Excess Ducks?

[CityChicker]

Hey! I thought I would post this here to see if anyone has surplus in anything particular and mention a few things we have. If we decide to sell some in pairs, I will post them in the sale section, so hopefully this is appropriate here.

What a year for drakes this was! It was such a bizarre breeding season to begin with. What is really weird is that in my breeds that started laying really late, we hatched out a very disproportionate number of drake to hens. Literally in some varieties, ten to twelve drakes for every hen. As I mentioned before, we also rescued two different groups of Runners recently (well one in the Spring and one just recently) that we are going to be placing most of. My brother is helping me with that, but I can check with him about what he has left if anyone wants anything.

This post is of dual purpose, to compare notes on the breeding season and see if anyone wants to post about their own excess birds that need to be paired up. Mainly we have tons of extra Mini Appleyard drakes and Runner drakes. I easily have 9-10 Mini Appleyard drakes we could part with cheaply. Wouldn't you know it- the year we have so many extra drakes, someone else here locally has had several as well so the market is glutted, LOL. In the Runners, we have excess drakes in Gray, Blue Fawn, Saxony, and some mixed color Dusky and Blue Dusky sports. If anyone might want some, we can coordinate with my brother and see what he hasn't gotten rid of after this weekend. Several of the Runners are of absolutely best of the best show quality type. We produced this year some of the best Runners we ever have, but some of the exceptional ones are off-color or simply we had too many of them. My brother was going to take several of the surplus birds and grow them out for processing, but later decided some are too pretty for that!

I might be able to part with a few bantam duck pairs as well, but can post them in the sale section if anyone is interested. Just PM me if interested!

 

[duckyfromoz]

Its threads like these that make me wish I didnt live in Australia... I dont have enough drakes this year !!!! Although it is much easier to sell surplus females- I much prefer selling my ducks in pairs/trios or at least some kind of multiple with some of each sex. I have quite a few going to new homes myself over the next week- And look forward to having a quieter yard again.

I have decided to source a few new birds for my flock now that my main breeding season has finished- and will continue hatching in small numbers for a while with some experimental colour breeding. One or two of your Runner boys would have been great to have in my yard while I do this.

Best of luck with finding homes for them- I dont know how popular it is over there- but I was recently contacted by a lady actually wanting 6-8 drakes for herding. I wasnt able to help her out- but it would have been a good way to reduced my numbers if I had excess drakes. I didnt like the idea of duck herding much until I saw it happen. The ducks really dont get too stressed over it after a the first few times. As long as the handler has good command over the dog- the ducks are safe- and they are actually very well looked after to ensure they are fit and healthy.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I have several drakes I am now trying cull. Mallards I have 7 extra, Pekins I have 2 and then the WH I have 5. I have one 4-H kid who is thinking hard about getting a duck pet and he really likes the green heads. Hopefully he decides soon as my deadline to decide is coming soon.

 

[Wifezilla]

I have one extra gold welsh harlequin drake. I ended up with a lot of hens this year and i am NOT complaining

I think in Spring I will sell him and a gold hen (Wendy) together as a pair. The hen is a good layer, but her girl babies all end up with very prominent eye striping and very dark, almost drake-like plumage. If someone just wants eggs and/or meat they would make good starter ducks. The drake is a handsome fellow and his parents are both Holderreads ducks, but I am more partial to the silvers than the golds.

 

[CityChicker]

Wifezilla- I agree. I personally love the look of a beautiful Silver Welsh Harlequin. I would like to eventually set up a true breeding flock of Silvers and a separate flock of Golds (entirely possible genetically) if I continue with them. Incidentally, Tweak is back with us now! He has been here with a new hen for about 6 weeks now. I just haven't been able to spend much time with him. I am glad to have him back though. I really like the sports that are harlequin phase, but obviously without the dusky and therefore the eye-stripes. Getting those to breed true would actually be a cool breeding project for someone.

Mommyofthreewithchicks- Good luck with placing those drakes! That sounds like how it is around here this year. I have a lot of times given excess drakes to 4-H kids, so that is great. When you have so many, it sometimes comes to that or processing them.

Duckyfromoz- That is a great idea. I have seen one person here locally selling Runners that were used for that, but I never have and really don't know a lot about it. Having extra hens is definitely easier to deal with! No doubt about it. That funny thing is that the last few years, we have been really lucky with how many hens we have hatched out. I don't know why this year was so different with most breeds. I am sure it is just pure chance and every now and then you are going to have a year with a very high percentage of one sex.

 

[Wifezilla]

Oh cool! Tweak is a handsome guy. Glad he has a good home with a new girlfriend

His son TJ (Tweak Jr.) is so much like him in body type and personality. Coloring is more gold phase though. Head is more greenish/bronze and wing bands are too. He even tries to charge my toes like his dad used to

Boys! Sheesh!