Silky ducks are considered bantams, but with normal proportions to their bill and neck, so I would not expect them to have the same issues as calls. They came from a mutation out of regular mallards. My understanding is that either the gene that causes silkied feathering in ducks or one linked to that gene causes their eggshells and membranes to thicken slightly as well, and that's why they struggle with hatching.
Crash, she's one of my birds whose name has a bit of a story behind it. When she was just an egg, I was candling just before lock down and she slipped out of my hand and went CRASH! onto the table and off to the floor. Thankfully, this was just my bedside table, so it wasn't much of a fall, but still enough that her egg was mostly crushed down one side. My dad and I carefully put candle wax over the cracks and hoped for the best. A few days later, Crash arrived, the only of her brood to hatch. My suspicion has always been that she was only able to hatch because of that event, and that her siblings died because they could not properly pip and had no help with breaking through their shells. At the time, I was too inexperienced to know what to look for in such a scenario, so unfortunately I was too late to help. That difficulty with hatching unassisted is what ended up putting me off of call ducks specifically, and why I'd hesitate to get into another variety that has its own hatching issues.
And no worries about forgetting to post! I do that sometimes, too! Then I realize I never posted and go back to a thread with my whole post sitting in the reply box, but someone's already jumped in to reply and my post is redundant at that point
Good to hear that they don't have the bill problems, although there's still the issue of the hardened shell. Crash's story is nothing short of amazing, glad you were able to help her! I bet she's very close to you, since she was a loner growing up. On a completely different subject, I finished the second, and last silkied ameraucana thread. I loved reading through a project like that! Any other suggestions? I think I already follow most of the current breeding projects, but I know nothing about the breeding projects of the past
She lives with my chickens now, though, and has bonded pretty closely with my last silkied Red Cochin rooster, Roscoe.
Can't believe how fast that came up!
