Duck Breed Focus - Australian Spotted Duck

[Duck Drover]

Aww Congrats!! did mama duck hatch these?

Yes, she is a good mama duck. She is a greenhead but she is split to bluehead and I suspect the drake was bluehead to have so much color variety in one clutch. There is one darker one that shows up more greenhead looking in pictures and the other one I am calling greenhead looks more like a split that I am guessing will feather in greenhead based on my experience with down colors. There is always a possibility that another hen slipped an egg in her nest and that the father was silverhead or that she had more than one drake due to the 3% rape factor with ducks (they tend to be momogamous for the most part).

The mama had a slightly lighter colored down as a duckling but she does not look bluehead, although she has the genetics to produce blueheads. She has a lighter colored tail that caused me to wonder about her color but we have kept her because she does produce beautiful dilutes. One of the nice things about the Australian Spotted ducks is that you can get such a variety of colors that they will all have a bit of a unique look even though they are all the same breed due to the blue genetics working alot like BBS in chickens.

One of the silverheads has a more bluehead looking head but its body down is definately silverhead. I think they will feather out with colored background feathers instead of the white background we are getting in some of our silverheads. The white background is striking due to the contrast of the spots but it was unexpected. We kept all of our silverhead ducklings last year to see how they feather out and to select which ones we want to keep for breeding. We sold a few drakes and offered hens to select people who are breeding and not just eating their eggs.

This year we will be selling nearly all of our ducklings but keeping a higher price on the silverheads and blueheads to encourage beginners to start with greenheads. I know we can't keep our babies but it is hard to take them from their mamas because the hens feel the loss. They will wander all over calling to the ducklings and then start a new nest, determined to have a family. By their second round I let them keep their babies (although I might take a few away) because I want to encourage them to be good mamas and not take away all their babies all the time. It is far easier to sell the incubator ducklings but we will keep some to pair with ones raised by hens because we know she was not laying while she was sitting and raising ducklings so anything hatched after she started sitting is unrelated. We band with different colors to keep track of lineage when selling breeding pairs.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes, she is a good mama duck. She is a greenhead but she is split to bluehead and I suspect the drake was bluehead to have so much color variety in one clutch. There is one darker one that shows up more greenhead looking in pictures and the other one I am calling greenhead looks more like a split that I am guessing will feather in greenhead based on my experience with down colors. There is always a possibility that another hen slipped an egg in her nest and that the father was silverhead or that she had more than one drake due to the 3% rape factor with ducks (they tend to be momogamous for the most part).

The mama had a slightly lighter colored down as a duckling but she does not look bluehead, although she has the genetics to produce blueheads. She has a lighter colored tail that caused me to wonder about her color but we have kept her because she does produce beautiful dilutes. One of the nice things about the Australian Spotted ducks is that you can get such a variety of colors that they will all have a bit of a unique look even though they are all the same breed due to the blue genetics working alot like BBS in chickens.

One of the silverheads has a more bluehead looking head but its body down is definately silverhead. I think they will feather out with colored background feathers instead of the white background we are getting in some of our silverheads. The white background is striking due to the contrast of the spots but it was unexpected. We kept all of our silverhead ducklings last year to see how they feather out and to select which ones we want to keep for breeding. We sold a few drakes and offered hens to select people who are breeding and not just eating their eggs.

This year we will be selling nearly all of our ducklings but keeping a higher price on the silverheads and blueheads to encourage beginners to start with greenheads. I know we can't keep our babies but it is hard to take them from their mamas because the hens feel the loss. They will wander all over calling to the ducklings and then start a new nest, determined to have a family. By their second round I let them keep their babies (although I might take a few away) because I want to encourage them to be good mamas and not take away all their babies all the time. It is far easier to sell the incubator ducklings but we will keep some to pair with ones raised by hens because we know she was not laying while she was sitting and raising ducklings so anything hatched after she started sitting is unrelated. We band with different colors to keep track of lineage when selling breeding pairs.

Very interesting thank you for the info. I really know nothing about the Australian Spotted , Nice to hear from someone who does. They are beautiful.

 

[Duck Drover]

Very interesting thank you for the info. I really know nothing about the Australian Spotted , Nice to hear from someone who does. They are beautiful.

We really love our Spots. I have raised many duck breeds over the years, always wanting to try something new I guess, but we are sold on the Spots and I will never go back to another breed unless I need meat ducks. I like eating chicken and turkey more than I like eating duck because I like white meat the best so I don't see the need to raise ducks for meat in the near future. The drakes are supposed to be a very tasty duck so I have been tempted to eat surplus drakes but because they are my daughter's conservation project we focus on getting our drakes into breeding programs or onto ponds where people want ornamental no fuss ducks, not hens that lay eggs everywhere and want to sit on nests and then raise ducklings.

When we discount drakes to balance our flock there is a chance they will be eaten but most of them take a wife (or several) and live out long happy lives. The hens are the most at risk to predators when they are literally sitting ducks so the drakes don't usually disappear the way hens may if they are unprotected. We very rarely sell hens without drakes so when people lose hens they typically have to get a straight run of ducklings and then they can deal with too many drakes rather than leaving that to us.

 

[Pampered Chicken]

I just got my first trio. I'm looking for an unrelated trio also. Anyone selling any ducklings, adults or eggs?

 

[Julie Birb]

Our new arrivals!

Oh, wow. I am finding this group to be cute to the extreme. Look at Mom's very round body and her very precious softies.

 

[Duck Drover]

Oh, wow.  I am finding this group to be cute to the extreme.  Look at Mom's very round body and her very precious softies.  

We moved the last two eggs from the nest into the incubator and both hatched today, just two days behind their siblings. I am going to see if the hen will take them tomorrow with the four we let her keep. Anthing hatching from the incubator now will not be out of this mother so we can make breeding pairs that way. We took away three silverheads and I will see if she will take these two non-silverheads with her other ducklings if I can get the six ducklings to group together so the two new ones blend in with the other four. I may have to separate the four from her and let the six ducklings form a group before giving them all back to her. Then we will need to watch them closely over the weekend to make sure the family stays together. I might sell these ducklings but I would like to let the mother keep them and then pair them off later as breeding groups.

 

[Duck Drover]

I have been listening to the two ducklings in the house and they sound like a hen and drake. They are still too small to vent sex to be certain but I want to be sure not to sell a brother and sister together to avoid them being inbred, either accidently or on purpose.

We usually sell straight run groups of four or more so statistically there will be two boys and two girls. The assumption is that people will more likely keep the two hens for eggs and the two drakes will be somewhat "disposable" and end up eaten or sold together. If someone is attached to all four, they can be separated into two same sex pairs or the owner can make sure the eggs are eaten and not hatched to avoid inbreeding.

This breed is so mild mannered that it is not a problem to have two drakes over two hens for breeding and it actually increases the fertility when the drakes have to compete to win the hens over. A pair does just fine together, as long as one does not suffer from an attack by a predator leaving a lone duck, so two pairs will make a nice starter flock. If the two pairs each have ducklings, they can even make new pairs from the two lines.

We sell breeding pairs, which are an excellent way to start a flock since the hens can be bred back to the father drake and a drake can even be paired with his mother one generation. This is line breeding and it is safe for one generation before it is necessary to outcross to another line. The two pairs are out of different lines to insure they are unrelated for breeding purposes. We would never sell related ducks as breeding pairs because our goal is to increase the genetic diversity in the breed.

I have a number of people wanting to get just the two ducklings that hatched late but because I suspect they are brother and sister I have not agreed to sell just the two to anyone. We brought in two of the older ducklings to group with them so the hen can still raise two of her ducklings until they are paired for breeding when they are older.

I am offering this group of four siblings as a straight run but I have to decide if I want to get all six ducklings together outside with the hen until this group is sold or if I am going to keep them together inside until they have a new home. The two younger ones are doing great with the two older ones so it will depend on whether or not the hen will accept her two smaller babies that hatched late inside. There is a chance these younger two are not hers and that another duck added them after she started sitting but without knowing for sure I have to assume they are too closely related to pair them with the older ducklings.

I try to screen potential families for our ducks because I would rather not sell ducklings to someone questionable than to have them be careless with the genetics we have worked so hard to preserve. I am opposed to inbreeding in general but especially when a gene pool is so small that there is not as much genetic diversity as there is in populations that have had far more outcrossing than linebreeding.

I was ranting to a friend of mine, who has a small breeding flock and sells ducklings, because I thought she would understand how much inbreeding upsets me but instead she thought I was accusing her of contributing to the inbreeding problem because she does not screen buyers the way I do. It is true that I have no control over what people do with our ducks once they leave here but I feel invested in the future of the breed.

This started as a community service project with my daughter so we have had a focus in educating people not only about the benefits of raising ducks but we also provide a sort of genetic counseling. We even do drake trades to create more outcrossing between flocks and produce more breeding pairs to start more flocks. I am in contact with many people who have ducks from us and they often return for more from later generations.

We do everything we can to keep our drakes alive for breeding but when we sell ducklings as a straight run there is the expectation that people will not keep the drakes. That is up to them at that point because I raise enough drakes already without setting out to keep every drake alive. The reality is that male birds are more likely to be eaten than to live to breed so I am okay with that once they leave here. On occasion I have to sell drake groups in order to up our ratio of hens to drakes and then I don't ask questions.

I get so many people wanting adult hens for layers and I understand they don't want the work of raising ducklings and they don't want the dilema of what to do with surplus drakes but I don't want to do all the work for their benefit. If they only want hens then the best way to do that is to get a straight run and have a plan for the drakes. I basically double the hen prices to discourage people from buying just hens and leaving me with too many drakes to balance so they can get a straight run for the same price as all hens. They can also buy breeding pairs and only keep the hens.

The thing I won't do is to sell just two ducklings that are brother and sister if there is a chance they will be either bred or separated. I feel a sense of obligation to the breed to keep them out of the wrong hands so I would rather turn down a person from getting ducks if they don't have a basic understanding of genetics or duck psychology. I will sell a smaller group of ducklings if someone needs companions for a lone duckling and they will not be crossbred but I will not sell a single duckling under any circumstance. As much as I am opposed to crossbreeding, I am even more against inbreeding.

I know this is a long rant but I am hoping there are other breeders that feel the way I do. I came to BYC hoping to connect with others who breed these ducks and in the process learn what others are doing and share what we are doing. These ducks are rare and my hope is that their numbers will increase so there will be more people who breed them and strive to preserve the breed as we do. I especially want to get young people involved so we make an extra effort to support them in raising a productive flock. We have started alot of new flocks in our local area and beyond so we want to continue to do that in order to make up for the frustration of dealing with people who don't share our goals.

This could be the year we start shipping since Holderreads no longer has Australian Spotted ducks but then it will become less of a service project turned hobby and more like a business. I think the only way we could ship ducklings is to make sure we have hatches from so many hens that the ducklings in each hatch are not likely to be siblings and that would require setting eggs for incubation daily to make sure each egg was from a different hen. The large hatcheries can do this but we just want to keep a backyard flock and not a commercial flock. We have more ducks this year than we ever planned on keeping in order to keep blueheads and silverheads from last year's hatches so that we can offer more colors this year.

For now we are letting the hens sit on nests and only collecting eggs laid in open areas until after I have my surgery so I can walk again. That means we will have lots of ducklings that can be paired for breeding but we will have to be careful about selling siblings to people who could end up inbreeding. It will be fine to let the hens raise their ducklings but there are people who want to socialize the ducklings and we want to give those people a chance to raise ducklings that will know them and not us. My daughter is trying her hand at incubation but she is still learning how to have successful hatches so her first attempt did not go well.

If there are others with breeding flocks or those considering starting a breeding flock, I would love to share ideas in this thread. I have done a search on BYC for Australian Spotted ducks and there do not seem to be many breeders out there. The more common breeds have far more people posting about them while this thread gets buried from so little activity.

 

[Duck Drover]

We have more ducklings hatched today and still hatching so I might be able to sell them as pairs now. We tried to get the mother hen to take back her two youngest ducklings but she wasn't fooled so the four are inside together and just two are left outside with the hen.

 

[cscarney]

It's been an interesting spring with my Spots. I lost half of the breeding flock to a fox one weekend (first time in 20 years of poultry that a fox has showed up) and the incubator thermostat went bad on the first batch of eggs....I now have Spots hens that are broody and the latest batch in the new incubator is developing on schedule.

The Spots that aren't broody are still laying, so I have plenty of eggs coming in. If anyone is looking for hatching eggs, let me know and we'll work something out. They will be either greenhead or bluehead when they hatch....

Catherine

 

[Duck Drover]

We have been taking hatchlings from hens this year instead of incubating, although my daughter may have some eggs incubating as well. They always go so fast but I have been able to take two boys from one nest and group them with two girls from another nest to make unrelated breeding groups and avoid inbreeding once they leave here (there are plenty of drakes to cover the hens so it is unlikely they have the same father but they definately have different mothers). We are always open to drake trades too so we can make breeding pairs with diverse genetics.

I picked up a new Brinsea EcoGlow50 on Craigslist today for only $70 so I am looking forward to using it for our hatchling ducklings and chicks. I am still trying to heal damaged tissue in order to get my surgery scheduled so I have been off my feet far longer than I expected. My initial injury was last July so I have been going for almost a year now needing to have my ankle and foot repaired. I want to get back on my feet to do hatching but it looks like I will have to let the hens sit on their own eggs this year. We will have fewer ducklings than if we were incubating but we will still have plenty with the record number of hens we have this year.

I think the crows are stealing eggs from nests, though, because yesterday we had one hen hatch 2 ducklings and another one hatched 3 ducklings with no left over eggs. We have another nest where the hen was off the nest and there there was a broken eggshell and two eggs but we don't know where the duckling went. She is nesting in a planter so the duckling will not be able to get back in the nest but we are not sure where she left it. We have had 2 ducklings show up alone in the pond because the mama left them behind so I am afraid we could easily be losing ducklings to the crows too. They carry the eggs off and they have snatched ducklings so anytime the hen is off her nest the crows can raid it if it is not hidden well enough.

I think we will need to build nest boxes that are duck friendly and try to get them to use them if we keep leaving the eggs for the hens to hatch. We have lots of trees and bushes the hens use to nest under but they don't all choose protected locations. In the past we collect eggs when we see them so the only times the hens hatch their ducklings is when their nests are well hidden.

As I was typing my daughter was searching for the missing duckling and she came in with 6 new ducklings from a more secure nest so now we can group these with the ducklings from yesterday. We need to get some bands on yesterday's ducklings so we can tell them apart since some of the greenheads look alike.