Looking for Call Ducks

[NuggetsNuggets]

We are looking for a couple pairs of call ducks. They seem to be a little hard to find and I am wondering if anyone knows where I can either get some eggs or babies.

Thanks.
Nuggets.

 

[Kleonaptra]

Not easy in my neck of the woods - Im in Sydney Australia. I went to the bird auctions and was extremely lucky to find a small family of calls, the only calls amoungst hundreds of fowl. After they grew up a bit it became obvious they are mallard cross, which is why, I believe, they were dumped at the auctions in the first place.

I dont know a lot about call breeders, but from what I do know they are as picky about their purebreds as arabian horse breeders....And mallards tend to wipe out other breeds special traits with their own.

It worked out a beauty for me though, they are gorgeous little misfits, just like the rest of my flock!

 

[NuggetsNuggets]

I've been looking in eBay a little... But I'm a tad concerned because it appears they can be hard to hatch. I've just very recently got into chickens and my boyfriend and I would like to have some ducks, and would prefer to raise them ourselves. Can you answer why they are hard to hatch?

 

[Kleonaptra]

I havnt actually had a chance to hatch any call eggs yet, but I have had pacific blacks for years and they are very like calls. When I was incubating my pacific black eggs years ago and following incubating and candling instructions from sites on major breeds, it didnt seem to quite match up. When I found a page on calls, suddenly everything was making sense.

Smaller birds, smaller eggs. Seem to prefer cooler temp and longer gestation as opposed to large breeds like pekins that prefer warmer temps for the eggs. Lots of humidity too. It seems with pekins and muscovys you follow the general instructions and get a good 60 to 80% yield. Calls, like pacific blacks, just dont roll like that! If you have 10 eggs, each individual developing duckling has its own idea of what it wants....So I shoot for a middle ground to hopefully get the best yield.

As I said I havnt had a chance to incubate my call eggs yet, but with pacific blacks I was over the moon to get one duckling from 5 eggs! It is challenging!