Silver Appleyard Duckling with Dark Bill

[NinjaChicken617]

Hi all! I have recently branched out to raising ducks in addition to my chickens. I have 3 adult Silver Appleyard ducks that I received from a friend who was relocating. She thought she was giving me 2 girls and a drake, but when one of the girl's head turned green a couple weeks later it was evident that I had a very poor drake to duck ratio. I chose to solve the problem by getting 4 sexed females from a hatchery. They're 7 weeks old now and they're all beautiful and vigorous and loud and smelly, so they're just perfect! One of the 4 has a dark brown bill, though. I've searched around and I can't find any reference to this. The other girls have the expected yellow bill with a dark bean. Does anyone know anything about this? If it's a genetic quirk then I will just avoid hatching out any of her eggs in the future, but if it's a sign of illness or something more sinister than that I want to know. She is otherwise identical to her sisters in size, shape, coloration, activity level, etc. so I'm not worried, per se, just curious. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or wisdom!

 

[DuckyDonna]

I wouldn't worry about it. I've got a bunch of runners and 2 of the fawn/white ones have real dark bills but the rest of them don't and I've got the sisters and mothers of those same 2. They are the only ones with a dark bill.

 

[Isaac 0]

I had two Buff males once , ones bill one yellow the other was dark green. I wouldn't worry, you have some gorgeous duck there!

 

[NinjaChicken617]

I had two Buff males once , ones bill one yellow the other was dark green. I wouldn't worry, you have some gorgeous duck there!

Thank you! I love this breed. My one adult female has been laying an egg a day every day like clockwork since she started laying a few weeks ago. They're all friendly and the boys are very protective of their girl. I think they're beautiful too. I had no interest in ducks and didn't really intend to keep them but I kind of fell in love a little and here we are...

 

[bluemerle]

Beautiful ducks! I'm considering breeds for egg layers next year .... Silver Appleyards are definitely on the list.

 

[Reptarro]

I got sexed Appleyards from a breeder online and wanted 1 drake and 4 girls. When they arrived, i had two drakes and three females. They sent 2 "replacements" for the 1 that was mis-sexed, and of course 1 of them died upon opening the box. i am guessing they meant to send only one healthy one. The 1 that came later looks exactly like yours! dark headed and dark billed. I have one of the other females from the first batch has a dark bill, louder than the rest, and even looks male. i will upload a photo here in a few of them. It is making me crazy. i am looking for curled tail feathers to confirm what i have

 

[Reptarro]

The two back ones are my drakes I think. The 1 closest to me is the young one with the dark head and Bill. The one at the very front is a female with a dark Bill, dark head and leads everyone. Also the loudest too!

 

[NinjaChicken617]

The two back ones are my drakes I think. The 1 closest to me is the young one with the dark head and Bill. The one at the very front is a female with a dark Bill, dark head and leads everyone. Also the loudest too!
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I swear they all look different every day. All my babies are equally noisy and honk like geese just like my adult girl. The drakes quack and are MUCH quieter. One of the drakes (Rocco) has paired with my adult girl (Hilde) so the other drake (Roy) is feeling left out. The new girls have been outside for 2 weeks now but I still have to keep them in their own pen inside the run because otherwise Roy chases and mounts them. He seems to pay equal attention to all of them which I thought was a good sign that they were all girls, but then yesterday he chased down and mounted Rocco, so that kind of blew my theory out of the water. I'll just have to wait a few more weeks to be sure, but I feel pretty confident that they're all girls.

 

[Reptarro]

I swear they all look different every day. All my babies are equally noisy and honk like geese just like my adult girl. The drakes quack and are MUCH quieter. One of the drakes (Rocco) has paired with my adult girl (Hilde) so the other drake (Roy) is feeling left out. The new girls have been outside for 2 weeks now but I still have to keep them in their own pen inside the run because otherwise Roy chases and mounts them. He seems to pay equal attention to all of them which I thought was a good sign that they were all girls, but then yesterday he chased down and mounted Rocco, so that kind of blew my theory out of the water. I'll just have to wait a few more weeks to be sure, but I feel pretty confident that they're all girls.

I love the names! Our drakes are Clyde and Gus. Our girls are Fern (the dark headed one), Charlotte (the loud one), Little Lydia, and Large Marge. Haha

 

[Dees ducks]

I have a mixed flock - 1 x buff orpington, 1 x peach campbell, 2 x cayugas, 1 x aylesbury and 2 x silver appleyards.
I have to say (shush.....don';t tell the others) that my 2 silver appleyards are by far my favourites. They have such characters and are the most friendliest ducks ever. Whatever their markings are you are going to love them.