Got an unexpected "surprise" today...our Nigella is a boy!

[araucanasmom]

My DD informed me today that Nigella was on top of Lisyla and had something hanging out that looked just like Xerxes'. I checked twice when he was a day old and I was sure it was a girl!

Oh well, I wasn't expecting eggs anyway because it's a crossbreed. We now call him Nigel.

 

[70%cocoa]

LOL, well, if he had something hanging out that's fairly conclusive.

Do you mean a crossbreed of a Muscovy and a Mallard-derived duck? The females can still lay, but it doesn't sound like Nigel will be doing any of that soon

 

[Missy60]

LOL, well, if he had something hanging out that's fairly conclusive.

Do you mean a crossbreed of a Muscovy and a Mallard-derived duck? The females can still lay, but it doesn't sound like Nigel will be doing any of that soon

Can they also hatch duckling that will be sterile? I think I heard that on here. Lol ok I get it now Lisyla is the cross bred that's sterile right?

 

[araucanasmom]

Nigel is the crossbreed, Lisyla is the pure Muscovy. Here's a picture of our flock in their temporary pen during the recent power outage. I had to keep them at my ex-husband's because we could not stay at our house with the heat wave and no power.

 

[Missy60]

Oh they are cuties! Sorry for the confusion I'm still trying to figure this duck stuff out.

 

[araucanasmom]

These were hatched from what was supposed to be pure Muscovy eggs, but we ended up with 2 Mallards (they also had Mallards and got the eggs mixed up) , 1 Muscovy/Mallard crossbreed and only 1 pure Muscovy (the white one). I'm still learning about ducks and they surprise me all the time. I had heard that if the drake was a Muscovy that the female offspring of a cross breeding with a Mallard may not lay eggs or may not have yolks in the eggs if they do lay. That's why I was not expecting eggs from this duck. But he's a boy so our male to female ratio is off and our poor girls may suffer. It's a good thing that they are not too aggressive with them so far.