Runner colors

[Amiga]

All runners are beautiful, in my opinion

I had an awful time deciding which colors to choose. I like the fawn and white, but I have an ever so slight preference for darker colors. I like my critters to blend into the background, visually.

Meyer offers four colors - chocolate, black, fawn & white, and blue. My friend, who is ordering with me, wanted blue. So I chose the black and the chocolate (as if it mattered which four went with her

)

Now that I have seen the black drakes, I wouldn't mind if a black drake were included with the order for females. There is a 90 percent guarantee on the sexing, so I reckon I will end up with one or two drakes after all.

We shall see!

This is a long-winded way

of saying, you cannot go wrong - any color will be lovely.

 

[stuborndancer]

Thanks everyone for your pictures and opinions. Do the black always get the nice iridescent green sheen to them? Or is that just one in every couple that come out that pretty?

 

[rainplace]

The males are the sheeniest. I have one SQ female that has a nice sheen, but it's not nearly as sheeny as her mate though someone once asked me if she was a he because of how nice she looked. I have a hatchery black female and she has no sheen and I have a SQ breeder that doesn't have the sheen though her figure is to die for

Not sure about hatchery drakes.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I have a White Runner duck (Maizie), and a Buff Runner drake (Rubee). I think they're both gorgeous - although, they're definitely not the show-quality, upright Runners I was hoping for. They're prefect little pets though. I spoil them rotten!

Here's Rubee...

...and Maizie...

...and the two of them together:

My flight netting is a mess in that last picture. The snow collapsed it, and I've been too lazy to fix it properly - plus, I'm pretty sure the edges are now stuck in the snow until spring.

 

[Duck_feeder]

Quote:
Our older female black runner, Vinny, has the green sheen. The black duckling, Norie, isn't fully fledged yet so I don't know if she'll be as pretty.

Dark colored ducks will start losing their dark feathers with each successive molt and end up with lots of white feathers. Vinny isn't even a year old and already has lots of white feathers. Our chocolate runner, Ming Mei, lost most of her speculum flight feathers during her last molt.

EDIT: forgot to mention our ducks are hatchery quality from Metzer.

 

[CityChicker]

Quote:
I haven't decided yet. I don't know what color she is out of, so she could really produce just about anything. She is madly in love with a Saxony Runner drake, but I may do a forced separation and pair her with a Gray (or white if someone ends up asking me for white ducklings). With the Gray, it is easier to tell what colors the white bird is carrying because most of them will typically show on a solid Gray bird (Mallard here in the US) and I know my Grays have bred nothing but Gray for several generations.

 

[CityChicker]

Annarie- I think those ducks you got from Sandhill have turned out really pretty, even if not top show quality. They still look like Runners (a big step over a lot of hatcheries, LOL). I may order some from them this year. I have a drake that I have been trying to decide for sure whether he might have Buff in him because of his lack of claret in the front. He looks a lot like your Rubee, only more Grey-Blue and even less claret. I think he either has Buff (Buff Runner, like maybe his mother carried Buff and the breeder didn't know) in him or is a poorly marked Saxony Runner (which he is supposed to be, but luckily I have enough good drakes that I don't need this one for breeding and he didn't come out of my line fortunately). Anyway, I think yours are really pretty.

 

[Goat_Walker]

Quote:
I was about to mention that her "buff" Looked VERY Saxony to me, lol.

 

[CityChicker]

Yeah, I think that in some types of ducks, Buff and Saxony can look somewhat similar even though in the large breeds, they look very different. I think it probably relates to a couple of different factors including whether the base color of the bird is wild-type Mallard or Dusky Mallard. I have read previously that some Saxonies have the fault of carrying Buff dilution (Holderread I think refers to this as "American" Saxony). I think that may be what is going on with my one drake that is slightly off-colored. It is so hard to say without doing test crosses. I think the colors get easily confused because the brown and buff dilution of the Buff Runners lightens the overall plumage color very similar to how the light dilution of the Saxony does. It would be very possible for a breeder to accidentally have a Buff drake with a Saxony or Pastel hen (which can look similar to Buff). The resulting offspring would be hens that look Buff and drakes that look more Saxony.

 

[nettie]

I have runners form Metzer Farms in CA. I got at least one in every color-

These guys are Black, Blue, Chocolate, and fawn and white