What about ANCONA ducks ?

[pascopol]

Can somebody who actualy keeps Anconas or kept ithem in the past share the toughts good and bad (if any) about this rare and engangered breed?

I consider raising Anconas, read a lot about them, but I would like some input from somebody who have or had working experience with them.

Thanks in advance.

 

[toadbriar]

I hatched mine this spring, and I'm waiting for my first egg

I keep 6 girls & 2 drakes. They're my first birds ever, so I can't offer you a lot of comparison to other breeds. But they're friendly enough to come running when they see the treat bag, and will take goodies out of my hands, and nibble my clothes etc. So they're not as skittish as some ducks I've read about. I like being able to tell them apart from across the yard. Mine spend the day on the pond on our property and put themselves to bed in their pen at 6pm sharp - their decision. They spend the day foraging, eating pond slime, and catching bugs and frogs. They holler hello when they see me come out of the house, and they're wonderfully vigilant about things in the sky. I hope to have a broody or two - we'll see

everyone

chocolates, a blue, a couple blacks

lavender in front, black in back

 

[jmc]

x

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
WOW!

What a nice flock of beautiful duckies! You surely know how to take care of them and how to take pictures.
Is the pure white on the right Ancona too? What is the origin of your flock?

Thanks for posting, I am sold on Anconas now.

Sent you PM

 

[jmc]

x

 

[pascopol]

Yes I did thank you.

Could you tell me why you like your Campbells "little bit more" than Anconas?

I just aquired locally 3 young Cambell hens, they are lovely. Not as noisy and slobby as Pekins which I kept in the past.

Also they eat much less LOL. Waiting patiently for eggs from the Campbell girls.

 

[toadbriar]

Quote:
PM answered

Thank you so much! Mine are from eggs off ebay - I sent you the links. And yeah, Mazel my white hen is Ancona - but hatched from a seller who keeps one white hen

My first three to hatch were white. And then one from the second clutch hatched white too! I had 4/12 white! 3 of the whites were boys, and I rehomed them. But I had to keep Mazel, she's my buddy. And I really wanted to keep one back from my very first hatch. It just couldn't be a drake.

I read here that you can mark a hen's vent with lipstick, and that way you can tell who laid the egg with color on it. I'm thinking of doing this with Mazel, if I ever decide to sell hatching eggs. If I hatch out white babies I will probably just raise them for the table. But I am curious to see if my drakes have enough color to pass some on through her anyhow.

The cool thing is, the flock most of my birds came from is just blues and blacks. Wasn't I surprised to hatch out some chocolate and lavender!!!

You can't always tell what genes are hiding in there...!

 

[pascopol]

Marking hens vent with lipstick?!

What an idea ! Who hooo !!!

When your hens start laying and you fill your bators with eggs, I hope you sell me some surplus eggs !!

 

[jmc]

x

 

[Widget]

I love my Anconas. My local feed store did a special order for me from Cackle Hatchery since that is where they order the rest of their birds from. I guess I'm not the only one who wanted some since they plan on adding the Anconas to their regular list of birds next year. I ended up with two males and three females.
As much as I really like my chickens the ducks are so much more fun to watch even if they do make a mess two seconds after I fill the water tub