*~*Runner Duck Club*~*

[Miss Lydia]

They probably will mine were mating at 4 months and eggs came about 3-4 weeks later.

My Runner girls were after the drakes at such a young age I was so surprised. Nothing like my Muscovy's.

 

[Table4Six]

My four female runners are around 4 months old, should they be laying by the time they're 5 months then? I have 20 ducks, but they're all hens, so I don't have mating to go by.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Probably by then but since I have a Runner drake I think mine must have matured faster or something my Muscovy hatch one year and don't lay till following spring around 8-9 months old these Runners and Buffs started so young. And really haven't slowed down much either. They are great egg layers. Mine lay blue eggs my Buffs cream colored.

 

[Table4Six]

Ok, sounds good. they're just pets to me, but I was just wondering. I have three adult hens, but the rest are juveniles. The three adults (2 snowy mallards, 1 crested grey), lay about 1-3 eggs a week. The rest are full size hens who are all supposed to be great layers, except for two crosses I hatched. I'm very curious to see how well they lay, one cross is black swede drake times crested grey mallard hen/ the other is black swede drake times snowy mallard hen. Any ideas on how well the crosses will lay? They're mallard size, but have mostly black swedish coloration. they're really cute, because they're like miniature black swedes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Aww I wanna see. I really have no idea on laying but can't imagine they wouldn't be good layer maybe not as prolific as the Runners since they have mallard in them and Mallard are seasonal layers.

 

[Table4Six]

Ok, thank you. I'll see if I have some pictures.

 

[Table4Six]

Here they are. Poppy (on the right) Black Swedish times Snowy Mallard. Ginny (on the left) Black Swedish times Crested Grey Mallard. You can't really see from the picture, but Ginny has dark brown feathers surrounding her white bib, brown laced black feathers on the back of her tail, and light brown feathers on her wings. Poppy has a light brown spot on her head and slightly light brown wings. They're so little too, probably smaller than my mallards!

 

[Tlmcq]

Love it...next year I wanna cross my Pekin with one of my blacks that have blue Gene or one of my blue Drakes...I wanna see if I can get a big blue...like a blue Pekin....lol. I think that would be so cool. We shall see

 

[Table4Six]

That would be very pretty. I wonder if that's possible. Sadly, my favorite blue swedish drake died of a sudden heart attack when he was less than a year old. This happened several months ago, and I had just bought him 15 new full size females. He was already with three bantam females, but because of his large size, he was a bit ruff on them. I wanted to breed him with my jumbo pekin hen, who was one of the fifteen. It probably would have been a beautiful cross. I loved Ocean so much and will never forget how sweet and fun he was.

 

[Tlmcq]

Oh I'm so sorry for the loss of your boy. I just got 3 lil Swedish Blues....my first Swedes. I have several runners and a lil girl mallard, just added 3 Cayuga as well. I can't believe how fast the Cayugas grew. Not sure if it was just time of hatch or what but they are only 5 weeks and almost fully feathered and already as big as the runners and bigger than my mallard. Can't wait to see how my baby blues turn out...they are so sweet but a bit shy right now.