By the way, for anyone reading this thread, as I understand it, the silver appleyard
call duck (not to be confused with the silver appleyard
bantam, which is what Chickens Really has) looks like this (Note that this is more similar to the color pattern of my duck. But, it has the correct call body):
View attachment 1056728
Derek Wheeler at Wheeler farms raises them, and he also raises Miniature Silver Appleyards, aka Silver Bantams), which look like this:
View attachment 1056732
He also has full size silver appleyard ducks, which have a similar color pattern to the call, but not the bantam.
What I had ordered were silver appleyard CALLS. Like Derek's. I had ordered some eggs from him, but they didn't hatch. As hatchlings, they should look like the large appleyards (to the best of my knowledge, light restricted mallard--yellow with a dark mohawk and tail patch--but I've never hatched any, apparently, and so I'm not sure about this. Would love some clarity). The birds on this thread do look similar to the ones I hatched, at least in color:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/silver-appleyard-versus-snowy.308832/
It doesn't help that people use the names so interchangeably, or that some people do not realize that there is
both a bantam and a call. And, that the color pattern for each is different. To my knowledge, light restricted vs. harlequin dusky.
Sigh. The one thing I know for sure is that my "mystery duck" doesn't have the correct body conformation for a call duck, nor the correct coloring for a bantam. So, either way, unless someone who knows a lot about the genetics of both can tell me otherwise, I think she is not what she is supposed to be...
