Swedish Blue Ducks

[SparkyCrows]

What kind of experiences are people having with different sources of swedish blues? I had a couple of swedish blues for several years and loved them. I'm wanting to get some more and am wondering where people are having the most luck.

 

[Kevin565]

I think Metzer has some

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Performance Poultry (no, i don't work for them) has probably the very best Swedish landraces there is! The blues have such a nice, dark, unfadable plumage, and huge bibs, lots of white primaries. Unfortunately, it's hard to find the nearly-extinct Chocolate Swedish. I'll be breeding some (hopefully) by 2013. Black is pretty, and rust kinda looks ugly on Black, but it's pretty on the other three varieties.

Banny

 

[learycow]

Depending on the qualities you are looking for, I've got some that came from Cackle Hatchery. I don't think they are show quality, but they are VERY pretty birds! I have some that are crested and some that aren't. I also ended up with some "splash" colored, not just the blue. They are fairly good sized, friendly, and lay nice big eggs.

 

[SparkyCrows]

Years ago I ordered a small set from Murray McMurray and after the fact realized just what nice birds they really were. The drakes had very crisp bibs and the two white wing feathers. The ducklings hatched out looking fantastic but then my incubator (Little Giant) started to fall down on the job and I wasn't able to hatch much of anything. Then an owl picked off my Swedish one at a time. It was awful!

I've got a better facility now and want to give this another try starting with good birds.

Thanks for the tip about Performance Poultry [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ducks and Banny Hens[/FONT] - I will totally check it out!

 

[Oregon Blues]

Just about every hatchery sells Blue Swedish. Probably you will get pet quality from a hatchery. Quality Blue Swedish are very difficult to find.

Temperaments tend to vary from source to source. If you are going to order from a hatchery, try Metzers because they specialize in waterfowl.

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Oh, just in case there was confusion, Performance Poultry only sell non-rust Blue Swedes, but none of the other 7 other varieties. Hatcheries can only provide all blue hatches by breeding together Blacks and Splashes.

I think Chocolate Rust is the rarest of all of the varieties. Swedish Yellow ducks are an entirely different breed than the Swedish Landrace.

 

[kynewbchickie]

We have four Swedish Blues in the brooder now - ordered from Murray McMurray. All four are timid, but will come get treats from my hand. Ordered one to be a drake. We have a 25,000 gallon koi pond that has just been sitting there with no fish in it, and we wanted something to help with the mosquitoes, algae, etc. and the husband suggested ducks - I fell in love with the look of this breed.

When should we put them outside? They keep making a horrible mess of the waterer, and they're 5 weeks old tomorrow. Still not fully-feathered, but getting there fast. We should have their pen built in a week; going to locate it next to the house by the pond.

 

[DuckRaiser]

Any Swedish duck breeders in Oregon or Washington?