 

[Miss Lydia]

The blacks, chicolates, and blues all start turning white after they are past their second birthday mine are going on three this coming April,seems maybe hormones may have something to do with it because the drakes don’t turn. Not sure if other colors do this but I am even seeing it on my Muscovy females.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

The blacks, chicolates, and blues all start turning white after they are past their second birthday mine are going on three this coming April,seems maybe hormones may have something to do with it because the drakes don’t turn. Not sure if other colors do this but I am even seeing it on my Muscovy females.

Here is a very good article on duck color genetics: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-colour-genetics-mallards-derivitives.410593/. Drakes just can't express that part of the gene. I don't know if Muscovy color genetics are similar or not. But I have an old post that I put up that shows the transition: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/noir-is-somewhat-blanc.971646/ @Amiga showed me what happened to her runners, then later I posted an updated picture of my black runner, Noir. She is the one in the front right of the current picture.