Da' Cute and Cuddly Call Duck thread!

[swheat]

I bought these drakes as silver appleyard..they are now going into molt. I know I seen a thread or post somewhere about SA molt making them look like or similar to snowy ?

drake #1

drake #2

another of drake #2

 

[klugshorses]

I have a question for someone who has raised call ducks....I have a snowy hen that hatched 2 babies 3 weeks ago, and one is pretty big already, moving good, swimming good. And the other is not much bigger than a newly hatched duckling. The one is literally double the size of the other, and I would guess it to be about the size it should be for 3 weeks, and the other just is not growing hardly at all. Is there some reason for this? Is it common? Will it hit its own growth spurt? I have raised lots of other breeds of ducks and never had 2 such different sizes. Any help or comments would be much appreciated! THANKS!

 

[donnavee]

Quote:
This my 1st year with calls, but I had the same thing happen with gray calls. There were 5 hatched and one just didn't grow or feather out like the others. It ate and drank normally, but did tend to stay by itself even though the others didn't pick on it. Unfortunately, I thought I had their housing secure, but because it was so small, it managed to squeeze through the fence and we never saw it again. At least that is what we think happened. Someone else said they had the same experience, with a runt, but their's died. Good luck - hope the little girl/guy makes it.

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

I'm looking for a least a trio of snowy calls. PM me. Thanks.

 

[BlueLagoonRabbitry]

Does anyone raise pastels? Im looking for a older pair come spring

Also might be interested in a few babies.

 

[briarpatchfarms]

Quote:
Dont want to jump in but you have blue Butterscotch males not appleyard, appleyards would have a green back and head color with blue and green speculem yours has blue;but you will get 25 % appleyard, 50% blue butters, 25% butters; so may work out to your advantage since you get 3 colors out of one!

 

[klugshorses]

Quote:
This my 1st year with calls, but I had the same thing happen with gray calls. There were 5 hatched and one just didn't grow or feather out like the others. It ate and drank normally, but did tend to stay by itself even though the others didn't pick on it. Unfortunately, I thought I had their housing secure, but because it was so small, it managed to squeeze through the fence and we never saw it again. At least that is what we think happened. Someone else said they had the same experience, with a runt, but their's died. Good luck - hope the little girl/guy makes it.

Thanks so much for the reply, and I am actually had the same problem of losing them with my last set of call ducks when they were about a week old one went through the chicken wire, so now I only let these run when I am outside otherwise they are in like a rabbit style pen so there is no way to make it through the wire, and I want to be able to let them run all the time, but since the other one is just not growing I don't want to till she is bigger. I don't know if I don't want to separate her because she also eats and drinks fine, she can't keep up as well because she is so small yet, I will be so sad if she dies because I have been trying so hard to raise a few call ducks but just not having any luck, and now that I have 2 I really don't want to lose her

I'm really hoping she will hit a spurt or something but everyday the size gap grows larger

Thanks for your reply, if anyone else has any idea or suggestions please let me know!

 

[swheat]

Quote:
Dont want to jump in but you have blue Butterscotch males not appleyard, appleyards would have a green back and head color with blue and green speculem yours has blue;but you will get 25 % appleyard, 50% blue butters, 25% butters; so may work out to your advantage since you get 3 colors out of one!

PLEASE Jump right in ! I am new to call and was told they were Silver appleyard when I bought them. Thanks for the information. Is there a website showing all these varieties ?

Here is a pic of the 2 drakes before start the molt(not the best pic though)

 

[Ragdollcatlady]

In my last batch of baby calls, one was a little slower than the others to grow and feather out so I read up on possible problems. I didn't get an absolute answer, but some of the problems had antibiotics as a treatment, so I added antibiotics to their water and only a few days later, he started to feather out and is now close to the same size as his siblings. Do be careful with antibiotics though since ducks use alot more water than other fowl, they can easily overdose if you add it to their water. Dave Holderread wrote a really good book on duck care "storys guide to raising ducks". It has so much information for new duck lovers. I hope your little one makes it.
Kat

 

[briarpatchfarms]

Quote:
Dont want to jump in but you have blue Butterscotch males not appleyard, appleyards would have a green back and head color with blue and green speculem yours has blue;but you will get 25 % appleyard, 50% blue butters, 25% butters; so may work out to your advantage since you get 3 colors out of one!

PLEASE Jump right in ! I am new to call and was told they were Silver appleyard when I bought them. Thanks for the information. Is there a website showing all these varieties ?

Here is a pic of the 2 drakes before start the molt(not the best pic though)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/7576_dsc8.jpg

If you go to callducks.org you can actually go the the store tab scroll down and there are three posters, you can click on the image and make it bigger then zoom in to make it even bigger.