Poultry Shows and Champion Ducks!!

[pinusresinosa]

Aww thanks, yes they are beauties What breeds of ducks do you own?

Nothing fancy. Rouens (my fav so far), pekins, Swedish, Indian runners. We had some serious issues with predation last year and heavily aggressive drakes, so there was a lot of flock shuffling last year... learned a lot! Hoping that this year isn't so dramatic. I'm more of a purpose breed lover, although... I saw some adorable silkies last weekend and I'm thinking that I may want to do some of my own someday.

What about you? Is that a white call in your profile picture?

 

[sophieoneill]

Aww I love all of those breeds of ducks!! Where I live it is hard to come across good examples of those breeds Yes I have 17 white show quality call ducks, they won all the rosettes in the pictures above I breed Call ducks as there are not many good examples of the breed here either and I have had a lot of interest from people and the ducklings are super cute I also have some Saxony's, Cayuga's, Khaki Campbell's, Miniature Silver Appleyards, Silver Bantams and some Mandarin ducks I had some problems with my drakes as well and I know it can be a bother, especially because I have the small bantam ducks and heavy breed ducks roaming free together!! My friend owns some silkies and they are adorable and very gentle natured and also make great mothers and brooders

 

[pinusresinosa]

Cute! The mini appleyards, do you love them? I think my top three favorite duck breeds are probably rouens, appleyards, and saxony.... and same here, can't find much in terms of really great specimens, but I've never shown ducks before so I haven't really thought about bloodlines and confirmation or coloring or anything of that nature (yet). My daughter would love to see a group of white little calls!

The silkie that really made me fall in love this weekend was this little black thing. So, she's housed with one other little blue or grey silkie, not sure what you call them exactly, anyway, these two tiny chickens are among a bunch of standard breeds, and this little black ball of energy really holds her own! My friend thinks she's blind, but I think she can see just fine. My friend would pull a chicken out of the coop and show us the chicken, then put it back in the coop, and every time she put that chicken back into the coop this little black silkie was on that chicken like white on rice, chasing and pecking! Then she'd bow and stand off with the other silkie, but they wouldn't actually fight. But, the best part was, my 3 year old daughter who's also a little scrapper, with a giant mess of curly hair on her head so I think they both had that going for them (the wild hair and being little scrappers) stepped into that coop and that black silkie followed her but wouldn't bite her, and the black little silkie let my 3 year old pet her and pick her up! I guess no one can do that with that silkie chicken! Was so funny. Tiny ball of spicy fluff! I want one!!

 

[sophieoneill]

Haha adorable You just have to get a slikie now, I love their little poof on their head!! ha, if your little daughter was hear she would not only see a huge flock of white little call ducks..she would hear them too!! They are some noisy little creatures..my ducks are only after starting to lay again and they are getting busy with the drakes so they are mad here at the moment!! I do love the mini appleyards..their coloration is beautiful!! I bought a mini appleyard drake for my females last year and when I brought him home to them he took off up into the sky and I thought he was gone for good....but 3 hours later he came back again and I eventually caught him!! He must have heard all the call ducks call him back home...the drake is called Houdini ha, but he is a lovely little drake and very gentle..he's funny because he ignores the female mini appleyards and loves following all the bigger female ducks everywhere (his big momma's) !! ha

 

[sophieoneill]

Here is a few pics of my call ducklings and momma last year

 

[pinusresinosa]

Aww! Cute little man. My one hold over drake, my Indian runner is gentle too, which is why I kept him. He's gentle with the hens, doesn't force himself on anyone, and is perfectly fine not being top peck in the order. He does a good job letting the girls eat first while he stands at attention and watches, even when they're out foraging, he watches and is a great protector to the best of his abilities. I'm incubating his offspring now, and while they'll be crossbreeds, I hope I get some more gentle drakes out of him regardless of breed. I had a nightmare last year with drakes trying to (and in one case successfully by drowning) killing each other, forcing themselves on the hens pulling out tons of neck feathers, not letting hens eat, stuff like that. I never want to deal with that again.

Houdini knows where the good life is! Ugh, now I want some calls. And silkies. Soon, soon. My two bators are full, with some exhibition rouen hatching eggs coming soon, so I'll have some room eventually.

 

[pinusresinosa]

Here is a few pics of my call ducklings and momma last year

OH NO!

My daughter is seeing this too. Too CUTE! That one with the baby's head in the heart cut out and the one with the baby on the mommy is too much.

 

[sophieoneill]

Haha..

He sounds like a lovely drake too..I love Indian runners (their little run is soo cute)!! Ha yep my incubators are full too, I know the feeling Aww thanks, I love the calls too..they are little characters and have the cutest babies..they are also great too if you want to incubate some duck eggs as my female calls always go broody, incubate all of their own eggs and raise all the babies to adult hood aww please posts some pics when some of your ducklings hatch, I will do the same

 

[pinusresinosa]

I will! I have a set of chicken eggs that go on lockdown next tuesday. My second set that includes my duck eggs is on day 4 today. I *think* that my drake may be breeding with my rouen only, but it's still too early to tell for sure yet.

 

[sophieoneill]

Look forward to seeing what hatches, good luck