My trip to Holderreads!!! **Pic heavy, and very long winded (sorry)***

[EmtheFishLady]

Millie told me about the new edition when I called about my order, so I added it onto my order form to ship with my ducklings. I'm excited about it! Glad to hear this though, I know I definitely went with the right people.

 

[blueducklings]

Wow! I so want that book.

I too visited Dave's farm last month & got Dave to sign the old copy. But now I want the new copy too.

I will place an order for the new copy with my duckling order. The new copy has lots of updated info especially on colors.
Dave & Millie were great. And the 2 blue Runners I got made my other hatchery duck look like a different breed.
I so need to get more ducks

I'm 6 hrs away if I count all the shops, I mean stops I have to make along the way.

 

[DMSrabbit]

Quote:
Yeah Dave told me he also spent a lot of work on the genetics chapter. He said that alot of genetic nomenclature is hard to understand because many words are in several different languages, and have different abbreviations, etc. This year he spent a great deal of time to try and consolidate the terms to make one homogeneous genetic language that is easier for all readers to understand! A lot of work that guy does on our behalf! He also said that there were several updates on the feeding sections, colors (as you mentioned), and several other new improvements.

Ah yeah.. Now i need more ducks.. I need a really nice blue fawn drake and a couple more BEI hens.. I wanna make some Blue East Indies!! They are so pretty!! And it would go with the rest of my project birds, Blue laced Red Wyandottes, and Double Blue Laced Barnevelders..

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Man love those lil call ducks

 

[blueducklings]

Quote:
Yeah Dave told me he also spent a lot of work on the genetics chapter. He said that alot of genetic nomenclature is hard to understand because many words are in several different languages, and have different abbreviations, etc. This year he spent a great deal of time to try and consolidate the terms to make one homogeneous genetic language that is easier for all readers to understand! A lot of work that guy does on our behalf! He also said that there were several updates on the feeding sections, colors (as you mentioned), and several other new improvements.

Ah yeah.. Now i need more ducks.. I need a really nice blue fawn drake and a couple more BEI hens.. I wanna make some Blue East Indies!! They are so pretty!! And it would go with the rest of my project birds, Blue laced Red Wyandottes, and Double Blue Laced Barnevelders..

I bought 2 blue runners that I'm trying to breed lavenders from. I'm looking forward to some ducklings.

I have 2 blue eggs in my incubator. Can't wait to see what comes out.

It's my first hatch.
I have my ducks in a duck tractor now & need to finish building a secure duck run. It aint easy.
What does your run look like? any pointers?

 

[feather2]

Do you have pictures of your blue runners? Dave is shipping me two female show quality blue Fawn runners (they arrive tomorrow morning). Not sure what they will look like. Any idea? Thanks

 

[blueducklings]

How exciting!!

Are they adult runners then?
They are not the fawn color that we see in fawn & whites. It is darker, like the english fawn color. except the boys have a "blue gray head" light cream underbody and brown feet.
I saw some pics online, but like Dave said, the color description is different in England & US, so we'll just have to see.
Don't forget to post pics. I'd love to see them.
Mine won't stand still long enough for me to take a good shot of them. They are cumberland blues. Kind of a light silver cream with lots of freckles for the girl and a darkish brown for the boy.
They are beautiful and stand straight like a pole!
They are very skittish.
I'm hoping to get some ducklings from Dave in April so maybe less skittish.

 

[DMSrabbit]

Quote:
I will post some pics of mine partially finished. This is for my 4 BEI's, i also have a quail pen that my call ducks sleep in at night.. All my ducks free-range in the yard all day with my chickens, so these are the pens that they sleep and breed in..

This pen now has a front door that opens to the ground so that the ducks can walk up it to come back in for the evening, or down it to free range in the yard all day, has been roofed, and any openings have been covered in 1/2 in welded wire for nighttime predator protection. I will post updates pictures when i can. It also is a "living environment" as the subsequent foot of dirt below the flooring and water has some tall grass seed in it. I hope it catches enough sun rays to grow up through the bottom.. It would be cool if the ducks were literally at home in the grass!!

Quail pen that the little calls now sleep in only at night

 

[feather2]

They were born last spring Dave said. What I found interesting is their description from the email "We blood tested the birds this past Friday and Dave was able to go through the Runners to see what females would be available. There are two very good 2010 hatch Blue Fawn Runners females available. The Blue Fawns are a very rare variety that have the same plumage pattern as a Mallard female, but the black and dark brown portions of the plumage are blue/blue gray in the Blue Fawn" I had no idea that a blood test could be used for this purpose. I will post pictures. I have a Holderread male pencilled now. Wonder what that match will produce??

 

[blueducklings]

Wow...according to my crystal ball,

I see some lavenders knocking on the other side of the egg shell.

Dave said that a brown dilution gene in the male & a blue dilution in the female might give you a lavender. And that is what you have.

What I do see in the crystal ball is a very tired & silghtly balding female that wants to have a vacation from the boys.

2 boys and a girl?? What are you thinking??