Shallow gene Pool?

[jarcoo0153]

I recently got some ducks from a friend of mine, and she got her batch of 20 ducks about 20 years ago, originally they were campbells and rouens and they have been breeding/hatching since then. These are decendents of here original ducks. Is it time I buy a few ducks from the hatchery to deepen the gene pool? I have three males and two females I thought I would keep one of the males and the two females, and order a cambell male and two blue swedish hens. What do yall think?

 

[K4zn4v3]

I think so. I have a friend who purchased 9 pekins from tractor supply company. After about a year they decided they wanted more so they took five of the eggs and hatched them. Then later on they decide they wanted more again. This time they hatched 10 ducklings and out of those ten, 3 of them came out lame and retarded due to inbreeding. These ducks were to the point where they could barely walk so the humane thing to do was to put them out of their missery. Look at it this way, what do you lose by getting more ducklings to add to the gene pool. I say go for it.

 

[treldib]

Good idea, but 2 Drakes and 3 Ducks is still a bit precarious. The best ratio is 1 Drake to 3-9 Ducks.

Enjoy your ducks!