what are they?

[Amiga]

 

[GrannyCarol]

Kinda like where's Waldo?? hehe

I'm pretty sure she's in front, on the right. She should be the one with the rounder outline and fuller towards the back from laying eggs. She's not the actual mother to all of them, I have three Saxony ducks, but she went broody and hatched and raised them. She looks so much like HER mother, that I'm really glad I banded them when she was still smaller! I literally can't always tell them apart. Her mother goes broody on May 1st every year, but this year Pumpkin beat her by two days and got the eggs! Poor Peaches! Next year, I'll let Peaches brood, but probably not Saxony eggs, I now have 4 Saxony hens and 2 drakes, I'm set for them. I want to hatch a few Anconas...

 

[mandelyn]

I LOVE my Saxony, my dad even says they're pretty and getting a bird compliment out of him is like pulling teeth. He came over for a haircut and I wanted to show him Quackers the Black Swedish and how she follows the dogs around, since he's a Shepherd guy and I claimed to have a duck-Shepherd. He saw the Saxony and said 'Wow, they've grown, and they've even kind of pretty!".

The girls are trying to entice the boys and the boys are so confused still. Another 2 months or more for eggs out of my Holderread birds. Quackers the Swedish squats and quacks all day and those two boys just stare at her like she's nuts. Going to have to crate her over night when the Saxony start laying, need to know what I'm hatching! Going to add 3 more hens to the group and call it done.

I can tell mine apart by the white markings on the face. Body shape and coloring is exactly the same, but the eye liner is different on each one, and only one has a prominent white triangle coming off the bill under the eye, the other two lack that.

The boys I can tell apart because one has a perfect head and the other has some copper coloring mixed into the grey right on top.

 

[GrannyCarol]

That prominent triangle is what you want in a well marked female. Both Peaches and Pumpkin are identical in their markings and color, size and shape, now that Pumpkin grew up! My third hen is from a different bloodline and looks rather different. She has a fuller brow, almost looks like she's frowning - cute! I kept a female with even more white on her lower eye stripe, she's also one of the lighter colors, very pretty! I'm still trying to find a name for her. Since her daddy is from the second bloodline, I want to gave her a name from a fictional Lady - that line is Dartanian (sp) and Constance, for instance. My first line is Percival, Peaches and Pumpkin - the girls are fruits and veggies starting with "P". I'm not strict about schemes, they just help me to find names.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Where I used to live the phone service was so bad (noise) that the dial up guys would not sign me up. Infact I bought my first cell phone so I would have a way to call my landline phone company to tell them that their service was down!

 

[mandelyn]

Yeah, I read that about the white on the face... I kept the 3 females with the best white, but only one has it better than any of the others. No one has criss cross wings or anything though!

I have only named the drakes, Duke for the best one, Earl for the one with the copper color mixed into his grey head. Was toying with the idea of rank names for the girls in order of quality... the one with the white under eye liner would be Duchess, then the other two would be Countess and Contessa (Italian version for the same rank). That makes my best pair the Duke and Duchess.

Then there is Quackers the Swedish... she came with that name though. Could add on "Quackers the court jester" or something, she is hilarious and more interactive than the others.

 

[GrannyCarol]

Quote:
Where I used to live the phone service was so bad (noise) that the dial up guys would not sign me up. Infact I bought my first cell phone so I would have a way to call my landline phone company to tell them that their service was down!

Aha! Where *I* used to live, we had a party line!! Beat that one! lol I had dialup, but paid long distance to use it. I wasn't online much in those days! Nothing was a local call but the small town (300 people) about ten miles from the farmhouse we lived in. Of course that was a while ago. Now I live in that small town and grumble because 1.5 mps DSL seems slow.

 

[Olive Hill]

GrannyCarol -- I've always admired your Saxonys. I say you let them hatch Saxony eggs and then send all the beautiful ducklings my way.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
Where I used to live the phone service was so bad (noise) that the dial up guys would not sign me up. Infact I bought my first cell phone so I would have a way to call my landline phone company to tell them that their service was down!

Aha! Where *I* used to live, we had a party line!! Beat that one! lol I had dialup, but paid long distance to use it. I wasn't online much in those days! Nothing was a local call but the small town (300 people) about ten miles from the farmhouse we lived in. Of course that was a while ago. Now I live in that small town and grumble because 1.5 mps DSL seems slow.

We've only had Hughes for less than a year and I'm already spoiled and grumble when it slows down to load a video or something. Nevermind that on dialup it would take HOURS to load a video now if it takes a couple of minutes I'm downright indignant.

 

[GrannyCarol]

Quote:
You want to hatch them, I'd make you a good deal on eggs come spring?