Da' Cute and Cuddly Call Duck thread!

[peachncrm37]

Almost snagged hers & yours both today on the Waterfowl swap thread. Had to sit on my hands because I'm already playing Egg Tertis.

I know what you mean. My incubator is full to bursting.

I have a tri-color patterned similar. She came from a white/butterscotch cross.

Good to know!!! Thanks also, will definitely be looking for your call eggs on swap

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote:
We can just side swap some in a couple weeks once I confirm fertility if you like. Might have some space in 1 of my 4 bators by then.

My tri-color hen is way big (almost 2 pounds) but my drake is tiny (16.6 ounces) so it should even back out to an acceptable breeder size within a generation or 2. I kept her only because I want to try to reproduce her coloring.

 

[peachncrm37]

We can just side swap some in a couple weeks once I confirm fertility if you like. Might have some space in 1 of my 4 bators by then.
My tri-color hen is way big (almost 2 pounds) but my drake is tiny (16.6 ounces) so it should even back out to an acceptable breeder size within a generation or 2. I kept her only because I want to try to reproduce her coloring.

Okay yeah that works too. I would have kept her too! Projects,

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Sorry ya'll! I'm in the midst of cooking dinner and trying to chat at the same time! Not workin out to well...lol. Yes Peaches...from Silkies description of her silver, it looks as though that's what your little hen is. She's really pretty and I love the mate to her as well. It's neat to see a solid grayish head like that. If I were you, I'd put that pair together and your pencilled trio together and then have the rest in your big community pen. That way you'll be able to sell both pure and mixed colors....that is of course IF your silvers are pure. You won't really know until you've separated them and see what colors they throw or ask the original breeder what they came out of.

Sadly, I worked for almost three years on developing my lavender bibbed Calls and in one night a darn coon broke into the coop and killed almost everything I had and injured what was still alive. I now have a single little hen and bless her heart, she only has one eye now. I will be buying a blue bibbed pair off of Matt in the Fall and use her with the pair in order to create more lavenders. Mine needed quite a lot of work as far as SQ goes, but it was still devastating to lose them. Hopefully this little hen can give me a fresh start to a new lavender project and luckily, by using Matts birds, I'll be able to start with good SQ/BQ characteristics this time.

Your pencilled birds are pretty nice and I would definitely advise separating them into a breeding trio. Pencilled calls are quite rare and I am working on my own line of Emery Pencilled and Blue Pencilled as well. I got my start from Jen Cadwell...she has really nice Calls too. Other than the Pencilled, I raise Buff, Khaki, and as a result of the Pencilled project, several babies hatch out Dusky or Blue Dusky. This fall I'll hopefully have solid black, chocolate, blue bibbed, and silver. I also have some really nice little grey hens that I use with my Khaki and Pencilled birds...I'm thinking of getting a drake for one of the hens so I can start on a grey line too. Not sure yet though...if I'm not careful, I'll run my hubby off with all these ducks! Keep in mind I raise geese and chickens too!

Wouldn't it be better to use a black bibbed for your lavender project?

 

[animaladdictions]

Wouldn't it be better to use a black bibbed for your lavender project?

Hi BlackBrook...It may, but my initial pair all those years ago was a lavender bibbed hen and blue bibbed drake...When you breed the black to blue, you get some black and some blue...if the black has blue in its background, you can also throw some lavender. But when breeding my blue to blue, I'd get several lavender...Once I started breeding lavender to lavender, I ended up with almost 100% lavender and the occasional blue...Does that make sense?

 

[animaladdictions]

Oh and I've never done one of those swap things...I'm so afraid I'll do something wrong!

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

It makes sense if the best quality you can find is blue. But if you did black you'd get lavenders after the second generation and not have to worry about blue popping up again.

 

[animaladdictions]

It makes sense if the best quality you can find is blue. But if you did black you'd get lavenders after the second generation and not have to worry about blue popping up again.

I see...well maybe I'll go for black then. So I should use black with my lavender hen and that should throw a few lavenders? Then use those lavenders back with her to keep it 100% lavender without any blue popping up?

 

[SilkieSensation]

Oh and I've never done one of those swap things...I'm so afraid I'll do something wrong!

Come over & check out the Waterfowl Swap. We're pretty relaxed over there & will walk you through if you need help.

 

[peachncrm37]

I've been resisting all the swaps. Want to wait until my Anconas start laying cause I already owe a couple on them. Got about a month to go I think. The drakes have been fighting/mating with the girls, but no eggs yet!!!