Critique on my Silver Appleyards

[ejay]

Hello everyone =) I hope this is the right forum

I am looking for informed opinions on my Silver Appleyards (large not bantam). After reading about a bit I have become just a little paranoid I could be cementing some faults into these.

I started with some less that Ideal ducks, gotta start from somewhere:

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This is the 3 I started with. I did not use the middle one to breed, am I right in thinking she is too dark and not very good "Appleyard" colourations on her face? Was wondering weather her offspring would come out okay with the drake as he has good restricted colouring on the phase. He is just going into eclipse/ non breeding plumage here.










I have selected a few offspring of theirs which I think I could breed from (just about 4 months old in pictures).

Hood pattern

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The rest of the babies were identical to left female (above) but a bit lighter body colour with light bellies, I did not choose them due to the strange hood pattern (right)

Am I right in thinking the "hood" pattern is a big no no
I hope so

















Below are the ones I am most interested in...



FEMALE 1

Concerned about the reddish colour on sides of chest? too much of it? her underbelly is white.

Concerned about the darkening of colour again on the face? below top bill and below eye (not the white eye stripe)

This is the back of the Duck she has light wing Coverts which I think are a required trait? (only the drake father had light wing Coverts)

same female again, note muddying colour of the face, an issue to breed out?

FEMALE 2
Female 1 standing behind Female 2, She is whiter but blue on wing not very pronounced. Less reddish colour on sides of chest and over all a lighter duck. It appears in this picture she has a neck ring through the back of the neck, she does not. Her chest is white and belly underneath.

DRAKE 1

LEFT Drake 1, his "appleyard" colours have not come through very well on his face and his chest is quite dark compared to RIGHT Drake 2

Drake 1 again

DRAKE 2

Drake 2 better restricted pattern I think. This is what the father drake looks like out of eclipse, pretty much identical.

Drake 2, he has a lighter chest, concerned about his neck ring which widens a bit at the back? is this the dreaded hood again?

That is the few I have selected so far, As for opinions and constructive critique, be ruthless =) I am hoping to improve what I have.

 

[ejay]

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This is a pic of just some of the ducklings. 80% came out with light down and black blobs on the head and tail, hoping this is a good start. All the dark ones came out either hooded, or dark type males and females which looked like the father drake - but poor appleyard face markings. I did not show them in the pictures.

 

[N Good]

You never got any replies! Did you figure any of this out? I got 10 ducklings from Cackle hatchery this spring. All of my ducks have hoods except one, which unfortunately passed away... All of the drakes do NOT have hoods. I'm confused by this, didn't think I should be able to sex by juvenile plummage.
Your pictures and analysis are helpful, I'm amazed how different mine look from yours considering mine all look so similar to one another. No idea who to breed from this year for color.....maybe just let them as a flock so the drakes are breeding multiple ducks and incubate a bunch of eggs and see what characteristics I get next generation and then really start to cull? Or if all my females have hoods should I just be starting over with new stock?
I just don't know....I'm new to breeding.

 

[black_cat]

Oh goodness, no replies! Of course, I think that they're beautiful birds. I also don't know anything about ducks, so I'm probably not the best source on this