Preparing to set call and pekin duck eggs! Hatch day should be March 4, 2021 if all goes well!

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Oh, my, YES. Let me tell you, it sure as hell does cause issues. I lived that nightmare this year. I think you can get by just fine with parent x offspring breeding for a bit, but full siblings are problematic.
Last year, I had a ton of genetic diversity, and every egg I set was fertile, and hatched.
I only kept babies from one pairing, and the mom. Mistake. Less than 50% fertility rates, and a ton of quitters throughout. Bad news bears. Never again for me. That's why I am only keeping girls from that group, and boys from entirely different lines.

Hmm... now you've got me wondering. I had a ton of quitter eggs early this year with my calls.
I had them paired off with the coloring I wanted.
Now I have more males in the pen and the females choose and it's been much higher fertility rates.
Maybe they know who "not" to breed with...

 

[Conan]

Hmm... now you've got me wondering. I had a ton of quitter eggs early this year with my calls.
I had them paired off with the coloring I wanted.
Now I have more males in the pen and the females choose and it's been much higher fertility rates.
Maybe they know who "not" to breed with...

Maybe! I've wondered about that too. I honestly didn't think it would be an issue for a single generation, but I was wrong.
Now that you mention it, last year all my girls chose their mates, and this year they didn't. Hmm

 

[HeatherKellyB]

This is so interesting and honestly, pretty amazing

 

[HeatherKellyB]

So I just started wondering about something. Is it just coincidence that the two dwarfed ducks that I know of are both drakes? Anyone have or know of a duck hen with possible dwarfism?

I wonder if it's more common in drakes?

 

[WVduckchick]

I started a thread a few years ago you might be interested in. Lots of good pics of nuptial/eclipse plumage. They only do the full change molt once a year, usually in the summer after their first year. But they also do partial molts throughout the year. I always seem to have a few molting at different times. My snowy drake is the funniest now. He is in the process, his head is half green still, but half black and scraggly looking.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/drakes-eclipse-nuptial-plumage-pics.1258939/

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I started a thread a few years ago you might be interested in. Lots of good pics of nuptial/eclipse plumage. They only do the full change molt once a year, usually in the summer after their first year. But they also do partial molts throughout the year. I always seem to have a few molting at different times. My snowy drake is the funniest now. He is in the process, his head is half green still, but half black and scraggly looking.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/drakes-eclipse-nuptial-plumage-pics.1258939/

View attachment 2726782

Very interesting! Thank you so much for sharing

 

[shawluvsbirds]

 

[shawluvsbirds]

 

[Miss Lydia]

Okay @shawluvsbirds I am tracking you down. Please come here.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-this-duckling-gonna-be-ok.1477069/#post-24609412

 

[FunnyfarmMidwest]

Here is dinky. Hard to see how small he is, but he's just a tiny little turd.View attachment 2726249View attachment 2726251

Dinky is so adorable! Cuteness overload!