Runner ducks

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Well those quacks generally are from your girls. So if you're only hearing one, my guess would be you've got a pair.

 

[Buckas]

When you get close to them do they keep silent or do they chatter to each other? My boys will chatter to one another like they are talking about "danger approaching" and their raspy voice seems to come directly from their bills while my girls, their quack seems to come from inside their chest/breast. The girls tend to be silent unless I reach out for them and they will scatter with a quack (try that). For sure if you are hearing loud quacks in the morning you definitely have a girl if not two. Try watching as you approach them and see if they use their chest/breast to make sound or if its just a chatter. Perhaps you have one of each and any day now that curled feather should appear and then you'll know for sure. Right!

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

I wanted to ask about eggs... Last week I had very blue eggs. This week they are a little larger, but now they are more white than blue. What do your Runners' eggs look like?

 

[Buckas]

My blue girl Dottie, her eggs are a light green and her sister Francine who passed away had light tan. Georgette is my fawn and white runner and her eggs are also a light tan (very off white). The first egg Georgette ever layed was no bigger than a robins egg and every day after they continued to get bigger, it took about a week before the eggs were pretty uniform. Seems like when the blue girls started laying they had instant big ones. I saved the first 6 eggs Georgette layed and keep them on the counter in the kitchen. I will post a pic, the strange thing about her eggs is they were light green to begin with and now they are always light tan.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Thanks for that response! Now that is very interesting, my Runner is Fawn & White.

 

[Buckas]

These are Georgette's first eggs (light green). I actually took out the sixth egg and put one in that she made today. It almost appears orange in this pic, but they are definitely light tan. I have had the eggs on the counter in this little six pack for a year now and they are almost completely dried out. I'll have to admit that we were weirded out about them being so little. Especially when the blue girls started laying and theirs were fairly normal size just more missile shaped. Every once in awhile I will get an egg from Georgette (fawn and white runner) with a stain of green on it.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Here's our eggs from last week. The bigger white ones are from my Rouen. Blues are 99.9% sure from my Runner. ... So I wonder if this means she might one day hatch a blue Runner?! How exciting!

 

[Buckas]

Here's our eggs from last week. The bigger white ones are from my Rouen. Blues are 99.9% sure from my Runner. ... So I wonder if this means she might one day hatch a blue Runner?! How exciting!

When Francine (my blue runner) was attempting to hatch those eggs just recently, the babies appeared to be blue like her when she was a baby. Her eggs however were all light tan like Georgettes( the fawn and white runner whose eggs were light green to begin with) and she has never made us a light green egg like her sister Dottie does. So, the only color of egg your runner makes is blue? I love the blue ones, yours seem darker, even darker than my blue girl Dottie's eggs. I think I read somewhere that runners typically have the blue/light green egg, does that sound right?

 

[Buckas]

Here are six of Dotties (blue runner) light green eggs with six of the light tan eggs (a mix of Francine and Georgettes).
This pic doesn't do these eggs justice, the lower 6 are the light green ones.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

I was super excited to get the blue eggs- they are just beautiful. Now they seem white to me. (?) IDK. I guess I'll just have to watch and see what she gives me next week. ... And she is only laying once every 2-3 days.

Your eggs are lovely too!