Does anyone have a mallard/golden hybrid 300 cross?

[tatswell]

My male mallard and female golden 300 hatched a few babes

Just wondering if anyone else has that mix and can tell me about laying production, appearance, etc.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My male mallard and female golden 300 hatched a few babes

Just wondering if anyone else has that mix and can tell me about laying production, appearance, etc.

Love to see the little ones

 

[mysti30]

I have mallard females and there offspring is mallard/khaki Campbell's. My offspring has not started laying yet but the male is topping the hens

 

[PINOAK RIDGE]

My male mallard and female golden 300 hatched a few babes

Just wondering if anyone else has that mix and can tell me about laying production, appearance, etc.

John Metzer/Metzer waterfowl farms created the breed Golden 300 hybrid back in the mid nineties, I believe. Their goals were: more consistent egg laying of large, white eggs and for a calmer disposition than their flocks of Khaki Campbells' provided. This "breed" was created by mixing a variety of different breeds for specific traits. Metzer farms can even sight sex Golden 300 hybrid day old ducklings or adults. Another perk for them as a commercial hatchery.

BUT since they are hybrids, this also means that if one were to breed two Golden 300's together one will get a variety of colored ducklings as they do not breed true. One could get blacks, yellows and browns with no correlation between sex and color. Now you throw in mallard genes on top of "secret" Golden 300 genetics---the color & pattern possibilities are increased.

As far as laying production, mallards are not known as a prolific egg producing breed, they are better known for their broodiness and excellent mothering ability. Which, by the way, is the exact opposite of egg laying breeds. Can't lay hundreds of eggs if the ducks wants to go broody. So you are kind of at a crap shoot with that genetic combo. No telling what babies will look like and which parent they will take their egg producing qualities from. If you are seriously interested in egg laying, I would recommend sticking to the egg production breeds. But, either way, have fun and enjoy your ducks.

Hope this helps.

 

[mysti30]

Last year when I had my two mallards they laid pretty good. We were getting a egg a day. She had a nest full when she went to sitting. She ended up hatching fourteen ducklings out of seventeen eggs. One they hatched my other female quit laying.

 

[tatswell]

Sorry it took so long to upload the babes!
Here are her 3 girls! (Ignore Slim, the black runner photobombing the pic )
Pic below is Mom (golden 300) and dad (mallard).
I chose to hatch her babies because she is extraordinary to me- great egg layer still at 4 years old, agile, energetic, not lazy at all, gets her exercise foraging on hilly terrain, great forager, MISS INDEPENDENT, very smart, calm, quiet, and super healthy! Just can't ask for more from a momma. And Dad chose her but he's a mallard and they're of course notoriously strong birds.
Since they've started laying, early spring, they've maybe missed two or three days at the most. Their eggs are a very pale green, larger than a mallard, similar in size to a runner. The girls themselves are like a plump mallard (not heavy at all like a Rouen), they can fly a bit but not light enough to take flight.
If you have the opportunity to breed these two breeds and the parents are healthy, do it! I've got two more of their babes in the incubator- one has started pipping today, solar eclipse day!