New Runner Ducklings! Growing up - UPDATED PICS, pg. 3

[FenDruadin]

Not a problem. It was great meeting you. Great picture. Glad they did well on the way home. Jessy seems delighted with her three, too. I brought my two remaining little babies in the house for some loving and they are already tamed way down--they're playing with Everett's fingers while I type.

Enjoy them and you know I'm happy to work with you in the future too.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

My newest additions (thank you iamcuriositycat)

I am in LOVE with these guys, especially the two black ones they are SO friendly!! Also, I know 2/3 are GIRLS! already @ 5ish weeks old, they quacked at me on the car ride and the catching of them to put 'em up for the night - lol.

Sorry they are bad pics, was taken with my phone, but I will get a second pair of hands and a better camera so we can take good pictures. I'd like to keep track of their development with these 3 and my muscovy babies.

P.S. had them 8 hrs and they all have names...
Top picture left to right Squirt (only one dont know sex - shortest of 'em and seems to have a mischevious side) Tux - the blue and white tuxedo and Sweetpea cause shes a sweetie with a cute face and was eating my fingers along with her peas.

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

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Awesome Jessy! They are so cute! And great names too!

 

[duckluck]

Gorgeous ducklings! I am always struck by how much alike the breeds look as newborns.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Tony, your bunch are so awesome looking, like I told you today I didn't realize runners got so big so QUICK! I guess its just cause they stand tall and dont carry low like other ducks...It was awesome meeting you, and I got a peek at them babies of yours in person, they are so cute, if only they stayed so tiny and fluffy

Annemarie, your bunch are very very pretty! You'll have to make sure to update us with pics on that champagne colored one!

 

[Sweetfolly]

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Thanks! They're not from Holderreads; I got them from Sandhill Preservation Center last summer. The drake is supposed to be a Buff (I ordered a Runner assortment, they were only able to send half the number of ducklings I ordered, and according to the packing list I got 2 Whites and a Buff - one of the Whites didn't survive the trip

), but since the ducklings are NOT hatching out sex-linked like I originally thought, I'm not sure anymore. If he was a Buff, all his daughters should be getting the sex-linked Brown and Buff dilutions, but I sold two of the darker colored ducklings that were identical at hatching to someone, and they grew up to be a male/female pair.

Anyways, I'm impressed with my White Runner from Sandhill - not so much with the drake, but the ducklings are such gorgeous, unique dilute colors I guess he's worth keeping around!

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You bet! We'll see, the feathers are just coming in - I'm sort of expecting that the champagne color will be penciled with pale blue, so it'll look sort of silvery buff. I can't wait to see!

 

[FenDruadin]

Oh, yay! I love to see the pictures. Thank you for posting those. They look like they're already settling into their new home nicely. I'm going to send a link to this thread to the woman who hatched the two black ones--I think she'll be so glad to see that they've gone to a lovely pet home. She'll be hatching more in her classroom next year, so if anyone else in the area wants sweet, kid-friendly, finger-eating babies in the spring, I got you covered.

And if you're not in this area, I'll tell you the secret: Sell eggs to a teacher who wants to hatch them in her classroom, and then let those kids keep the ducks for two weeks. They will play with them all day long and when you get them back they will be the sweetest ducks you have EVER met.

 

[Sweetfolly]

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You bet! We'll see, the feathers are just coming in - I'm sort of expecting that the champagne color will be penciled with pale blue, so it'll look sort of silvery buff. I can't wait to see!

Okay, updated pictures of the really pale-colored ducklings - this is a female and a male, the female is that solo-hatch duckling, so she's about 2 weeks older. Pictures don't do them justice - they're much more evenly-colored when seen by the eye, and just stunning. I just wish they held their tails downwards like good, proper Runners though...but if I decide I want to try to work with this color, that can come later...

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I like the runners, we have Gray's that came from Holderreads. I need to get some pics of the little ones we hatched out this year. These are the adults.

Steve

 

[Sweetfolly]

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That's how I wish mine held their tails!

I'm planning on hatching some more out of my current group next year, and then maybe next fall (not this coming fall, but the fall of 2011), getting a nice Dusky drake from Holderreads to breed the females to, to improve the type but hopefully work with this color. None of mine are genetically "pure" colored, so it'll take a lot of trial and error of paired breedings and careful record-keeping to figure out the genotypes (and I'll never be able to get rid of the recessive white they all picked up from their mom)...but they're so neat looking I think it's worth the effort!

I'm going to try to get a better close-up picture of that oldest duck's feathers - the shafts are blue-black, the inner part of the feathers are very pale-blue, surrounded by that apricot-tan. So neat looking, definitely not what I expected to hatch out when I paired up my mismatched Runners this year!