So, I know that I want to order Blue Swedish, Cayunga, Buff and Welsh Harlequinn (I also want Magpies and/or Anconas, but there aren't any available right now!). My question is...how many of each do I want? Should I get 1 male and 2 females of each kind? That is what I was planning, but that is a lot of males, huh? What to do, what to do! What do you think? Are most people on here raising ducks as a hobby, do you take the whole breeding thing seriously, or do you show your ducks? If you breed, do you separate all of your different breeds? Does it matter if you have two different breeds breeding? If you had to choose from those above breeds, what would two (or three) would you pick? I know everyone is different--read lots of posts!--but I would like your opinion. Thanks so much....I feel I am posting and posting and POSTING tons of questions, and I really appreciate everyone's replies. Thanks, Mike
Of those, I'd go with Cayuga, but that's me. The list you have doesn't really appeal much to me. But - 2 to 1 is not going to be good for female to males. You want 3-4 to i've seen many post 9-10 girls per EACH boy you have. If you plan on breeding to sell, you might want to keep them pure - or not, but I'd not get 2 girls and 1 boy of each breed.
I got Anconas so I could stick with one pure breed but have a bunch of different colors and unique patterns. They also lay and forage really well. I have 2 out of 8 girls trying to go broody. I feel really happy I chose this breed because it's super exciting waiting to see what comes out of the egg. Mind you this is on top of the enjoyable qualities of keeping ducks in general!
