Blue Swedish Duck
The most interesting component of the Blue Swedish breed is the production of the blue color. Blue birds do not breed true. In other words, if you mate a Blue Swedish with another Blue Swedish, only 50% will hatch blue. You will also get 25% black with white chests (called Black Swedish) and 25% that are a very light grey color, often called Silver or Splashed White Swedish. To produce the blue color you must have heterozygote parents, meaning they have a black and a silver gene for feather color. In addition, the first two or three primary flight feathers are pure white in a Blue or Black Swedish duck. This, along with the correctly sized white patch on the chest, makes the Blue Swedish a difficult bird to perfect in terms of feather coloration.
So that we can produce 100% blue colored Blue Swedish, we have two breeder flocks. In one flock we have Black Swedish males and Silver females. In the other flock we have Silver males and Black Swedish females. All the progeny from these crosses will be the correct blue color. In June when we need breeders for next year, we switch the males so Black are on Black and Silver on Silver. We collect these eggs for about three weeks and hatch them for breeders. Then we switch the males and go back to producing the correctly colored Blue Swedish for the rest of the season. This is the reason we do not have Blue Swedish or Blue Runners always available.
Domesticated Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
The Swedish emerged as a breed in northern Europe during the nineteenth century. Only the blue colour is currently standardised in Britain. This is a heavy utility breed, laying around 150 eggs a year and surplus birds fattening well for the table. Being a heterozygous colour, purebred Blue Swedish ducks bred together produce three different colours of offspring: blue, black and splashed. Black bred with splashed produce all blue offspring.
Swedish Blue Duck Characteristics, Uses & Origin
Swedish Blue duck which is also known as Blue Swedish is a breed of domestic duck developed by the farmers in Pomerania. It’s a pretty old duck breed and developed in the year of 1835.
Pomerania was part of the Sweden at that time, but today it is known as modern northeast Germany, Holland and Belgium. This duck breed is similar in size to the Rouen ducks, and they have a mallard ancestry.
The breed was mainly developed for domestic uses, such as for meat and eggs production. They are also good as ornamental ducks and as pets. The Swedish Blue duck was first imported into the USA in the late 1800s.
And it was accepted into the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection in 1904. At present it is considered to be an endangered duck breed.
Uses
The Swedish Blue duck was developed mainly as an utility bird. The breed is suitable for both meat and eggs production.
Special Notes
Swedish Blue ducks are very calm and friendly birds, and they are one of the heartiest of all the duck breeds. They are considered as excellent ducks for the beginners. They are suitable for both meat and eggs production. Ducks will lay about 100-150 per year.
The egg color of these ducks is white, green or blue tinted. The breed is a very good forager and good for free range duck farming. But they can’t do well in confinement. Sometimes they are quite a noisy breed.
The ducks have a loud yelling type quack. While the drakes have a low pitched tone but can raise the loudness of their quack to rival the ducks. The Swedish Blue duck is a pretty slow maturing breed, but they provide well-flavored meat.
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