Wood Duck ??? help please

[cat1994]

Hello all
So I’ve never had any ornamental duck breeds. Sure I have entertained the thought of getting a pair of Mandarins and what not and having an aviary but really it’s only been in thought. I don’t plan on getting started in ornamental ducks, as I’m very pleased with breeding my lovely lil Calls. But one of my new neighbors (actually he’s been there all my life I just now have gotten to really know him) has offered to give me a Wood duck hen. He wants me to breed this Wood duck hen with one my Call duck males. He wants to pay me for all the offspring of the crossing and give me the hen to keep. I don’t want to say no as he’s very excited to see what will come of this cross and honestly so am I, but frankly I have no idea what a Wood duck hen needs to successfully nest and what not. I don’t even know if she will accept the male Call. Will she nest like my Call girls or will she only nest in a hollowed out like nest box? Will the Call and Wood hen pair up? Does the Wood duck hen need more space to be comfortable? I don’t want to bring her home and make her suffer cuz I’m ignorant of her needs as a non-domesticated duck…
Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

let him keep her and let her be with her own breed of duck. Your call duck drake will try to breed her, but her eggs wont be fertile and she will be beat up from his breeding attempts

 

[bribre]

You can not breed the two of them.

 

[cat1994]

let him keep her and let her be with her own breed of duck. Your call duck drake will try to breed her, but her eggs wont be fertile and she will be beat up from his breeding attempts

He doesn’t have any ducks at all. That’s why he wants me to take her. He says she is lonely just living with his chickens. Wow I didn’t know that the eggs won’t even become fertile. I thought there are Wood duck crosses out there you know like hybrids. I’ll tell my neighbor this, maybe he will decide to keep her.
Thanks

 

[bribre]

If he has no ducks and wants to give her to you I think she would probably be much happier with your ducks then with he's chickens.

 

[Matapatos]

It might work, Mallards cross with wood ducks, though they aren't very good looking. If it is successful, they will look much like mallardXwood duck crosses you can find on the internet. I wouldn't do it, not eye appealing, she may get beat up, prob won't accept him at all, etc. It is illegal for him to sell, barter, trade, gift her to you without a fed permit to transfer native migratory game to another person. That was the main reason I stuck with just mandarins... Good luck! You can do it, but I wouldn't

Travis

 

[Mark HSV-AL]

There is so much misinformation on BYC anymore that you really should do your own research or call a reputable breeder before believing most things you read on here. YES, the male call duck CAN breed a Wood Duck because a call duck is nothing more than a mallard bred over time to look as a call duck does now. Fortunately the offspring will not be fertile or we would have all kinds of these hybrids in collections all over the world. The only reason I have ever known of anyone intentionally doing this is for Taxidermy purposes. Taxidermist love hybrids for mounting and will pay top dollar for dead male hybrids. If this were a Mandarin then no, it could not happen. Just google wood duck mallard hybrid and look at all of the pictures, they are very beautiful birds but clearly not as beautiful as the original Wood Duck.

 

[bribre]

Sorry I thought the wood duck was much like the mandarin and could not breed with calls. As I had a mandarin with my calls and oveusly he did not have any ducklings. Next time I will look in to it more. Again sorry...

 

[cat1994]

Thanks all very much
He wouldn't take no for an answer and gave her to me anyways

 

[Brahma13]

Very interesting to see what a mallard wood duck cross looks like after google images. I was a little surprised that they could infact breed together and would be interested if it is proven the offspring are not fertile. Many different species of fish (Cichlids) can be interbred from different genus and species and they still have fertile offspring, even though they should not. Not sure you can make a better wood duck by breeding another waterfowl into it, however the Silver wood ducks are cool.

I still would not encourage the interbreeding as there is really no viable reason for it on a wild type bird. Yeah, Yeah I know all chicken breeds came from Jungle fowl and hundreds of years of breeding.