What breed of duck to get???

[Hoosiermomma]

After having a year of 4H under our belt, my kids have decided they would like to show ducks next year. Any suggestions on what would be good? We are shooting for ones that would be personable(wouldmake good pets), not have to worry about flying away, and something that would be unique and colorful. Anything fit that description?

 

[Goat_Walker]

What about Runners?

 

[Wifezilla]

Runners, khaki campbells, welsh harlequins, buff ducks.....

None of them fly well. The runners can be a bit skittish, but they come in so many cool colors!

 

[Katy]

I love my call ducks, but they will fly.

 

[rainplace]

Not only do runners come in lots of cool colors, they are hilarious to watch!

I'm a runner lover.

 

[chickensioux]

I can only opinionate on the breeds I have. I have a Khaki Campbell drake and he is very quiet and sweet and does not fly, 2 Muscovies that are very, very friendly and quiet and I have clipped their wings and I have 6 call ducks, very sweet but noisy and I have clipped their wings. Good luck picking!

 

[Sebrightmom]

I have two runners and 7 cayugas. I love them both. The runners are funnier. Neither of them fly. We also just got two call ducks. They are cute. I really haven't had them long enough to say much about them.

 

[destiny_56085]

Well.... My brother and sister have shown waterfowl for as long as I can remember. Can I suggest staying away from the patterned ducks? blue swedish especially. Any time you go for colored ducks you have to look for both conformation and color. This usually means raising 4-5 times the amount of birds just to get a good trio. Alot of the deep keeled breeds like the exhibition rouens and aylesbury's simply aren't ready in time for showing at fair.

I will say that in 4-H its usually very production oriented. They want a good market bird.... whether for meat or eggs. The pekins usually dominated every single class. If you have any of the fancy breeds, it had better be outstanding birds otherwise the judge will be really hesitant to put something like that in a state fair lineup.

Our family has been through so many duck breeds.... rouens, silver appleyards, welsh harlequins, cayugas, blue swedish, khaki campbells, muscovies, and tons of calls. Each one has their own personality and all are messy.

Right now we have about 20 adult breeders and at least 75 started ducks. Hopefully some of them will hit the shows this fall too.

 

[Hoosiermomma]

I was eyeing a pair of minature appleyards. They are both drakes and about a year. If they were younger I probably wouldn't hesitate to buy them. I agree with the ducks being colorful and conforming but we try to go with something unique and different from everyone else. The ones that one this year were minature something. For the life of me I can't remember. Anyway they were a dark irridescent green. They were very nice looking. So I don't think we want to go with runners since there were alot of those as well as pekins.

 

[TK Poultry]

i have swedes and buffs and love them calm and i show them good exhibition birds i also have pekins theyre ok and i have a call mix she is really loud and annoying and my mallard is like psychotic!!!