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There are 110 species of ducks in the world, and 30 of them can be found in Russia. These ducks even belong to different genera, although they are part of the same duck family. Almost all species of ducks are wild and can only be found in zoos or among lovers of this family of birds as decorative pets, and not as productive poultry.
Among the ducks there are real beauties that could become the decoration of a poultry yard.
The speckled duck is very interesting.
Simply luxurious mandarin ducks
But only two species of ducks were domesticated: Muscovy duck in South America and the mallard in Eurasia.
Either the Indians did not understand breeding work, or did not consider it necessary to deal with this issue, but the musk duck did not produce domestic breeds.
All other breeds of domestic ducks are descended from the mallard. Due to mutations and selection, domestic purebred ducks still differ from each other, although only slightly.
For some reason, there is a belief that all today's duck breeds come from the Peking duck. Where this opinion came from is completely unclear, since the Peking duck is a clear mutation with a white color that does not exist in the wild mallard.Perhaps the fact is that the Peking duck, being a meat breed, was used in the development of new meat breeds of ducks.
In Russia, unlike China, eating duck eggs is not very common. This is largely due to the fact that the chance of contracting salmonellosis from a duck egg is much higher than from eating chicken eggs.
Directions for breeding domestic ducks
Duck breeds are divided into three groups: meat, egg-meat/meat-egg and egg.
The egg group includes the minimum number, or rather, the only breed of ducks: the Indian runner.
Originally from Southeast Asia, this breed has the most exotic appearance of all mallards. Sometimes they are called penguins. This breed is already 2000 years old, but it has not become widespread. Even in the USSR, this breed was in small numbers among ducks of other breeds bred on state and collective farms. Today they can only be found in small farms, where they are kept not so much for their production as for their exotic appearance.
The colors of the runners are quite varied. They can be of the usual “wild” color, white, piebald, black, speckled, blue.
These ducks are big water lovers. They cannot live without it, so a mandatory requirement when keeping runners is the presence of a bathhouse. Interestingly, these ducks without water even reduce their egg production. When properly managed, ducks lay an average of 200 eggs. Proper maintenance means not only the presence of a bath, but also unlimited access to food. This is a breed that should not be put on a diet.
The weight of runner drakes is 2 kg, ducks - 1.75 kg.
Runners tolerate frost well.In the summer, when kept on free grazing, they find their own food by eating plants, insects and snails. True, if these ducks get into the garden, you can say goodbye to the harvest.
But, as in any matter, the problem of eating all the vegetation that catches the eye of the runners has another side. Abroad, these ducks work every day weeding vineyards. Since these ducks are distinguished by tender and tasty meat, plantation owners solve several problems at once: they do not use herbicides, saving money and producing environmentally friendly products: they receive decent grape yields; supply duck meat to the market.
If there is nothing to choose from egg breeds for breeding in a private backyard, then when choosing other areas, it would be good to have a description of duck breeds at hand. And, preferably, with a photo.
Meat breeds
Meat breeds of ducks are the most common in the world. And the Peking duck firmly holds the first place in this group. In the USSR, Peking ducks and crosses with them accounted for 90% of the total meat duck population.
Peking duck
The name “Peking” naturally came from the city in China. It was in China that this variety of domestic duck was bred 300 years ago. Having arrived in Europe at the end of the 19th century, the Peking duck quickly gained recognition as the best meat breed. This is not surprising given the average weight of drakes 4 kg, and ducks 3.7 kg. But in birds: either meat or eggs. The egg production of Peking duck is low: 100 – 140 eggs per year.
Another disadvantage of this breed is its white plumage. When it comes to young animals slaughtered for meat, the gender of the ducks does not matter.If you need to leave part of the flock for the tribe, you have to wait until the ducks molt into “adult” plumage with the drakes growing a pair of upward-curved feathers on their tails. True, there is one secret.
So, hunting stories about how a man followed the loud quacking of drakes in the spring should not be believed. Either he is lying, or a poacher, or he himself is confused.
The females also make a noise, demanding feeding.
Gray Ukrainian duck
The color differs from the wild mallard only in lighter tones, which may be the variability of colors in the local population of mallards, since this breed was bred by crossing local Ukrainian ducks with wild mallards and subsequent long-term selection of desirable individuals.
In terms of weight, the gray Ukrainian duck is not much inferior to the Peking duck. Females weigh 3 kg, drakes - 4. When feeding this breed, no special feed is used. At the same time, by the age of 2 months, ducklings already gain a slaughter weight of 2 kg. The egg production of this breed is 120 eggs per year.
The gray Ukrainian duck was strictly selected for its unpretentiousness to feed and living conditions. She calmly tolerates frosts in unheated poultry houses. The only condition that must be observed is deep litter.
Ducks of this breed are often fed by free grazing in ponds, driven into the poultry yard only to give concentrates for lunch. Although, of course, the duck also receives food in the morning before being sent to the pond and in the evening before spending the night.
There are offspring that emerged as a result of mutations from the gray Ukrainian duck: clayey and white Ukrainian ducks. Differences in plumage color.
Bashkir duck
The appearance of the Bashkir duck breed was an accident. In the process of improving the white Peking duck at the Blagovarsky breeding plant, colored individuals began to appear in the flock of white birds. Most likely, this is not a mutation, but a recurrent manifestation of the mallard color genes. This feature was highlighted and fixed. The result was a “purebred Peking duck” of colored color, called Bashkir.
The color of the Bashkir duck resembles a wild mallard, but paler. Drakes are brighter and more like wild ones. The presence of piebald color is a legacy of white ancestors.
Otherwise, the Bashkir duck repeats the Peking duck. The same weight as the Pekingese, the same growth rate, the same egg production.
Black white-breasted ducks
The breed is also a meat breed. In weight it is slightly inferior to the Beijing one. The weight of drakes is from 3.5 to 4 kg, ducks from 3 to 3.5 kg. Egg production is low: up to 130 eggs per year. The color, as the name suggests, is black with a white chest.
The breed was developed at the Ukrainian Institute of Poultry Breeding by crossing local black white-breasted ducks with Khaki Campbell ducks. This breed is a genetic reserve. Black whitebreasts have good reproductive qualities.
The weight of ducklings at slaughter age reaches one and a half kilograms.
Moscow white
Breed for meat production. It was bred in the 40s of the last century on the Ptichnoe state farm near Moscow by crossing khaki Campbell and Peking duck. Its characteristics are very similar to Peking duck. Even the weight of drakes and ducks is the same as the Peking breed.
But ducklings at two months weigh a little more than Pekin ducklings. True, not by much. The weight of two-month-old Moscow White ducklings is 2.3 kg. The egg production of ducks of the Moscow White breed is 130 eggs per year.
Meat and egg breeds of ducks
Egg-meat or meat-egg breeds belong to the universal type. They have certain differences in the number of eggs and carcass weight. Some are closer to the meat type, others to the egg type. But, if you want to get both eggs and meat from ducks, then you need to get universal breeds.
Khaki Campbell
A meat and egg breed of ducks bred by an Englishwoman for the needs of her family. Adele Campbell set herself a simple goal: to provide her family with duck meat. And along the way, duck eggs. That's why she crossed fawn-piebald Indian penguins with Rouen ducks and added the blood of mallard-colored mallards. As a result, in 1898, a duck with a “bleach-on-bleach” color was presented at an exhibition.
It is unlikely that this color was to the liking of the exhibition visitors, especially in the wake of the fashion for fawn colors. And Mrs. Adele Campbell decided to cross again with fawn piebald Indian runners to get a fawn color.
“If only everything were so simple,” said the then little-studied genetics. The ducks turned out to match the color of the uniforms of the soldiers of the English army of those times. After looking at the result, Mrs. Campbell decided that the name "khaki" would suit the ducks. And she could not resist the vain desire to perpetuate her name in the name of the breed.
Today there are three colors of Khaki Campbell ducks: fawn, dark and white.
They inherited the dark color from the Rouen duck and this color is most similar to the color of a wild mallard. White in a certain percentage of the offspring occurs when crossing piebald individuals. Next, it can be secured.
Khaki Campbells weigh a little compared to meat breeds. Drakes average 3 kg, ducks about 2.5 kg. But they have good egg production: 250 eggs per year. This breed grows quickly.The young gain about 2 kg of weight in two months. Due to the thin bones, the slaughter yield of meat is quite decent.
But khaki has one drawback. They do not take the duties of a hen very responsibly. Therefore, if you are going to breed Khaki Campbells, at the same time as ducklings you will have to buy an incubator and master the incubation of duck eggs.
Mirror
In color it is an ordinary mallard, but lives in a poultry house and is not afraid of people. The name is given by the blue “mirror” on the wings, which is very characteristic of mallard drakes. The color variability of ducks is much higher than that of drakes. Females can be almost white.
The breed was bred in the 50s of the 20th century on the Kuchinsky state farm. During breeding, strict requirements were imposed on the future breed. The goal was to obtain a hardy bird with high quality meat and high egg production. The ducks were kept in spartan conditions, achieving high frost resistance and selecting young animals with high productivity for repair.
As a result, we got a medium-weight breed. The drake weighs from 3 to 3.5 kg, the duck - 2.8 - 3 kg. Ducklings gain 2 kg by two months. This breed begins laying eggs at 5 months and lays up to 130 eggs per year.
It is unpretentious in keeping and often gains weight on free grazing. Perhaps due to its "common" appearance as a wild mallard, the breed has not gained popularity among breeders and is kept in small numbers on small farms. Or, perhaps, poultry farmers are simply afraid that would-be hunters, who cannot distinguish an elk from a cow, will shoot all the domestic ducks, rejoicing that they do not even try to fly away.
Cayuga
It is difficult to confuse this meat and egg breed of American origin with a wild mallard. Although there may be craftsmen. The second name of this breed is “green duck”, since the bulk of the population has black plumage with a green tint.
Cayugas easily tolerate cold climates and are much quieter than the Peking duck. Capable of laying up to 150 eggs per year. The average weight of adult drakes is 3.5 kg, and that of ducks is 3 kg.
Happens. It's not just the Cayugas who are running out of cartridges.
Cayugas have a well-developed brooding instinct, so they can be used as brood hens for those breeds of ducks (for example, Khaki Campbell) that do not consider it necessary to sit on eggs.
Cayugas have tasty meat, but they are often grown for decorative purposes, since the dark stumps in the skin make the cayuga carcass not look very appetizing.
Indian
The South American species of duck stands apart: the Muscovy duck or Indian duck. This species has no breeds.
The decent weight of an adult drake (up to 7 kg), the large size of the species, “voicelessness”: Indian ducks do not quack, but only hiss – have made this type of duck quite popular among poultry farmers.
Ducks have a well-developed maternal instinct. They can even sit on goose eggs.
The meat of these ducks is lean, with high taste, but precisely because of the lack of fat, it is somewhat dry. Also a plus for this type is the lack of noise.
The downside is potential cannibalism.
Let's sum it up
Unfortunately, many duck breeds in photos without scale are still impossible to distinguish from each other. It is necessary to know a set of characteristics to determine the breed of duck.It’s easier to buy ducklings from breeding farms with a guarantee that they will sell you the breed you want.
If ducks are needed for industrial rearing for meat, you need to take white breeds of meat ducks: Peking or Moscow.
For universal use, a mirror breed would be a good choice for a private owner, but it is very similar to a wild duck. Therefore, it is better to take khaki Campbell.
And for the exotic, you can get a runner, a cayuga, or find another original-looking breed.
