Mallard Breed Thread

[KansasKid]

Well it depends if i can "catch" them near the pen. about 4 something they work there way from the pond to underneath the horse feeders were they chow down then they will go and stand in front of the door of the aviary. They want to go in, problem is as soon as they see me they make a mad dash for the pond and if i'm not careful as to how much pressure i put on them to get into the pen they will fly. but if all goes well i can sneak around and put them in the aviary in just a few minutes. If they do fly and go to the pond i can always put on my chest waders and push them out. (but only if i can't avoid doing it)

 

[OSUman]

Ok cool, i might try to do that next time I get some. Where did you get your mallards from?

 

[KansasKid]

Well i have got some that were at a feed store a few years back, and ordered 10 from mcmurray and got a few from poultry swaps and so on. But as of right now i only have 5 mallards.

 

[OSUman]

Ok cool.

 

[kswaterfowl]

Yes I've shown them off and on since 2003. We have had lots over the years, had some colors pop up that I wasn't breeding for, so I culled those birds, but have had grey, snowy, white, pied snowy, pied grey, and dark snowy (trout). Here are some pictures of ours.

These are my new ones, payed for them but have to pick them up next week. They are a little closer to dark snowy, but they are very nice in all other aspects.

The whole flock in 2005 during molt.

This drake appears grey, but is really genetically a dark snowy, note the extension of the claret breast onto the flanks, he had much more in breeding plummage, but he is where I got the pied genes and the recessive whites.

And some ducklings for the cute factor. (all three female, I still have one of these, but the rest are long gone. sexed by bill color as ducklings.)

This is "Fridge" hatched from eggs that had been refridgerated for almost a week. (his father got killed by a raccoon, so I put all the eggs in the incubator and got this wonderful drake. He was a constant in my breeding pens, and produced many wonderful offspring, many much better than himself.

 

[destinduck]

Beautiful ducks kswaterfowl ! Keep up the great work !

 

[OSUman]

Quote:
How do you keep your birds? Im trying to find the best way to keep birds without them getting too large or eaten. All of your birds look really great.

 

[kswaterfowl]

Properly bred birds do not get overly large when kept up in captivity. If you cull for size you don't have problems with birds getting fat or large like some of the hatchery mallards. You can see by the pictures, we keep them in pens on the ground, covered with bird netting (this is what you use on fruit trees, not aviary netting. Its more to keep the wild birds out. I also keep them in old rabbit hutches. This way they can't fight with each other and each pair has their own space, but I need to get them back out on the ground before we get too far into the winter. Almost all of my birds are the product of two pairs of sibling birds. My original ones came from around Ashland, OH, in 2003. Two drakes and two ducks from a single clutch. I've had them since then with only a couple additions here and there from outside lines. Even the new birds I bought trace their bloodlines back to the same one mine came from.

 

[kswaterfowl]

wanted to bump this thread up and discuss it some more. I recently got a grey drake I am quite pleased with, he doesn't have any chainmail on his claret and he is overall a nice little drake. I will try to get some pictures this weekend to post, but no promises, with the snow we are expecting...he's caught and up in a hutch, but I don't know what the lighting will be like, may have to attempt pictures in the garage. Show mallards are becoming far and few in between, but there are still a few dedicated breeders out there...you just have to locate them.

 

[desertdarlene]

I haven't got any ducks yet, but I was thinking of adding snowy mallards to my list when I do get some ducks (assuming I can find a place where I can keep them and I'm not too allergic).

Here's a photo of Snowball who showed up at our local lake a couple of months ago. However, he disappeared earlier this week. Hopefully, he went back home or found a new home/owner. I really miss him and hope he comes back, but if he found a good home, I wish him luck. I used to call him and he would come when I called:

He's grown a bit since this photo was taken and is now the size of a regular mallard and has two curly drake feathers.