Welsh Harlequin

[kswaterfowl]

We keep golds and breed from them with our silver drakes. Or with gold drakes if we have excellent quality gold drakes. We are beginning prilminary work to have golds standardized. There are a few breeders out there working on this but it requires careful records and careful breeding and tracking of breeders and bloodlines. We have three really nice gold breeder hens and hatched a few hens this year as well as one gold drake. We cull them just as hard as our silvers, sometimes being even more critical because they tend to be more honey colored and don't contrast as well in body color.

 

[Nebraskagirl]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but you all are so full of wisdom with Harlequins and I desperately need a question answered: Can someone tell me if my Welsh girl Shirley is a silver or gold. I think she is a silver. She was born this past spring and I have had her for only about a month. The farmer didn't even know what breed she was, I had to look it up and discovered she was a WH. Here is a pic:

 

[Muse7]

Hi Nebraska Girl,

I'm not an expert, and I'm sure one of the folks here will correct me if I am wrong, but from what
I have seen and my own experience with my WH, if this is her second feathering I'd say she was
either a gold or a gold/silver mix. My Drake is a gold/silver mix that came in with the golden/cinnamon
color and my one Hen is a gold/silver mix that came in with silver marking. So without knowledge of the
genetic parents, and grandparent, I think it's difficult to tell if she is pure gold.

Correct me if I got my studies wrong, folks.

Thanks,

Liz

 

[chickchickchiky]

Well i have some WH that i purchased this spring from a local breeder i purchased 2 pairs and lost the females one to predator and another to a dog so now i have these 2 drakes Gimpy and Goober lol. I recently purchased 2 female WH and a trio of buffs from metzer so i know i am going to have to re home one of my drakes but they are both so gorgeous it will be hard. I looked through the pics on this thread and i must say that my boys are a lot darker in coloring than the ones i am seeing here. Right now their heads are black but in these pics they were not that dark yet i need to get new pics. Why are my boys so dark in the body?

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Hi Nebraska Girl,

I'm not an expert, and I'm sure one of the folks here will correct me if I am wrong, but from what
I have seen and my own experience with my WH, if this is her second feathering I'd say she was
either a gold or a gold/silver mix. My Drake is a gold/silver mix that came in with the golden/cinnamon
color and my one Hen is a gold/silver mix that came in with silver marking. So without knowledge of the
genetic parents, and grandparent, I think it's difficult to tell if she is pure gold.

Correct me if I got my studies wrong, folks.

Thanks,

Liz

Thanks Liz. I didn't know they could be a "mix" of both. I thought they were either gold or silver. Learn something new everyday

 

[chickchickchiky]

Here are some pics i took of them last night. SO would they be considered the silver variety?

 

[Sandara]

Hi from Kentucky! I recently purchased my first ducks. I chose WH because they are perfect for the backyard and I love their color. Here is a pic of them at 8 weeks old. Any comments on their coloring would be appreciated

Also, I am having trouble getting them to go into the coop at night by themselves. Should I lock them in for a week, it is an open air coop, and then let them out to see if they go in themselves? They enter through the small coop and go down a ramp into the open air coop. I go in every evening after the chickens put themselves up and pour a bowl of peas to help entice them in and it worked a few days and then they quit going in.

Also do I need to make any changes to the coop set up to make it easier for them. I had steps going down into the open air coop and they didn't manage them well after dark so I made a ramp.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

8 weeks old trio.

My ever growing coop setup!

This pic doesn't show the ramp I put in the open air coop.

This is the ramp I added when the ducks got old enough to free range.

This is 3 bucket nest boxes for some of the chickens and the duck nest box on the bottom, it has straw in it now!

 

[Muse7]

Steps in general probably aren't a good idea. Ducks are sturdy, but their weakness is their legs. I ended up having to put
some traction on the ramp I built. As the ducks filled out the angle was to much for them, just something to watch for.

I hate to say it, but I have to put my crew to bed every night, sometimes a few are already in the coup, but more often then
not they would rather stay in the yard. Unfortunately, we have red foxes and coons that hunt our area at night, so it is not
safe for them to be out. I just started a routine to put them in at 7 pm and now, they may not be thrilled to accommodate
me, but the grudgingly get themselves in so I can lock them up safely.

Best of luck,

Liz

 

[Sandara]

Thanks for the input! I tried a ramp on the front at first (you can see it in the second coop pic) and they would not go near it, had to pick them up and put them on it to get them to go in. At least with the steps on the front now when I heard them to it they go right up. Now the steps on the inside they had trouble with, maybe too steep? They have to go in at night here too, had a coon attack last month and had to reinforce the open air coop. I hope I don't have to sell them

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Thanks for the input! I tried a ramp on the front at first (you can see it in the second coop pic) and they would not go near it, had to pick them up and put them on it to get them to go in. At least with the steps on the front now when I heard them to it they go right up. Now the steps on the inside they had trouble with, maybe too steep? They have to go in at night here too, had a coon attack last month and had to reinforce the open air coop. I hope I don't have to sell them

Why would you have to sell them?