What kind of ducks are these?

[Tooshay89]

Hi! So, I have 3 four week old ducklings that I hatched in my incubator. I bought the eggs on eBay from a seller that advertised Indian Runner eggs. This is my first time with ducks, so I really didn't know what the ducklings were supposed to look like. I'm now starting to doubt that they are runners at all.

I have one "fawn and white" and he/she looks like it might be feathering in all white. And the blue and black ducklings are bibbed, which I'm being told shouldn't be the case. Any ideas what I actually have here? A mix? Something else entirely? The seller on eBay deleted his account shortly after my eggs were delivered, so no going back to ask him what the deal is, unfortunately.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pyxis can possibly say how this color came to be.

 

[Soos-Quacken]

The dark ones are Black Swedish (I think)

 

[Tooshay89]

The dark ones are Black Swedish (I think)

They do look like them, don't they!? It looks like a black swedish and a blue swedish. I've had a difficult time with my beginner's duck journey. All of the other shipments of duck eggs I've received this spring came 100% broken or lost in the abyss of USPS for three weeks before delivery. These "runners" are the only ducklings I was able to hatch. We snagged a couple of pekin and goslings from Rural King to add to the group, but it's definitely not what I was hoping for breed wise.

 

[Soos-Quacken]

Dang... yah, I’ve heard that shipped eggs are hard... but I’ve raised some blue Swedes and they’re pretty sweet

 

[Pyxis]

Hey! I can go more in depth when I get home from work, but my guess is these are runner mixes. I don't see any that I think are fawn and white. Did they have fawn and white coloration when they were younger ducklings with no feathers?

 

[TomCahalan]

Runners can be any color. Black bibbed and blue bibbed are very common colors when the parents have different colors. You just need to have one black allele with one non-dusky allele. Search for Pyrix's guide.

The shape of your ducks is a bit off. Not exemplars of the runner type. My runners (from two sources) all have sleek heads, no foreheads. You can see the effects in your crested ducks eye, it looks a bit irritated. My runners have a nice head shape that keeps their eyes looking cleaner.

 

[Tooshay89]

Hey! I can go more in depth when I get home from work, but my guess is these are runner mixes. I don't see any that I think are fawn and white. Did they have fawn and white coloration when they were younger ducklings with no feathers?

No, the duckling was all yellow at hatch. I guess I just assumed it was fawn and white based on what I was told I purchased. After googling pictures of fawn and white ducklings... I don't think this one was the same color.

 

[Miss Lydia]

For the guy to delete his ad sounds kind of fishy.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My original Runner eggs came from a member here who got her Runners from Metzers still they aren’t nothing like the SQ with the very upright stance. They can have it when on alert and my drakes have the slim upright stance more so than the females , but you can defiantly tell they are Runners.